[Closed] Replacement stickers or 'decals' and respray clearcoat

[url= http://www.slikgraphics.com ]Slik Graphics[/url] should be able to sort with you replacement decals.

When I had my frame powder coated I had a matt finish, stickers (supplied by Slik) on, then a gloss lacquer over the top. Looked great

[img] [/img]

You can clearcoat over stickers, with a couple of caveats:

1) it defeats the point of powdercoating, a really tough finish, with a soft layer on top.
2) you can't clear powdercoat ontop of the stickers (hence point 1)

It was far more important when stickers were water transfers and had to be varnished over. These days when everything's vinyl and lasts 5-10 years without a clear coat, it's just neatness.

I say this every time someone mentions decals/respraying etc., so I will say it again for consistency: All decals look crap and should be removed. Your bike will look better re-sprayed/powdercoated and left alone, except for maybe a nice metal headbadge. 🙂

Cheers #lads

Faustus show us yours then

Apart from laser etching on anodised parts, I always remove stickers from forks, wheels and frame (and got this powder-coated):

[url= https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5625/23073460162_42328a3de3_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5625/23073460162_42328a3de3_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/B9VvQE ]Winter ride at Swinley[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/turkey_plucker/ ]Matthew Walker[/url], on Flickr

Looks rubbish mate.

Faustus on his way to Swinley:
[img] [/img]

Haha 🙂 I like grey.

You can keep your garish sticker-festooned attention-seeking-mobiles!

It reminds me of that John Major puppet from spitting image [img] [/img]

However I like the wheels . Does it alter the resale value at all do you think?

Not bothered with a £200 frame to be honest, which I plan to use a lot. Fork stickers are easier to come by if needs be.

I mean my frame is silver grey too , hence the respray really . Just wondering if in the future someone might be put off by no stickers ,, or indeed the respray .

Looks a bit... you know.....

[img] [/img]

If I'm honest, your mismatched tyres are setting my OCD off even more. I'm actually physically twitching looking at that picture. Given that fact, you probably can't be trusted with graphics, logo's and colours, so its probably for the best you remove them

I always think a bike looks unfinished if it doesn't have decals on it. A lot of decals nowadays are a bit naff though, all computer designed geometric go faster stripe like, and always tend to be black/white/red as well. Rare to find a mainstream manufacturer making the effort they used to do 20 years back on even their budget bikes.

My 1992 Tequesta, a sub £500 bike with a paint finish that'd cost nearly that much to recreate to the same standard nowadays:

[URL= http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/pp187/rcatkin/Retrobikes/1992%20GT%20Tequesta/6e2522fd.jp g" target="_blank">http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/pp187/rcatkin/Retrobikes/1992%20GT%20Tequesta/6e2522fd.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

Many more like that from other manufacturers, and let's not forget about Klein/Fat Chance/Grove Innovations and the like.

Mismatched tyres were for performance reasons though, because I wanted different things from f&r. Do you match tyres for aesthetics?

I know it's bland to some but I like it like that and know i'm probably in a minority who prefer debadged. But stickers/decals are just so many pointless uninspiring words, in an odd context...

What I don't understand, is why anyone has a bike frame resprayed, then pays money to get decals/stickers made up like the original manufacturer's ones. I can understand it more if it's an exotic vintage machine perhaps, but not if it's a mass-produced bike. Why would you pay money to advertise their product? 😕 To me, it's a bit like customised car number plates like 'BMW Z1' or 'AUD1' or other such stupidity. What an utter waste of money! A bike looks far more personal if it's got no stickers or your own design.

faustus - where did you get the frame powdercoated? In need of a place to get a frame of mine done but the last place i used were rubbish 😕

Unimet in Reading, pretty good job and they masked everything well. It would have been a darker grey but colour depends what they have in stock unless you pay extra. I asked for a matt finish which they were happy to do.

Why would you pay money to advertise their product? To me, it's a bit like customised car number plates like 'BMW Z1' or 'AUD1' or other such stupidity.

It isn't like that at all really though, is it? Its simply the name of the manufacturer. I'm presuming if you thought their product good enough to buy, you think its good enough to have their name on?

A bike looks far more personal if it's got no stickers or your own design.

But your own design, maybe with your name on, isn't like having a private number plate?

You seem a bit confused

zerogreg - where are you based? [url= http://www.eregcoatings.com ]These guys[/url] did a cracking job of powder coating my frame

What I don't understand, is why anyone has a bike frame resprayed, then pays money to get decals/stickers made up like the original manufacturer's ones

whole lot easier to re-sell a "brand" frame than a "might be a brand frame but I sprayed it grey" frame

To me, it's a bit like customised car number plates like 'BMW Z1' or 'AUD1' or other such stupidity.

Not quite as bad as those who don't though, like BMW 114, 316 etc with the badges taken off, or a de-badged diesel VAG estate with gti/RS trim. Kidding no-one, more asleep than sleeper.

As for resprays, most of my steel frames end up with them at some point, never had anyone question the make/model of the frame underneath. Besides, it's usually done to frames I intend to keep a while, hence they got into a state where they needed it.

Silk graphics haven't replied to my email. Any alternatives ?

info@invisframegraphics.co.uk can help you out.

Delcals is very good as well.

gil at the cycleshed