A bit of an odd one.

I’m thinking of buying some new cranks, but want a plain finish with no words or logos. This would involve removing the printed logos from a Shimano crankset somehow.

I know it’s possible to gently remove silkscreened operator logos from mobile phones using sellotape and sugar, but has anyone done this sort of thing with Shimano (or other) cranks?

a half an hours muddy ride shoudl do the job.

dremel…

It’ll be pretty hard to do on some of them, the SLX logo is tough as old boots frinstance. Get a set of M970 XTRs and the logo’ll fall off if you just use abrasive language near it.

You have way too much spare time! 😛

Thanks all. Not too much spare time at all, come to think of it. Which is lucky, as I’ll probably just buy the cranks and fit them after all that.

Right, I’m off to dig up the rotary sander…

This’ll do the job, plus you’d save some weight off the cranks 🙄

I did this to some part worn XTRs M970s the other day… light sandpaper, very fine and it took quite a while. This left a dull allu finish, which I then polished with a buffing attachment for my Drill with some polishing paste.

Polishing compound was this

Buffing bits like this.

OR..

Buy some Ceramic coated ones from this guy in states… no logos.. you can buy XTR M970 cranks from him pre-coated for $295

Ive sent some to him for coating, $90 + $33 post, then about $10 per ring if you want them coating too, awaiting there return but should look like below but M970s not those older ones..nice gloss black finish.

I polished some old 105 cranks to a high shine, using caustic soda and brasso. You can still see the logo. 🙂

WTF? Unbelievable.

Just use the heels of your shoes* like everyone else. Gives your cranks that nice used look.

*May only remove part of the logo, use with caution or different sized shoes for complete effect.

You could lend the bike to some old/fat person who wears those “big” shoes with the velcro fastening,those bad boys would polish off the logos in no time.Job done with no effort from yourself.

For wl’s benefit, I wasn’t serious about the angle grinder. Bless yer cotton socks.

The ceramic coating looks quite fab, but a little out of my price range. Interesting that he also does the coatings for Homebrewed Components – these cranks would be going on my singlespeed, which is running an HBC chainring and sprocket.

Surely I can’t be the only one who prefers not to have massive logos on things?
[EDIT] Actually – this is the sort of thing I was looking for. Cermicoat does plain coloured Deore cranks:

Did my RF ones a while ago with wet&dry and some metal polish:

IMG_3568 by oxym0r0n, on Flickr

Look at the ‘Jones’ XTRs as well…

Caustic soda dip to strip the anodising and then polish with Solvol Autosol. You will have to re-polish them every now and again though.

Hmm. Polished finishes are a bit of a pain, and I’d like to avoid stripping coatings off if possible.

So, I’ve bought a pair of these:

– the two smaller chainrings (26 / 36) will go onto a pair of XT cranks currently on my singlespeed, which will be installed on the FS bike to make it a 2×9. the cranks will be fitted with the aforementioned HBC chainring and go on the SS. Ideally, I’d keep the black finish, as I’m being a complete tart and getting black cranks to match the rest of the kit on the bike. This would, hopefully, involve stripping the lettering off the cranks to get a low-key finish to the whole thing. All the other bits are pretty low-key in terms of logos (SLX brakes, Noir bars, Hope stem) and it would be nice to keep things a bit stealthy.

I just used some wire wool, going progressively finer to remove the ‘lx’ logo from some square taper shimanos. Took all of 5 minutes, I guess the deore’s might be better at resisting removal.

spray em with matte black paint?

mbdymt – thanks! If the logos are silkscreened on to powdercoat, they should come off with wire wool, but I’m going to try sellotape dipped in sugar first – nice and gentle…

Coating is back, details here