ThePianoMan83

Some of you may remember a while back I posted looking to identify my bike here: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...tery-bike.html . And with the help of Hummer I was able to find out what it was.

Well now I've refinished and rebuilt the bike and here is the final product. The colour is not original but the scheme is and I'm just fine with that. I added a 7 speed cassette in the rear, gatorskin tyres, new bearings all the way around, new tange headset, NOS brake levers and NOS crankset, Shimano SPD pedals, cheap but surprisingly comfortable vader saddle and some very nice fizik handlebar wrap.

Steve Whitlatch 

Wow!! Great job!! Looks great!!

horatio 

Very nice.

RobbieTunes

Whoa, that is one nice bike. Excellent, excellent.

jetboy 

inspiring. i got an expert frame on me as well, and I hope to be able to make something that nice.

tom25

Gorgeous bike!

ThePianoMan83

I appreciate the kind words. One thing i forgot to add was all the decals came from velocals and my experience with them was mediocre at best. The price i paid did not imo equal the quality of product i received. The customer service was rather unhelpful and a bit rude. and as for the product from farther away it isn't noticeable, but i am a details guy and up close the edges of the printing are not smooth, and then the "centurion" is a single decal, not individual letters which disappointed me quite a bit. That said overall I'm very happy with how it came out. It was a learning experience to say the least.

jetboy 

its a different topic, but I am repainting one of my frames (not a centurion) and I wondered.. why not just make a stencil and paint it on? since the decals are repros anyway it would last longer and look better if done right.

anyway: on topic your ironman looks good in those unusually subdued colors. just goes to show its a great frame no matter what the livery.

and do you have a link to the saddle? i might want one for my expert as it has the red fade to white paint scheme.

RobbieTunes

Overall, the Ironman decals and associated Tange decals are very nice from Velocals. $75 for the total, last time I ordered, and one can pick individual colors for many different areas of decal, like the accents, letters, logos, etc. I am not a fan of the vinyl "sheet" style, either, and at one time, the decals were more individual, i.e. they were together on the sheet, but individual on the bike when applied. I preferred those. For some reason, VeloCals and others are pushing this vinyl layer, designed to be clearcoated, which I generally don't do. The quality of the decal is still good, but the format is not my preference.

For the price, though, it's hard to get custom or even semi-custom decals made, one-off, for that price. I've taken Ironman frames to airbrush artists, who flatly refused to attempt a duplication, both on the fades on the frame and painting of the decal work.

If I had to do it again, I'd powdercoat, wet-sand, decals with no vinyl, then clearcoat. It would cost a lot more, but be durable and like new.

I've probably bought 8 sets of Ironman decals from VeloCals, and have my latest set sitting here, which has custom colors that I chose. For that price, it's pretty darn good.

ThePianoMan83

I guess I came off a little harsh with that. Make no mistake I am satisfied with the product and once you get a foot away they look absolutely terrific. But with that said when you look up close the resolution of the printing is not as crisp as I would have liked. On the tange for example the white letters around the perimeter. The outline of the letters are not smooth, they are a bit jagged. And then the sheet style really bugged me because once it's clear coated you are left with (again looking up close) the rectangular border around each of the decals.

But it you are quite right the vinyl is top notch, the colour selection is top notch, the shipping is timely I'm just very very picky about little details.

UKFan4Sure

Stunning bike!

ThePianoMan83

A couple of reasons. First of all that was my first time painting a frame and I wanted to keep it manageable. I'm the type of person where I'm very capable of doing very detailed work but I'll get halfway in then stop and the project will go unfinished for months until I decide to pick it up again. And that is a rattle can paint job and if I were going to go the stencil route I would prefer to invest in some nice paint sprayers and all the proper accessories to go with it and the bank account wouldn't have liked that lol. But you're right it would have looked very nice stencilled.

Thank you, I am in love with the red and white version but I'm more of a blue person so I ordered samples of various blues and then greys purples and reds for the accent colours and I headed to the paint store to find a match. You can't really tell in the photos but that is actually a metallic blue but the metallic doesn't really stand out it just gives it a little pop in the sunlight.

And lastly here's the saddle. Bicycle Cycling Bike Vader Road Offroad MTB Bicycle Cycling Saddle Seat Black (white) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RF6KHUA..._1sRHvbZA9YKGH

its ten bucks on Amazon. I think when I bought it it was seven and it was one of those 'even if it sucks it was seven bucks' purchases. An boy was I shocked, it's pretty darn comfortable and it (almost) matches the bike.

Bianchigirll 

That looks fabulous!! Is that GPX? I would love a nice clean GPX group but one never comes along when I have the money.

OLB

Great job!

ThePianoMan83

Sure is. Teriffic groupo. The only things that aren't are the skewers which are ultegra and the freewheel which is a tourney nothing special.

oddjob2

Lve, I like this better than red @Steve Whitlatch! I remember it took a while for you to sell one like below, but this is a keeper. It gleams and screams!

Steve Whitlatch 

That is a beautiful bike. Looks new. Great job! You need to wear a white suit and dress shoes when you ride it.

oddjob2

Ironically, this Ironman was @miamijim's at one point!

Jicafold

There is one of these for sale locally and I can't stop looking at it.

Nice!! CENTURION EXPERT IRONMAN Dave Scott Road Bike

OldsCOOL

One very cool bike!

RobbieTunes

It's your destiny.

jetboy 

Philip Michael Thomas is looking pretty killer in that pic. guy dressed to kill. no idea how he hid the shotgun under that jacket.


I am your father Jicafold, ignore the later movies, and buy the centurion.