Customed Reign with Plasti-Dip --Tear and Repair update.

[stinky1138]

First foray into the world of DS. Bought off the forums and immediately changed out all the parts, as you do. I had to have her different from everyone else cuz I just can't stand to be the same. :drama: That and that brown looks like a bad poop color.


Mostly original with a few things swapped out, stem went immediately as it was just way too long and the bars were way too narrow.
Don't care about you Fox haters, those forks were amazing and only changed so I could have a 20mm front.


Changed out a few more things... Went single ring with an amazingly priced guide, got new wheels/hubs/nipples, and got a Lyrik. Not sure where those tires excel, but it's not Sydney...


This was one of the most fun experiments. Love the pedal, wanted to be different. After speaking with Nukeproof for quite some time about whether or not the pedals would stand up to being dyed we just went for it. They're a nylon composite which is similar to a lot of R/C wheels, we already knew those could be dyed quite easily and very well. The only difference is the R/C wheels can be dyed at high temperatures and we weren't so sure with the pedals. So to play it safe we kept the dye bath a bit less than boiling.




Finally after months of talking about it, we finally painted the ol' girl. Except it was Plasti Dip. The color is not quite what i had in mind, I was wanting a darker green but this was mostly an experiment to see what would happen! The dip is quite easy to use if you use a lot of spray paint, which we do, but it would really take several attempts to get the technique correct I think. It comes out of the can in a VERY wide spray compared to regular paint, and it's plastic...so it's kind of blobby. The small surfaces of the bike frame give it an odd "fuzzy" texture in spots. It's best coats are on the wide bits. This was done without removing the ano finish, cuz you don't need to really and I was hoping for a bit of a metallic bleed through. Didn't happen. This is 4 coats on all the parts. The last coat was done quite heavily with the green and rather light with the purple. I'd go heavy on the last coat next time, it's pretty much all filled in by that point and it seems to give the dip a better smoothness. We masked the components as Plasti Dip doesn't hurt them, and masking is a whole lot easier. So, suck a dick ?

Haven't ridden it yet with the new color, not sure on durability. Originally was/still am going for a 90's Batman: The Animated Series Joker look. You know, the good Joker voiced by Mark Hamill... Stickers may be applied depending on how well the Dip holds up. We used the BLAZE range of colors which are the bright, or hot colors. $30/can from Autobarn

Frame - 2008 Reign 1
Rear shock - Fox RP2
Front shock/fork - 2011? RS Lyrik 160mm
Handlebars - FUNN Fatboy 750mm
Stem - FUNN Strippa 45mm
Headset - FSA
Grips - Lizard Skin Logo
Saddle - WTB Speed She, a girl one. Or a Big fat DMR jump one.
Seatpost - Raceface something or other, and a massively shortened one for less sitting down tracks
Seatpost Clamp - Blkmrkt, close up it's got speed holes that show the green thru it's pretty cool.
Front brake - SLX w/200mm
Rear brake - SLX w/185mm
Cranks - Hozfeller single ring 36T
Chainguide - E13 LS1
Pedals - Nukeproof Electron, custom color
Rear derailleur - SRAM X9
Rear shifter - SRAM X7
Cassette - Sram something
Front hub - Nukeproof Generator
Rear hub - Nukeproof Generator, 6pawls...I was curious and already have a Hope.
Wheels - Rhino Lites with DT to Primo, green and purple
Tyres - Ardents 2.25
Tubes - Accidentally sent ones that ended up being free, they are super light tho.
Total weight - Less than me, good enough.

 

[theMerryPrankster]

Reminds me of Mardis Gras.

Did you weigh the frame before/after coating it? I'm curious as to how much the coat adds.

 

[aero165]

That's the most hideous bike I've ever seen! I love it.

 

[ChopSticks]

love the detail of the coloured nipples!

I guess the positive thing about plastic dip is.... you can take it off in seconds !


Maybe go for a Batman look instead ....matte black?

 

[bell.cameron]

My eyes, they burn!!

 

[Steepy]

Damn that thing is ugly.

 

[John Muldoon]

My eyes, they burn!!

BAHAHA.... Definitely one of a kind

 

[mint355]

Lol that's sick as......

