RRBBO13 Naked Trekie

Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Sep 7, 2014
Messages
3,276
Reaction score
6,402
Location
Columbus OH
spock2.jpg


So I started looking at older road bikes to possibly upgrade.....noticed how many carbon road bikes there are and how light they are....started asking Oddjob some questions and ended up with the bike you see above.

Exposed carbon, polished everything is the plan...doesn't have to win...just don't want to feel like a tool bag riding it..:p

Here it is yesterday before a spirited ride.

m1.jpg


It's a 2011 Trek Madone 4.7....same bike as Lance Armstrong rode in the Tour De France except his would have been a 9 point something..:)...it has 20 gears...(the reason I won't be adding gears)..and weighs 18.5 lbs.
 
Buck Nekkid, just like George Costanza.
 
Got some different bars for this. They have a slight wing shape I thought would look cool polished up.

bars1.jpg


bars2.jpg


Shot them with some easy-off after work. This is after a couple quick soaks, scrub and rinse.

bars3.jpg


Then got carried away with some sanding and a quick polish.

bars4.jpg


bars5.jpg


Didn't think I'd do much the first day as it's a work night but been itching to tear into these.

Plus the name on them "3T Ergonova" was causing a certain song to play in my head.
 
Beam me up Chad , and remember no doping in this build off . I don’t care what Lance said . This is the lucky 13 let’s keep it lagit !!!
Any bikes that weigh less then 18 lbs. will be disqualified,,,,and rode off into the sunset faster then the speed of lightning bugs . [emoji1303][emoji13]
 
That bike will be Waayyyy lighter once you strip all the paint and polish off the anondized surfaces!

If builds were movies, this one would be a suspense crime movie. Trying to 'unveil' the build, literally, while everyone is holding their breath to see if the carbon tubes hold up to your 'dressing down'. RaT oN!
 
Beam me up Chad , and remember no doping in this build off . I don’t care what Lance said . This is the lucky 13 let’s keep it lagit !!!
Any bikes that weigh less then 18 lbs. will be disqualified,,,,and rode off into the sunset faster then the speed of lightning bugs . [emoji1303][emoji13]

:21::21::21:..Thank you G-Matt!!

It's officially a Chad T build now!

Thank you!! Gonna do the polishing up right on this.

I’ll be watching how you deal with bringing out the carbon fiber.
while everyone is holding their breath to see if the carbon tubes hold up to your 'dressing down'. RaT oN!

It's a bit of a nail biter isn't it? Not like I can just chuck it into a camp fire...:21:

Couldn't find a lot other than folks mostly saying not to try this but there are a few who have actually done it. These guys call themselves "Weight Weinies"

Not a lot of options for paint removal. There is something called carbo-lift and sanding it all off.

The few threads I found about this said they actually used this...:eek:

strip1.jpg


Always pulling away from the edge and never pushing the edge into the fiber.....gulp..:eek:

Tested a little spot right next to the only chip on the bike. Looks like this chip came from the brake adjuster hitting the frame. Might have to make something to prevent that.

Looks like this will go fast with the blade.

strip2.jpg


Tried it out on the seat post. Removed the first of many Bontrager letter b's that will be getting the ax. Just did a quick 600 grit sand and polish on this. Could use some more sanding.

post2.jpg


Might keep this B though.

post.jpg


If I keep the post...thinking about an alloy aero post...:39:
 
Last edited:
Took the first crack at razor blade paint shaving on the non-drive seat stay today.

Fiber in one spot seemed rougher but was near where the dropout would have joined the tube. Didn't go any deeper with the blade there.

cf1.jpg


Gently wet-sanded with the grain of the fiber to get the last bit of paint. Not much black came up. Sure enough. It's carbon fiber under there...:)

cf2.jpg


Like the color of the fiber and the shimmery effect. Most things that come in bare carbon have a decorative layer. This is just naked. Might do a light mist of laquer and some 2000 wet-sanding once it's all undressed.
 
I bet that is some patience trying work right there.
Cool result though.
 
I bet that is some patience trying work right there.
Cool result though.

Thank you...that's a fair assessment. Was trying to take some of the graphics off and see if I could leave the white today.

strip5.jpg


Most of the work is getting through the clear. Been trying a coarse sanding block to mow through some of it then use the blade for the color.

strip4.jpg


Tough to leave all the white without having any carbon show thorugh but the blade does make the paint removal very precise.

strip3.jpg


Will have to stay at it and keep doing a bit at a time. Really boring until you get through the clear. The rest of that should sand off easily but wanted to get a look at what the white looked like.
Gee, why not? It worked for me.

'Cause this bike isn't a Schwinn..:p

I have 2 carbon fiber aero posts if you are interested, not sure what size, but they are just sitting.

Sure lemme know what you have. Size on this is 27.2
 
You know the warranty is voided now, right? :21:

What?...:eek:.....Why?...:p

strip7.jpg

Put a handle on the blade as it was getting hot.

strip6.jpg


Got a little more of the graphics off and didn't go through too bad. Was bumpy around the water bottle bosses.

strip10.jpg


Looking forward to the white rat. She's gonna get pretty ugly.

Got a little farther than that and got through some of the seat tube.

TCT means the The Cheaper Trek carbon road bike...:D
strip9.jpg


Got most of that down to the white but didn't take a pic. This is some maddening whittling here....some spots of the tubes sound so thin like scraping an empty egg shell.

Would like to get this to all white then start polishing some things. No turning back now.
 
We're holding our collective breath....:doh:

Gonna get worse before it gets better...The Tour De Scrape continues.

Found a new tool...broken pair of scissors.

scrape1.jpg


Made a vid of this in action but need to ad some Psycho music to it.

Got the main triangle almost symbol free on the ugly side.

scrape2.jpg


Got a good start on the drive side.

scrape4.jpg


One unique feature of the 2011 "Mad One" is the rear brake cable stop on the drive side. Stops are riveted on and will have to be worked around.

scrape3.jpg


This scraping is tricky business...lots of high spots dimples and pimples in this carbon.

In other news....

Another feature this bike came with is a built-in speed/cadence sensor.

duot.jpg


The bike just comes with a dummy panel but this one had the sensor in it when I got it.

Improvised the cadence sensor. Slot car magnet stuck to the pedal axle.



duot4.jpg


Seems to be working but haven't figured out how to read cadence on the computer yet.

I liked this one because of the large speed display.

duot2.jpg


Hit 27 mph first trip around the block with it and didn't feel like I was really pushing. The endurance geometry on this bike makes for stable handling. Didn't realize I had been going that fast..:)
 

Latest posts

Back
Top