KHS
It's been pretty quiet on here lately so thought I'd post where I'm up to with my Montaña Team project.
First major problem was a seriously stuck seatpost. That got resolved in the vice, but I lost the Ritchey original that crumbled into bits under some serious pressure, the frame survived intact.
That gave me a chance to assess the state of the paintwork and the rust spots, no holes, but in need of sorting out before it gets any worse.
Don't want to bodge this bike so have decided to get it painted. Both Bob Jackson and Chris Marshall are in my neighborhood, and I've decided to go with Chris Marshall, from what I've seen of his work I think he's a genius.
So first off was to redraw all the graphics. Must admit that I'm not too keen on the pink and blue Team colours, but there's enough of you guys out there going down that route to ensure it gets preserved for posterity.
Ritchey gets his name or monogram on the bike nine times, KHS is on five times, that's the kind of overkill that comes from collaborations, already existing diverse company logos, and the pure sex appeal of sales marketing.
When you add sponsorship and competition it gets even worse. Take a careful look at Wayne Croasdale's Montaña Team bike in the article 'Inside The Pros Bikes' posted on here somewhere, there's even evidence of decals stuck over decals.
I redrew the full set, with a few additions and slight upscaling in some cases. I want it simpler and cleaner. I do love the main 'Montaña Team' badge, so drew up a 'Logic' decal in the same typeface, with a jokey tilde from Montaña to dot the 'I' Comes out looking like a cross between the Olympic torch and a birthday candle, happy birthday Montaña Team, 22 this year?
The ram illustration came from a 1930's Odgen's cigarette card series called 'Talismans and Charms' It's my birthsign and it's intending to be the headstock motif.
Oh yea, and as Shimano sits there quietly forming 90% of the running gear I thought they deserved a mention too.
I managed to peel off the long Logic sticker from the forks and the Logic shield from the seat tube (with a hairdryer) and got good scans of those.
I printed the whole lot out on paper and taped them on the bike to get a feel of what it would look like and what would work.
Then while I was cleaning up the Mavic wheels, a pair of Ritchey Vantage Comps descended from heaven. The Mavics blow them away on every count really, but the Comps look so cute I gave them a pair of redwall slicks from Curio
http://curiouk.com/ to go down the cafe in.
Then the bike came apart and the frame went off to the paint shop. Found a great polisher locally, took the scratched anodising off the levers and pedals and most of the other dinks and scuffs came out too.
The Ritchey bars were split about 2 inches at either end when the grips were cut off and went in the recyclable garbage bin along with the seatpost, and I got Sumo semi risers by Handsome Dog and managed to squeeze them onto a long stemmed Kalin from Velosolo.
Chris Marshall's running tests on the decals to ensure the inks don't run or the vinyl shrivels up in the oven, it's gonna be a one colour, vermilion red,........eventually,........ here's a 'Photoshop' mock up, hope it's gonna work out.