Rainbow flake

[pakora]

Does anyone have any examples of bikes with a rainbow flake/pearl coat over the paint? I'm rather taken with rainbow flake over metallic black and am wondering what it looks on a bike. I also wondered what it looks like over other colors (like a medium dark metallic purple) but from what I can find that's a little too My Little Pony/Liberace for my tastes.

Most of what I've found on internets is custom cars and guitars. The painter said since the've had it exactly one person so far has opted for the rainbow pearl flake finish but I didn't find a pic of that bike on their gallery.

Yes, I know, my bike will look like a bowling ball. I like the idea of something that's both fairly staid and classic (black metallic) and something that makes it bonkers depending on the light/angle.

Pretty good example of the effect on black or dark blue:

http://i973.photobucket.com/albums/ae211/BULMERSATBEXHILL/MY%20CAR/DSCN0801.jpg

On dark blue:

http://home.comcast.net/~jaysguitarpage/flamecaster2.jpg

black (low res though):

http://www.tdlguitars.com/11-29-04/John%20450.jpg

My Little Pony land:

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/1/2155/821/5385410001_large.jpg

[pakora]

Oh I did find the rainbow flake example on their flickr but it's a downtube closeup (just pasting the link because I don't know how to not make this gigantic without rehosting it): http://www.flickr.com/photos/26208450@N02/8606453831/in/photolist-e7wjT2-b5AnjH

[Birddog]

To each his own. I guess it's alright if you want your bike to look like a 60's countertop or an electric guitar. IMO it's a little too much.

[texbike]

To each his own. I guess it's alright if you want your bike to look like a 60's countertop or an electric guitar. IMO it's a little too much.

I can see this showing up on a Speedvagen... :)

Texbike

[Nooch]

I can see this showing up on a Speedvagen... :)

Texbike

unicorn dandruff?

[pakora]

That my aesthetic is ahem not for everyone.

For example, this is my team's kit, which I think is amazing and I would wear if I weren't on the team. And that my helmet, gloves and saddlebag predated racing for them.

http://www.bellscyclingteam.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/DATIRONHILL.jpg

[texbike]

unicorn dandruff?

More like the visual representation of a unicorn fart... :rolleyes:

BTW, this is not intended as negative commentary on the OP's taste and preferences. I actually like it myself!

Texbike

[ultraman6970]

That flake is cool but in bikes IMO will look weird if you put too much of it in a small area like bike tubes. That's why japanese builders (generally) put just tiny bit of them here and there using large to medium size of the flake.

From the pictures to me at least looks like all of them have just plain clear, not pearl. Pearl is a clear with some white haze metallic in it.

How much of the base coat (under coat) will show up will depend on how much of the flake you use, so if you shoot the flake thick as hell you can get no base coat to be shown.

Black metallic can be done two ways (maybe more)... you can use a black flake over a dark blue maybe or over black, or even mix the flake with the paint. Second option is get black and then a pearl with the metallic in it and then clear over the top, this is how black metallic car paint jobs are done, expensive because you have 3 colors in 3 stages.

What looks cool because I have seen it, is to put small orange flakes mixed with black paint (tiny bit, not heavy), but the paint job needs to be perfect so you clear w/o having to sand the paint to fix imperfections. So the black will turn random orange sparkles under the sun.

Good luck.

[yummygooey]

One of my buddies has a custom track bike with some sweet flake going on:

http://www.pedalroom.com/bike/lesperance-track-6666

http://www.pedalroom.com/p/lesperance-track-6666_2.jpg

[alessandro]

unicorn dandruff?

You should know from sparkly:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8121/8654513513_c82a50e96b_z.jpg



ok, it should be said
That my aesthetic is ahem not for everyone.

For example, this is my team's kit, which I think is amazing and I would wear if I weren't on the team. And that my helmet, gloves and saddlebag predated racing for them.

http://www.bellscyclingteam.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/DATIRONHILL-225x300.jpg

Reminds me a bit of a Burton snowboard jacket & pants print from 2006:
http://www.mashkulture.net/2006/11/21/halflife.jpg

...sort of an eye-melting moiré pattern gone bad...

