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Scratch Free Bikes After 1 Year Plus

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Scratch Free Bikes After 1 Year Plus

Old 08-24-18, 06:52 AM
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Originally Posted by taz777
This describes me to a large extent. I like tinkering with bikes and detailing them. Last year I sold a bike that I had owned for six years and the buyer wanted to see my original sales invoice as he didn't believe the bike was unmarked after six years.

Car detailing is one of my hobbies so I've extended it to detailing bicycles.

All of my bikes are parked in display stands so they don't touch each other or walls.

I find tinkering with bikes and detailing them very therapeutic and rewarding, and a great way to de-stress. I do ride my bikes sometimes, but never in bad weather. Each to their own, I guess...
This is pretty much me. I am a pretty big time car detailer and I extend that to bikes, my bikes get detailed after each ride. One of my bikes is new, but the other is 2 years old and has a good amount of miles on it, and it's as flawless as the day I bought it. I do hear rocks ding off the downtube sometimes which makes me cringe but so far so good and the films I've seen thus far for downtubes I haven't been impressed with. I also keep my bikes in Feedback Rakks so they never touch walls or anything, and neither bike gets parked anywhere or leaned against anything as they are for fitness, not leisure. Basically short of a crash or running over some junk, there's no way for my bikes to even get scratched. As such, they look brand new. I thought about ceramic coating my bike like I do my cars, but decided to just stick with the ol' Chemical Guys Hybrid V7 spray sealant instead.
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Old 08-24-18, 07:24 AM
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I'm with taz777 and puma1552. It's not difficult to avoid scratches and dings. I ride my bikes plenty, some in poor weather. I handle them with care and detail them often. It's been over 10 years since I've crashed. Yes, I'll get a tiny nick now and then, but even my 20+ year old bikes look nearly new. Same thing with my cars. I like riding and I like keeping my stuff mint.

When I see how beat up some bikes are I sometimes wonder if their owners jump off and just let 'em crash into the pile when parking them.
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Old 08-24-18, 09:21 AM
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Originally Posted by jefnvk
My fat bike is relatively scratch free. Much softer crashing in snow than on tarmac
You're not biking hard enough.
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Old 08-24-18, 09:31 AM
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Well, I put 5,600 miles on my R3 in it's first year, so it's got plenty of nicks and scratches. I didn't buy it to look at it, I bought it to ride it.

Said it before, time is not a useful metric when talking about bikes. A buddy of mine has a pristine looking bike-- which has about 600 miles on it over 3 years. Easy to keep that clean.
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Old 08-24-18, 09:50 AM
  #30  
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This one has over 20,000 miles, nothing more than a few tiny nicks:

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Old 08-24-18, 10:09 AM
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Originally Posted by IvyGodivy
You're not biking hard enough.
To be fair, I forgot its only nine months old too
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Old 08-24-18, 11:59 AM
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Originally Posted by Koyote


At least the pad now covers the scratches. 🙂
That, and a black Sharpie marker.
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Old 08-24-18, 12:22 PM
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I did. My frame really doesn't scratch (at least not easily) because it has a Cerakote finish, not paint. I did get some abrasions this year because I didn't tighten the rear QR enough. When I started to pedal, the rear wheel dislodges and rubbed against the back of the seat tube and inside one of the chainstays. Just noticed that while I was cleaning it on Wednesday.
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Old 08-24-18, 10:17 PM
  #34  
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Originally Posted by cb400bill
An unscratched bike makes me sad.

I was staring at a bike today on the wall at a bike shop. A gold S-Works Roubaix Di2. Scratching that up would make me sad.
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Old 08-25-18, 04:24 AM
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It's about the paint quality on your bike and how careful you are to not do something to scratch it. I've had a couple of Trek's and a LeMond that would get paint chips if you breathed on it too hard because the paint was so thin. My 2011 Focus has almost 20,000 miles and looks virtually brand new. You would have to use a magnifier to see any scratches.
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Old 08-25-18, 04:39 AM
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Originally Posted by Lazyass
It's about the paint quality on your bike and how careful you are to not do something to scratch it.
Paint quality varies quite a bit across my bikes.

My Cannondale fat bike has very soft and thin paint and wears down easily - a light cable rub has worn away the top coat.

My Specialized CrossTrail has an amazing paint job that wouldn't look out of place on a high end car. Silky smooth deep lustre paint and a tough gloss lacquer.
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Old 08-25-18, 07:43 AM
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Originally Posted by ctbiker
>XPEL.com no nicks, no scratches, no runs...

