CV-6 

Fade would have looked better than what came to pass. I agree the blue needs to be darker. I was okay with the original. It would have been more of a sleeper if it had remained unaltered.

Chr0m0ly 

voyager1

Barrettscv 

I'm not really impressed with the series. It would have been more interesting to look at multiple aluminum bikes before deciding. Each example might have had some interesting features & benefits. The painting was oversimplified. It might have also been unnecessary.

I'll keep watching, but I'm expecting further let-downs. It's doubtful that the bike will outperform a new Canyon Endurace (aluminum) or a Fuji Roubaix. It could end up costing as much. Maybe that's the point.

SamSpade1941 

I agree with this after having watched episode two... His paint job looks not unlike a lot of bikes the homeless ride around Salem , in fact I am not 100% certain his paint job is better than some of the rattle can jobs I've seen on homeless bikes .

Thats a really horrible finish , he should have left it in the USPS livery ..

Kuromori

Given how GCN is run nowadays, that sounds about right. It could be a stealthy ad to tell you it's a waste of time to upgrade that old bike and you should just buy new from one of their sponsors.


The worst part is this is a bike on a budget and he just wasted time and money not making the bike any more super, whatever that means. Good for him if he likes the colors, which I doubt because he gave up doing it right half way through. You'd have a hard time convincing anybody it made the bike somehow better.

Piff 

Maybe the next step is getting it professionally repainted? THAT would be super

Raleigh74

diomekes

Those who don't like it, do y'all think the paint job itself is bad, or just the color scheme he chose and ended up using?

I though the paint job seemed pretty good (I've never done one), but he should've done the fade maybe, or changed the scheme up a little bit.

uncle uncle

Tough, conspiracy theory laden, crowd here. Paint is always subjective. I think Jon's done a nice job of going thru the process and describing what he was doing, which is probably more to the point of the video. Everyone should get the opportunity to spray bomb a frame in their life, for all the anticipation, and then the letdown. Two years from now, with the inevitable scratches, there will be a new sense of Hakuna Matata.

SamSpade1941 

I have rattle canned a frame and it turned out quite nice, however I spent a lot of time on prep and I didn't buy really cheap spray paint. I primed , shot a nice coat of british racing green and 3 coats of clear followed by wet sanding. In fact when I figured up the amount of time and materials to DIY I could have actually had the local body shop spray the frame for me for about $40 difference in what I paid to save the money and do it myself.

RobbieTunes

Yep, there's that. I don't think we're his target audience, anyway.

canklecat

Could only be improved with some early '90s Univega style splattertastic paint.

RiddleOfSteel

That, IMO, would have not only been easier, but it would have been a much better result. Heck, even a cliche "stealth matte black" would have been better. I'm more than willing to cede a gloss finish--they are tricky.

We have some good and great home-based pro and rattle can painters here in C&V. I've done a few rattlers, including the matte/satin black paint job on my '74 P15 Paramount. Semi-delicacy of paint aside (even using a tougher type of aerosol paint), for $40-50 all in, including primer, I really dig the results. Many on here thankfully also do!
@diomekes the paint laid down well (at least on camera), but that's how spray.bike behaves, which gives access and confidence to many, including first-timers. Spraying horizontal sections of color, whether in fade or with masking, is a bit tedious on a bike, especially around the seat cluster. You could see the tiny horizontal passes John made and it looks inelegant, but truthfully there's not much you can do in that area that doesn't look a little hacked at from observation.
@Kuromori I don't think GCN would peddle product in such a blunt manner. They may conclude that building a super bike from a cheap used one may likely not be any better than buying a $1k bike right off the rack, but I think they'd suggest a number of bikes from a number of manufacturers, and perhaps conclude that the $1k segment "is hyper competitive, you get a lot for your money, and you can't really lose." I fully agree on your second section of points. Really, for $1k, find a good deal on a used complete Trek Emonda ALR. Very light, very responsive, great handler, and plenty good with 11-speed 105 or whatever would be on it. Heck, I've put 7700 and 7800 on mine and it still was in the 17 lb range ready to ride.
@Barrettscv I too would have liked to see a few of the bikes he considered. His ebay buying advice lets us know he's more shark than minnow when hunting, so naturally I'd like a peek around the proverbial curtain to see all he considered. I will keep hope up nevertheless. I am glad he is doing it in the first place!

jadocs

GrainBrain

Oh episode two is 100% an advertisement for spray.bike no question. Nothing wrong with that, he has to make money while entertaining us. I laughed at how ironic it was to transform a US Postal bike to something that looked like Greg LeMonds machine - take that Trek In the end though he says it ended up looking like a Panasonic team bike.

I'm a little disappointed because I see now that the series will revolve around advertising, so my idea of a few year old drivetrain tech is out the window. I bet you will see a WHOLE BUNCH of Wiggle being advertised next episode.

FlMTNdude

Mr. 66

uncle uncle

My experience was the same, except I was 9, it was the middle of the winter, in a cold basement, using some paint (sky blue) left over from who knows what project, with prep effort consisted of dragging some sand paper (meant for wood) over parts of the frame for like 15 minutes, and I'm pretty sure I left the crank on because I didn't have the knowledge or tools to take it off. Yeah, other than those minor details, and acceptable results.... same same.

Hudson308 

Yep... any of the examples noted, or that '87 400 that @wedgeSG did here in post 1901:

...or even many of the examples in the STI/ergo thread.

RiddleOfSteel

I can't help but remember that John mentioned at the start of the episode something about how he has a decent setup at home but not everyone does (no kidding, that's what friends and/or money is for!), so he basically hobbled himself with a paint 'booth' setup and used the spray stuff. Lowest common denominator reasoning is not a favorite of mine. Really need it to be Monday so we can see that episode and hopefully that huge plot twist he is on about really pans out.

SurferRosa

How do you improve on a '79 930 with down tube friction shifting?

Piff 

Make it a fixie

SurferRosa

RiddleOfSteel

Install dual pivot brake calipers so that you can actually stop?