Well, work is now properly underway on the Surly Pugsley fat bike single speed project. And in case you are wondering what that is, I’m doing a custom paint job similar to my other two bikes (see example above) and also converting the bike to single speed from the previous build that used an 8-speed internal geared hub.
I’ve completed priming all parts, that’s both wheel rims, the handlebars, frame and forks, all now in a nice crisp uniform grey colour, ready for painting after a light sanding down. But first some notes on weight. Out of interest I weighed the bare metal frame and forks before priming, then weighed them afterwards. Spray painting the primer had added about 40g, which is not a lot but it will be interesting to see what adding the actual paint does.
Something else I’ve learned about Pentland Powder Coatings. The stripping of the frame and forks only cost £30 this time and I noticed that the frame and forks have numerous particles of debris inside them, mostly flakes of curled up paint. It looks like the frame and forks have been chemically stripped rather than sandblasted. I do recall asking for the paint to be stripped yesterday and that’s what they did. Previously, on the other frames, I had asked for sandblasting, and that’s what they did. I didn’t realise they offered both types of stripping. You live and learn.
The next big decisions I have to make are the patterns of paint colours. With a myriad of options to choose from with respect to the wheel rims, I’ve got it down to two options. One uses all eight colours on each rim, with black or white separating borders. The other is to use four colours on one rim and the other four on the other rim. I settled for the second option, each quarter of the rim a different colour. Looks good!
On the other components I needed to decide what size each colour block will be and where they will be located. This will be guided by where the frame fitting such as cable mounts and bottle mounts are, as it greatly simplifies the masking process. I will be sticking with my original idea for an asymmetrical pattern to the colour blocks rather than the symmetrical patterns on both the Harley Quinn and Surly Ogre. Overall, I’m keeping in mind that the Surly Pugsley is a fat bike, a bike with chunky parts, so want the colour pattern to reflect that. Not that I suspect anyone will actually notice. Big and bold is the way to go with fat bikes.
And that’s where we stand at the moment. The painting of the wheel rims is complete but the weather has now turned wet, so may need to leave it for a while until dry weather – my spray-painting area is outside. The rims still need to get their final top coat but that will be done later. Back soon.
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