I bought a bike that had something like xpel applied to its newly painted surface. It was beautiful until the first scratch event which colored the scratch white. It showed anyone looking close enough that there was a film applied. My further, inevitable scratches finally made it look horrible so I ripped it all off. I'm just naturally rough on my stuff.
“Something like” so it was not XPEL. I had it applied to the entire hood, bumper, fenders of my Toyota Tundra, 4 years later...perfect paint. XPEL is expensive paint protection because it actually works. Usually applied to Mazi’s, Porsche, Bimmers, Lexus autos. Sound like you had clear 3m tape. Excellent material having had it applied to several cars and trucks. FWIW...
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Old 08-25-18, 07:51 AM
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Clear Plastidip is the poor man's 3M tape.
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Old 08-25-18, 08:32 AM
  #39  
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I once purchased a brand new bike and before ever leaving the shop, I scratched the top tube, right where I have to look at it every time I get on the bike.
So I used some nail polish, to attempt to cover it up, and now every time I ride the bike I see a scratch with a dab of nail polish. Oh well.
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Old 08-25-18, 09:28 AM
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Originally Posted by puma1552
I do hear rocks ding off the downtube sometimes which makes me cringe but so far so good and the films I've seen thus far for downtubes I haven't been impressed with.
Old innertube sliced up and taped on the underside of my down tube. Looks decent. Well actually you don't even really see it. I taped it on with electrical tape over a year ago and it is is still there doing its job. Plain old electrical tape without the innertube works to but not as resilent and sound deadening as the innertube. I actually don't care about scratches and dirt, I just got annoyed with the constant pinging of debris.
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Old 08-25-18, 10:42 AM
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Originally Posted by u235
Old innertube sliced up and taped on the underside of my down tube. Looks decent. Well actually you don't even really see it. I taped it on with electrical tape over a year ago and it is is still there doing its job. Plain old electrical tape without the innertube works to but not as resilent and sound deadening as the innertube. I actually don't care about scratches and dirt, I just got annoyed with the constant pinging of debris.
There's no way that looks decent, on the contrary, that has to look absolutely awful...
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Old 08-25-18, 11:41 AM
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Originally Posted by puma1552
There's no way that looks decent, on the contrary, that has to look absolutely awful...
You don't see it unless you hang out under the bike instead of ride it. Like I said, I was more concerned with function. In the end even if visible from underneath, no more pinging and it is covered in dirt and dust after a ride anyway.

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Old 08-25-18, 05:45 PM
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Our five year old tandem is powdercoated white and while we try to take care to avoid scratches and such, it has proven difficult. Transporting it to our ride starts seems to be as rough as anything we do while riding. I like pristine stuff but you can choose to polish or use and we choose to use our bike and use our time doing other things other than cleaning and polishing. That said, I'll not choose another white bike unless it's an extremely good deal.
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Old 08-25-18, 09:51 PM
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I don't follow the difficulty. All of my bikes are scratch free. You don't have to abuse them to ride them.
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Old 08-25-18, 10:09 PM
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Go ride some fire roads for awhile. After a winter of access roads on Gravelking SKs, the downtube on my Ritchey-- which is powdercoated, not painted-- is sandblasted to an uneven matte finish. Plenty of nicks from rocks on the chainstays, seatstays, and forks. Rock dings on the rims and spokes. Those nicks and dings give character. My Cervelo has 4-5 little chips in the paint from kicked up rocks-- but even while splitting time with the Ritchey, it put on 5,600 miles in its first 12 months.

Bragging about a scratch free bike is... bizarre. Or maybe scratch free comes with living somewhere that the roads don't suck. I wouldn't know.
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Old 08-26-18, 11:14 AM
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If you don't like scratches, throw some helicopter tape on it and then ride the hell out of it. I put a small piece in a couple places (front fork sides, drive side crank) because I know that's where I get the worst wear. Might help with resale someday. It's good for preventive cable rub, too.
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Old 08-27-18, 12:01 PM
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Years ago my son bought a brand new Gary Fisher Joshua mountain bike. Since he was working that day, he offered it to me to ride with my regular Saturday morning mountain bike group. I told him that I couldn't ride his bike before he had a chance to ride it. "What if I wipe out and scratch it up?"

Dad, he said, it's a mountain bike. You're supposed to wipe out and tear it up."

Made me proud. I'm still proud of him.
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Old 08-27-18, 03:14 PM
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I ride ~150mi per week, have been riding for at least 10 yrs, used to race. My bike frames are scratch-free, although I have certainly crashed. Handlebars, brake hoods, and saddle are the only parts that have ever been damaged in a crash.... I, on the other hand still have scars :-)
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Old 08-27-18, 03:38 PM
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Uhhh scratches? I've broken 4 frames, 2 of them mt bikes. Does that count? Like my scars, each one has a story.
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Old 08-27-18, 03:39 PM
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Nope.
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