Project Ridley

Having finished Project 5, I wanted to push myself and do something completely different. 

I wanted to design a bike frame design. If you see the 'bikes' page of the website you can see that both Green bike and Jealous bike are adorned with vinyl overlay stickers in the DCO style of Mr Dustin Klein. He had recreated his signature design in a collaborative project with a bike manufacturer and then released a set of self applied images so those with bikes already could add a touch of 'DCO' to their own bikes. I loved it! 

So began the process of looking for a 'sensibly' priced frameset in order to experiment. I knew I wanted a gravel frame and also that I didn't want to spend a fortune in case it all went horribly wrong!

An appeal on a Facebook group turned up the frame I got - a Ridley X-Bow. A quick trip to Rutland to collect it and then it sat in the shed. For quite a few weeks. Months in fact.

I had no idea on where to begin! The excitement and buzz of buying a new bike was short lived as the daunting process of how actually paint a bike stoked the 'anxiety' levels..... It was easier to park it on the wall in the shed and leave it....

It took about five months to actually pull it out of the shed and spend some time (and numerous cups of coffee!) sat in the garden just looking at it.

The first thought I had was to hydrodip it - create a digital design that could then be applied to the frame. I measured the frame, set it out on paper and then realised that my style doesn't readily lend itself to having a seam - there was no clean way to make the lines join up when planned in 2d format to be applied to a 3d shape. Clearly that was a bust.

Next, I applied the logic (stolen from DK's vinly sticker idea!) to draw the designs onto paper, layout onto the frame - then get some printed onto clear vinyl to just stick on - they could then be sold commercially (if anyone else wanted to ruin their bike with my design!) So, I set about drawing a range of 'patches' and filling them. I printed a set off and put them on the frame. This looked a) presentable and b) a relatively simple process. I wanted to print them onto the thinnest vinyl so I could then apply clearcoat over the top as I hate the dirt that gathers at the edges of stickers! 

What I needed to do was just dive in. I searched for a paint pen (less risky for me than the varied pressures I'd apply with a brush) and I turned up a paint pen with a 0.8mm nib which put it in my normal pen thickness comfort zone. 

The only things putting me out of my comfort zone were the fact that I knew that any mistake would be impossible to fix without a respray, and the number of curves that my straight lines would have to conquer.

The plan was that I could draw all over this one as it was the wrong colour. The end result was always planned as a monochrome design - black pen, white frame. I knew that at this stage, any mistakes could be eradicated during the strip and re-paint process.

Once the pen arrived, I opted for the 'just dive in' approach. I was immediately surprised at how difficult it was to get a straight line to ride out the curves - my hand shaking, my nerves jangling I carried on.

Some parts of the frame were easier than others - the wider diameter tubing being much easier than the narrower tubing for example and provided somewhere to rest my arm/hand. But there were so many places that the pen just didn't seem to want to fit - I ended up contorting myself to get my hand to an angle where the pen could be made to make its mark. Some of the lines are immense, some more wobbly than I would have liked and certainly more so than I would accept on paper.

But as time wore on and I got closer to full coverage, I realised that wobbles didn't mean failure. It meant experience and development. I knew that once the stripping and recolouring was complete I would start in more of the complex places and work towards the simpler areas rather than vice versa on this dry run....

With about 90% coverage I made the decision to stop and get it sent away for painting. Further research suggested that powder coating was a better option and so it was booked in. A full blasting to remove decals and 'ham fisted pen work' and then a coating of matt white gave me the base coat to start all over again.