 

[Ezkaton]

While I appreciate the effort, I must say I am not what some may call... 'a fan'.

Try hot pink and lime green?

 

[stinky1138]

I saw on Dip Your Car's youtube that 6 coats of Plast Dip off an Audi A4 weighed in at about 1.5 pounds. They use gallons of the stuff on cars, this was less than one spray can per color.

Chops, I already have a grey/black/yellow bike which has Batman stuff on it. That's why this is Joker themed.

The colors change a bit from sun to shade, they're the "Blaze" colors which are bright but not quite neon. Riding it today, we'll see how it stands up i guess!

 

[Knuckles]

BAHAHA.... Definitely one of a kind

....thank christ!:nono:

 

[stinky1138]

I know everyone hates the colors, which is why it's my bike not yours....but if people can somehow manage the colossal task of getting past that, this is an update for people who are looking to use PD on their bikes.

Had a few tears in the Dip since I applied it. First one was in the garage when i ran another pedal into the rear...srsly. There's a few more in the rear from loading the wheel in and out, plus generally being thrown around on the ground (never lend bikes to friends folks...) and such. I ran into some low hanging vine at Ourimbah one day and tore up a bunch of the top tube. Amazingly enough the underside of the downtube has held up possibly the best of all with most of the marks coming from the straps on the bike rack.






Fixing the tears was insanely easy. You can strip the whole thing, or not just mask things you don't want to paint. Dip Your Car has a good video on youtube on how to repair, but they're in FLA or some shit so the super secret sauce used in the video isn't available to be shipped here. Fortunately helpful comments on YT revealed one can just use Terps. There's no photos of this process as there was Terps on my hands. Washed the frame with soapy water first off. Basically just dip your (gloved) finger in the Terps and rub it around the edges of the tear to smooth it out. It melts the PD a bit so you can smooth out bad finish too. I'm not sure if the DYC is just Terps or a solution of something else entirely. I don't remember if they washed it off in the vid or not, but I did not on the green and did on the purple. Didn't worry too much about bearings as they're sealed, and tiny flecks add character. The entire seattube area was covered and not retouched. It is noticeably duller.






So it worked quite well really. They reccomend spraying from a distance of like 6" or more, don't do that. Get up a lot closer, I'd say no further than 3"-4". Jesus shit tho, the bottom of the downtube was hard to spray while the bike was upright like this. Went for a lighter application on the green, which I might go back and touch up again. The purple was applied quite heavily and fairly close up. Overall, it might have the equivalent of 6 or 7 coats. If I was to do this again, i'd use a full can on each bit. Probly go 2 for the whole bike 1 color. This was a used/abused frame already so hard to judge what it's protected and what it hasn't versus a brand new frame.
Sprayed the cranks, just to see what it would look like and what it would feel like on shoes. Also bought a travel adjustable Vengeance for the sumbich, love it.

 

[johnny]

Must be pretty soft if a vine can rip it up like that. Is it worth the effort in the end, as opposed to other methods of protecting a frame?


And sorry, I can't manage the monumental task of getting past the colours.......:yuck:uke:

 

[stinky1138]

Must be pretty soft if a vine can rip it up like that. Is it worth the effort in the end, as opposed to other methods of protecting a frame?


And sorry, I can't manage the monumental task of getting past the colours.......:yuck:uke:

It was a big vine, like the size of my wrist... I got tangled up in it and kept moving forwards so the drag on the PD was pretty significant, the only tears from the vine were on the toptube. honestly only seen plants like that in movies...
There was some tape and oddly shapped tape dots on the frame previously. They were crap, dirt got up under them and they were half peeled off. Left a huge amount of sticky residue and generally looked terrible. The PD does stop a signifiant amount of cable rub (maybe all ?), i could see the marks on the PD but no wear thru the PD. I also use pipe cleaners around frequent rub areas which work very well. Cheaper than paint (like powdercoating) and I don't worry about marks or chips, I can easily fix them. So yeah, from that POV totally worth the effort. I hate using tape for things that are meant to be on dirt, it never stands up.

I like the colors, and I like them even more when people say they hate them :thumb: