Thinking of going the custom decal route for my competition since I'm already doing a non-stock color. Any leads? I'll also need to track down the Reynolds 531 decals for the frame and fork.

I hear JR from Velocals can do custom work too, and should have the 531 ones in stock. Some paint places (Spectrum, for example) can directly draw decals/artwork/pinstriping on (though it comes at a hefty price).

Cyclomondo (on eBay) does good work also. I've purchased a couple French replacement 531 decals and they were excellent.

He does Competition decals like these as a stock item.

One thing I know that JR can also do that's pretty cool is make powder-coat compatible decals, i.e. decals that can be applied underneath a clear powdercoat. Costs a little extra for the materials.

i got a complete replacement decal set for my raleigh comp GS from cyclomondo, as well as a french reynolds decals set for my jeunet. i'm very happy with them. if you don't see what you want on his ebay storefront, just contact him and he'll put together a custom package for you-- that's how i got the complete set for my raleigh, and it cost less than trying to piece it all together separately. he's a very honest man, but also busy, so be patient in your communications with him. he usually throws in an "extra" as well... like a "made in xxxx" or something along those lines. he gave me a nice "made in france" decal when i purchased my french reynolds set.

I've had very good dealings with cyclomondo and with VeloCals/JR. The custom set that JR did for me was for my '74 Norman Fay. I had some original decals and pics for him to work from, and he did a terrific job. Here's my '74 go-fast model with original transfers:





And my '74 Tourer with VeloCals-made replacement transfers:





Neal

I have been designing my own on CorelDraw, and am planning to print them on waterslide paper and hand color them. I look forward to showing photos of the results; so far I've been stymied by a couple of projects that fell through after I'd done the graphics for them.

Email sent to JR@ velocals. Thanks!




I think DRietz is looking for someone to do a decal btw.

I have had several done by www.decalfusion.com and have been happy with the price, service and quality.

I have them made at Fast Signs at times, if you can prepare vector art. Unfortunately, quality seems to depend on who is running the machine that day...

Those are great looking bikes!

Slight OT stray.... Neal, what bottle cages are those? Back OT.... I'm going to need to get decals made for my 78 Comp GS once it's painted. I thought about hand painting them, but I still have a long way to go before I can successfully paint letters on tubing.

They look just like the V-O Moderniste cages:

https://store.velo-orange.com/index.p...teel-cage.html

But I think I bought them elsewhere, most likely the King Cage Iris model:

https://www.kingcage.com/products-waterbottle-cages.html

Neal

I've made several water decals myself and use a printer that utilizes archival inks that are supposed to be lightfast for upwards of 200 years. As a graphic designer, I know that despite the Wilhelm color testing, this estimate is extremely hopeful at best, but with several coats of clear UV protectant, I'm hoping to get ten or fifteen years out of the decals. I'm doing some informal color fast testing myself using a POS frame and several decals that are partially masked off so that some parts are exposed to light all the time and other parts are not at all. I'm also storing this frame outside to see how these weather. I'll peel off the masking next May to see how they've fared through sun, snow, rain, sleet, etc. The water decals I'm using come in both white background and clear and I've had pretty good results with graphics that appear on a field of color. Individual letters are a real pain though, and one of my friends (who runs a printing firm) has a vinyl printer with a laser die cutter and that has proven very successful also.