Aiming for a stealth look on my ti and could use some input

[Kurt]

I am probably going for a concours and don’t know if I want to shell out $ 300 for the polish up-charge. Was thinking about paint, but that sort of defeats some of the purpose of ti, although I guess you cannot really fix matte is it gets damaged. If I went with all matte, what looks more subtle, the charcoal with ti decal or the ti with charcoal – I am thinking only the downtubes and a decal badge – and, does anyone know for sure if serotta offers an outline only decal, like a landshark, meaning the interior is clear with just an outline. Are the transfers clear-coated? Any comments are welcome. Kurt

[TimD]

The fade from light silver to dark silver was quite well done.

[Kurt]

sorry about the pm.

[TimD]

This time under the size limit (I hope) :)

[TimD]

Guess its time to read the FAQ!:mad:

[JohnS]

My vote is the charcoal with ti outline. On my Concours I did matte with red panels with white decals. The only problem is people think it's painted for Ohio State, which isn't too healthy up here in Michigan! :(

[Too Tall]

Have the Serotta downtube name in polish on the brushed frame. No decal.

[Kurt]

$ 300+ for that trick. I think I want to be clever with the standard price deal, but thanks!

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . go with the plain Ti (no paint) and use the Ti interior/charcoal outline decals. The outline is so thin that more than 20 feet away no one will even be able to tell you have decals. As far as I know from looking at the website there is no decal with clear interior.

Another choice, if you decide to go paint, would be black with the white outline decals. Almost the same effect from a distance--of the outline disappearing. In addition, the ebony has a very subtle metal flake that really lends depth to it when you see it close up.

Either way would be just about the ultimate in subtlety. But then, what the hell do I know about "subtlety!" . . . :rolleyes:

BBDave

[Don]

I used white decals outlined in black on my Legend. The seat tube has just the "S" and the simplicity looks great, in my opinion.

[Ozz]

Congrats, you have just started the hardest part of putting together a custom bike. If you get 50 responses, you will have 50 opinions, and none of them will be wrong!

I think BBDave has a good idea with the black paint.

I'm not sure what you mean by "paint defeats the purpose of Ti", other than it is not obvious that you have a Ti bike. IMHO, how much more stealth can you get?

How about this set up:

1/2 or 3/4 Ebony paint
Polished rear triangle with matte "serotta" on chainstays
Heatube Badge (vs. decal - I like badges)
No downtube, seat tube or top tube decals

To save more $$, you could go for a matte rear w/ a polished "serotta" on just one chain stay. It might be worth getting a quote on this.

Have fun!

[Kurt]

I was thinking at one time about doing black or white - are you thinking all black or 3/4? any pics? Thanks!

Originally posted by BumbleBeeDave
. . . go with the plain Ti (no paint) and use the Ti interior/charcoal outline decals. The outline is so thin that more than 20 feet away no one will even be able to tell you have decals. As far as I know from looking at the website there is no decal with clear interior.

Another choice, if you decide to go paint, would be black with the white outline decals. Almost the same effect from a distance--of the outline disappearing. In addition, the ebony has a very subtle metal flake that really lends depth to it when you see it close up.

Either way would be just about the ultimate in subtlety. But then, what the hell do I know about "subtlety!" . . . :rolleyes:

BBDave

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . Glad you like the idea. Here’s a suggestion . . .

All black with the white outline decals. Leave the chainstays and about 3/4 of the seatstays bare. Then you could do the bars with black tape or black/white marbled.

The neat thing about a black bike is that it truly is the color that goes with everything. You can do the black tape and truly have a very stealthy bike and just leave it that way. Or, if you change your mind later and want to be a bit more flashy, you can change the whole look of the bike by adding, say, red tape, seat, bottle cages, and pedals, or yellow, or green, or . . . well, I think you get the idea. I did this with my old Vitus road bike and when I changed everything around it was almost like having a whole new bike!

If you want to carry the idea even further, you can go to the local auto paint store and get 3M striping in just about any color of the rainbow and add details to the frame itself. Another possibility is the auto parts store and the various stickers they have for cars. There’s the ever-popular “fake bullet hole” look . . . . I got some black+silver Celtic flame looking stuff and added just a few (careful, it’s waaay too easy to overdo it!) To my Vitus, which I now have set up as a TT bike, and it looks really sharp.

Hope this helps . . . Good luck! :beer:

BBDave

[jerk]

you want stealth? primer. or matte black or just tell serotta you don't want the thing painted brushed or polished....just all sort of unfinished.
the jerk

[Kurt]

So you are talking about the standard 3/4-1/4 finish, right? c-stays bare, s-stays bare from the rim down. ?'s: Do you think the blk would look ok against the matte? Have you seen the black decal with white outline made up on the black frame? if so, how close is the match. what would you do with the f2's? Thanks!


Originally posted by BumbleBeeDave
. . . Glad you like the idea. Here’s a suggestion . . .

All black with the white outline decals. Leave the chainstays and about 3/4 of the seatstays bare. Then you could do the bars with black tape or black/white marbled.

The neat thing about a black bike is that it truly is the color that goes with everything. You can do the black tape and truly have a very stealthy bike and just leave it that way. Or, if you change your mind later and want to be a bit more flashy, you can change the whole look of the bike by adding, say, red tape, seat, bottle cages, and pedals, or yellow, or green, or . . . well, I think you get the idea. I did this with my old Vitus road bike and when I changed everything around it was almost like having a whole new bike!

If you want to carry the idea even further, you can go to the local auto paint store and get 3M striping in just about any color of the rainbow and add details to the frame itself. Another possibility is the auto parts store and the various stickers they have for cars. There’s the ever-popular “fake bullet hole” look . . . . I got some black+silver Celtic flame looking stuff and added just a few (careful, it’s waaay too easy to overdo it!) To my Vitus, which I now have set up as a TT bike, and it looks really sharp.

Hope this helps . . . Good luck! :beer:

BBDave

[BumbleBeeDave]

Yes, the 1/4--3/4 is what I’m talking about. But I had them pnly bring the bare part up about 1/3 of the way on the seatstays. I don’t remember if it was an upcharge or not. Take a look at the Queen Bee in the image gallery and you can see what I did.

I would call Serotta to check on the actual color match of the black decal vs. the black paint, since I have not seen the two together in the flesh.

I would also paint the fork black. The fork decals on mine are black background with silver letters anyway, so those would almost “stealthily” disappear as well.

BBDave