A while ago I bought a bright pink secondhand Turner 5-spot frame from Nigel aka ‘brownpants’ via the classifieds. The frame arrived and I was quite disappointed by the condition of the paint (ie. not quite as described). I put this back to Nigel and he very generously refunded me a small amount to go towards having the frame repainted. He didn’t need to do this and he could have put me down as a fussy buyer, but he stood up to the plate and for this I am massively appreciative.
The frame was repainted and thanks to a little further wallet-bashing (new kashima rp23 shock, original Turner downtube transfers, replacement Zerts and a new-style headtube badge) care of Silverfish and CRC, I was almost ready to go.
Greg @ Turner in the States was massively supportive throughout with advice etc and also sent through the chainstay protector (which is a cut-down version of that for another model) and some further frame transfers (including some very natty pink Turner stickers as I mentioned the frame was for my wife), all of which were posted out to me f.o.c.
Putting the frame back together, I managed to break one of the journal bearings. Greg @ Turner was ready to send some out to me, but before I could get that sorted out, a SOS post on STW on Monday evening led to a flurry of responses from STW members, all keen to help out. One such STW member was Gary aka ‘Gary_C’ who emailed me at 10pm that evening to say that he had some spares (plus a main pivot shaft too) which he would happily send out to me. He posted them first class the next morning and they arrived with me today. The frame is now complete and ready to build up tonight. Gary was insistent that he didn’t want paying for the bearings or the postage, but I might wish to chuck some money in a charity box. Rest assured that I shall!
So there we have it…. Rather than the usual stories of people being ripped off through the classifieds, some clear evidence that there is something that binds us bike-nuts together and that STW is a great place to benefit from it.
the colour is RAL6027 ‘light green’ which is actually blue… it’s the same tint as used by the Gulf Racing Porches of the Steve McQueen era.. the latest Gulf blue is a little ‘bluer’.
This should be a great post – Good story, kind hearts and gestures from those involved, and a lovely looking frame as a result. However, all the good work has been undone by description of wife being ‘stoked’ – I implore you all to be a bit more discerning with who you help out on the internet in future 😉
Certainly restores (some) faith in this place after just reading, with incredularity, the comments directed at the OP in yesterday’s WARNING thread…….I read it as OP was trying to alert folk there may have been a prob with web ordering at that moment………que the STW massif response!!!!
*Should add that I have used SS in the past with no issue, and will do so again! ( but, would have appreciated the heads up if I was ordering yest aft!)
i just re-read my original post and think i missed out the bit about the frame being for my wife…
i love turners as much as the next man (i had a dw-link flux until recently), but am quite happy with my yeti asr5 for the time being… although i might get that painted bright pink if i can the replacement transfers from yeti.
the paint was done by Trestan in Southampton. They charge £30+VAT for a standard frame (this includes blasting, masking and painting).
unlike many places, they don’t charge extra for adding a sparkle finish beneath the lacquer. i had a cannondale frame painted at the same time in bright green with a sparkle finish and it looks absolutely awesome (will post up pics in due course).
I paid £50+VAT for the Turner as there a fair bit of masking off pivot-points and they also put the transfers on for me before lacquering. they prefer that you come in to put the transfers on yourself (which i did for the cannondale).
The powdercoat is quite thick, so if you’re one of these weight-weenies, it might not be the right avenue. It also means that you might need to spend a bit of time with a dremel to get the bearing surfaces back to their design dimensions.
All in all, I’m pretty happy. The paint finish is not perfect (if you look very closely, there are some very faint runs here and there), but it should be tough and the bike is there to be used, not looked at.
re. the pivot bolts… i originally thought that, but it is the correct orientation. the inside faces are shaped to accept the allen-key bolt whereas the outside faces are flat to accept a washer and nut.
i was going to try to go mega-light on the build (as my wife is a 5’3″ waif with tits), but i decided to make a few compromises to aid general performance… namely:-
* dropper seatpost – i actually have a FSA carbon pro seatpost for the bike, but the dropper should give her more confidence on steeper descents
* 9mm and 10mm bolt through superstar QR’a – this should help to stiffen everything up a bit
* powdercoat finish – this really is surprisingly thick so i reckon there is a fair amount of added weight here.
The wheels however are feathery light (sub 1,500g) and with the tyres running tubeless I think I am saving weight where it counts the most.
As for the looks of the frame… i think it looks totally timeless. Bearing in mind that for the same investment as this build, I could have bought a brand new Canyon women’s specific Nerve with a good spec (I’m at just under £1,500 all in), it was a pretty bold move to base it on a 2004-frame, but I really do believe that they ‘don’t make them like they used to’.
the KS dropper post still needs to go on (it doesn’t quite fit as it seems to be a ‘larger’ 27.2mm diameter that the carbon 27.2mm post that is in there at the moment, so i’m going to have to clean out the inside of the seat tube and have another crack.
the brake hoses also need to be shortened. as they are formula brakes, i’m going to let the lbs deal with that!
last but not least, the steerer also needs a chop.
the only problem now is that it appears to be a bit too large for the wife (the standover height is not as low as i though it might be)… so it might be appearing on the classifieds or pinkbike very soon, unless i can think of a way to keep it in the family (it’s the nicest bike i have built to date, so it would sould-destroying to sell it).
here are a couple of pics as it stood last night:-
(if i do sell it, it will be for what it owes me (not a penny more, not a penny less)… i don’t believe in profiting out of the stw forums)
So there we have it…. Rather than the usual stories of people being ripped off through the classifieds, some clear evidence that there is something that binds us bike-nuts together and that STW is a great place to benefit from it.
Lower profile tyres, and some offset bushes for the shock 🙂 That’ll sort you out. Get some Maxxis Ignitor eXception series tyres, that’ll knock a decent amount off them.
Or have a word with Loco, about reducing the e2e of the shock.