Just need a word of advice from the crowd. I just got through rattle canning my Shogun touring
bike, and got to thinking about whether I should stripe the lugs. It's
looking VERY nice at the moment. It turned out nicer than I had dreamed. The bike is
dark metallic blue, white cable housing, black seat and wrap, and Bontrager blackwall Hardcase tires.
It's going to be my MS-150 bike, since I finally broke down and realized the Tempo was too small.

So....Should I stripe it or not? I'm leaning towards not, since it looks clean as is.

How are we supposed to give you an opinion if we cant see it ?

Without seeing it, I'll suggest white striped lugs to match the cable. Post photos though, let me know.

-Kurt

Picked up the camera, turned it on, and "WARNING, BATTERY EXHAUSTED!!" appeared on the screen. About an hour from now I can post some pics.,,,,BD

Here they are. Hard to believe this is plastikote with about 3-4 coats of clear (yes also plastikote),,,,BD

Did you wet sand between coats or anything? That looks great.
I would defiantly stripe those lugs.

Nope, no sanding at all. Well I sanded the primer? Thanks!,,,,BD



Yeah I know. I will buy a new seat clamp bolt. That one's a little crusty.

Pinstripe the lugs and the engraved seatstay caps, by all means.

-Kurt

Wow! That is the same color as my Proteus!

Please let me know the official name / number of the color as I need to do a repaint on it this winter.

Thanks,
Chris

Plasti-Kote Mignight blue #1552. It's sold under the name "Truck & Sport Utility". The clear is also
the same name, and is #1502. It's funny I bought two cans of clear and color, and all I have left to paint is
the fork. I have lots left of of the first can of blue, and under half a can of the first can of clear. Not shown are the white bottle cages, they really stand out like you wouldn't believe. They compliment the blue nicely. What do you guys think about a white head tube? I went the full route on this frame. It was completely stripped down to bare metal all the surface rust wire wheeled off, shot with rust killer, then several heavy coats of primer. There's nothing that looks as nice as a steel grey frame with gold lined lugs, except for maybe a painted one.,,,,BD

A word about the color though. In low light it looks almost black. Hopefully it will match.

I say a nice gold color to accent those lugs. That paint job looks luscious, nice job

I would leave it a single color. I have painted several bikes with a rattle can and the only one I didn't like went very sour when I tried to add a contrasting color head tube. That bike had Nervex lugs though & yours would be easier to do a good job on the masking. Be sure to give the paint lots of cure time to harden up. I found my paint jobs to be pretty brittle & they chipped up as I rode them.

I was looking at someting pretty close to that at Autozone in Duplicolor to spray bomb the Trek 520, but I think I might try the Plasticote now, Nice Job!

Man, that turned out very well! Beautiful color. It really doesn't need to be striped. But I'd prefer silver paint over white. +1 on detailing the seatstay caps.
I'd also leave the head tube alone.

I also used Plasticote to shoot my late 80s Specialized 105 road bike. I didn't put in the diligence prepping like you did, but should have. Overall, mine turned out pretty well. One coat of wet sanded primer, 3 coats of color (Aluminum silver), and 2 coats of clear. I think I used the wrong type of clear as it darkened the silver color. The paint has shown to be durable.

Gold on white & white on blue, just for reference.

Hmm... Silver sounds doable, without clashing too much with the components. I need a new brush
but I believe I have the paint. I think I can pull it off, I'm one of those guys who used to hand paint
dashboard details on model cars. I painted gold stripes on a burgundy lugged frame once. It turned out well. Maybe a silver head tube to match?,,,,BD

Exactly what I was hoping...perfect match.
Thanks for the info!

I'd leave it one solid color, also...imho...

FWIW, I think the bike looks great as is. I have a solid dark metallic blue frame like yours that I considered striping but decided against it. With a great paint job like you have (very impressed BTW), a single color looks just great. Why do more - it's classy and understated.

Best way to show off lugs in a single color is to go with a dark color in a high gloss, like you have.