But it's *your* bike. If sparkly flaky floats your boat, go for it. According to Nooch, the folks at Circle A did the 'zetti above. Then take close-ups and post them here. :beer:

[pakora]

ultraman, yeah, the samples I saw in the shops definitely had a slightly milky/metallic pearl thing going on, different from the non-bike pics above. I'm just going off the stock color samples she had there, plus a couple for finishes (flakes and pearls) - one stock color was a metallic black, but I don't actually know whether the rainbow pearl was over regular or metallic black.

The only thing I do know about paint was they had one style that was amazingly beautiful with incredible depth - but it cost a lot more because it was a process like you described (several layers of different paints with different amounts of flake).

And yummy, woah, yeah!

http://www.pedalroom.com/p/lesperance-track-6666_5.jpg

[yummygooey]

fwiw, i think seattle powdercoat did the track frame above... not 100% sure on that but can double check if you want

i for one think it's rad!

[pakora]

I should have taken a pic of the sample I saw so I could refer to something - they're doing wet paint and the finish is mixed in the clearcoat, so it looks a little different "deeper" or something like that.

[pinkshogun]

i support your decision, go for it

years ago i sprinkled multi-colored glitter on a black frame then topped it off with spray can clearcoat. it looked very similiar to the bike above

[sashae]

Very, very big amongst keirin bike builders -- there's one painter that many of the builders use that are quite expert at it. My Kalavinka has 'small' rainbow flake:

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3781/9394966659_f927aa85d9_b.jpg

Here's a few others I've handled over time:

Anchor
http://subtle.org/se/gallery/d/2894-2/redanchor04.jpg

M-Idea
http://subtle.org/se/gallery/d/3197-2/bluemidea05.jpg

Bomber Pro
http://subtle.org/se/gallery/d/3255-2/redbomberpro07.jpg

Reminton
http://subtle.org/se/gallery/d/3080-2/greyreminton05.jpg

Vogue
http://subtle.org/se/gallery/d/3473-2/mossvogue06.jpg

Stratos
http://subtle.org/se/gallery/d/3771-2/bluestratos02.jpg


The metal flake on this moss green Peloton was the craziest finish I've seen..

http://subtle.org/se/gallery/d/2235-2/peloton04.jpg

[sashae]

The old Schwinn Homegrowns were painted in a variety of "bassboat" flakes -- Bassboat Green, Blue, Brown, Red, etc..

Good URL from VSalon that talks about the finishes... (http://www.velocipedesalon.com/forum/f2/bass-boat-paint-jobs-sparkly-paint-jobs-22183.html)

[data-san]

except for that last frame, I've always thought keirin builders know how to put just enough of the flake to look good, while american painters tend to go overboard, when they try.

[sashae]

When I had my Kalavinka built, there were options for rainbow, silver, and gold flake, and both flake size (I chose small) and density (medium for me.)

[bingomck]

I came pretty close to bidding on this bike... clearly still thinking about it, as soon as I read your post, this bike came to mind!
Waterford sold on eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/CUSTOM-WATERFORD-FIXED-GEAR-SINGLE-SPEED-STEEL-FRAME-BIKE-/171053747956?pt=US_Bicycles_Frames&hash=item27d3990ef4&nma=true&si=tFsjfLiZ%252F97DgHPd84ZmCp101SA%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557)

[rustychisel]

http://www.allmusic.com/album/purplemetalflakemusic-mw0000095290

[pakora]

I saw my bike at a bike show this weekend, and it came out awesome. I'll post when I take delivery, but I'm kind of amazed that it's more subtle than crazy - what we ended up with was medium density sparklies on gloss black, and then a purple clearcoat.

The effect is a very very dark purple ("eggplant" was the painter's target and it's spot on) and the colored clearcoat tones down the possible disco ball effect unless you're right up close. The bike is hung with all silver components and black saddle/tape, so this might also have a sobering effect on it.

Excited!

[zap]

Landshark was known for using this type of paint…….maybe still.

Googly search should yield some pics.

[Ahneida Ride]

Contact Brian Meyers at Fresh Frames ..

He has done them