Elias.bike
I've had a lot of fun using Spray.bike to paint a number of bicycles over the past few years. Here is a collection of a few projects I've done and the story behind each bike. When I get a new idea or a new bike opportunity I'll post them here and on my Instagram. Check them out!
The Eye of the Tiger
The Eye of the Tiger
The Eye of the Tiger is a steel fixed gear made to rip around town. Painted in September 2021 and inspired by my favorite NFL team, the Cincinnati Bengals, who would eventually go to Super Bowl LVI. Coincidence?
I had the idea to do a tiger themed bike for awhile before picking up a vinyl cutter in order to create the stencils for the job. Initially, I planned on doing the whole bike to look like the fork. After stenciling and painting the fork I decided that might be a little too much tiger action for the whole frame and opted to do a "dark mode" inverted style on the frame instead.
As a result, I got a little more creative with the tiger head badge and "Go Get 'em Tiger!" on the top tube. Finished with a Spray.bike clear coat and built up with wide flat bars, Velocity wheels, and a Wald basket for maximum townie cred.
Specifications
- Frame: 56cm Maxway Steel Track
- Fork: Maxway Steel Fork
- Wheelset: Velocity Deep V with Origin8 Hubs
- Tires: Donelley LCV 700x25c Clinchers
- Crankset: Origin8
- Chain: KMC Z1 Gold
- Cog: All-City 20t
- Brake: Tektro R313 Road Caliper
- Brake Lever: Tektro Eclipse MT 2.1
- Handlebar: Brand-X Flat Bar 720mm
- Grips: FUNN Orange
- Stem: Bontrager 90mm
- Seatpost: Brand-X Inline
- Saddle: Selle Italia X1 XC Flow
- Basket: Wald 1372
Spray.bike Paint Colors
The Windsor
The Windsor
This bike has seen some shit. I originally purchased the Windsor frameset with the idea of making a townie/commuter bike using a bunch of parts that I had collected over the years. I drove an hour in a snow storm to purchase the frame and fork from someone who had the same idea but ran out of time. I then put the bike together with what I had around and it actually was a pretty decent commuter albeit slightly too small for me.
Since I put the bike together with random parts I had and pieces I put together from the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective, I always thought to myself, "if this gets stolen, that won't be the worst thing ever." What do you think happened as a result?
Stolen directly off the front porch of McCall's place in 2019. I rode around Salt Lake City looking to see if I could find it. No luck. Eventually I filed an insurance claim on it, got reimbursed, and used the proceeds to buy the Rhinestone Cowboy below. I thought that would be the end of that. I was wrong!
A friend of mine who worked at the SLC Bicycle Collective called me out of the blue one day and said, "I think your bike that was stolen is here at the Collective!" He listed off what the bike looked like and the pieces that were on it and sure enough, it was The Windsor! He called the cops who, once on scene, refused to confiscate the bike despite the fact the bike matched verbatim what was on the police report I filed (good job guys.) Pro-tip: you need the serial number of everything and anything you can if you want your stolen property back.
My friend, thinking on his feet, took a photo of the serial number on the bike when the cops had to chase the perpetrator out the door after he ran. When they returned, the serial number that I had "just remembered" sealed the deal and I got the Windsor back in horrific shape. Turns out raking the frame, wheels, and and decals on the bike with a flat head screwdriver is not enough to make stolen property incognito.
Once returned, I didn't necessarily want or need the bike anymore so I figured I'd see if McCall wanted to paint and put together a townie bike for herself. Since the frame was undersized for me it would be perfect for her! She worked on the design and picked out the Spray.bike colors she wanted and we got to spraying. Afterwards, we assembled the bike with far fewer spare parts that I had this time around, some pieces from the Bicycle Collective, and a new wheelset, saddle, and tires. To this day it is still her go-to around town bike! What a journey.
Specifications
- Frame: 52cm Windsor Wellington 3.0 Aluminum
- Fork: Windsor Wellington Carbon/Alloy
- Wheelset: Prime Alloy Clincher Road
- Drivetrain: Shimano 105 5800 & Sora FD
- Shift & Brake Levers: Shimano 105 5800
- Crankset: Shimano Ultegra 6800 Compact
- Brakes: Shimano 600 "Tri-Color"
- Handlebar: Giant Connect
- Tape: Cinelli Cork
- Stem: Bontrager 90mm
- Seatpost: Bontrager
- Saddle: Selle San Marco Regal
Spray.bike Paint Colors
Space Dust
Space Dust
After converting my formerly single speed Trek Crockett into a geared cyclocross bike, I went looking for a new CX frame that I could run single speed for racing. After some short perusing I found this Giant TCX frame and carbon fork completely stripped of paint to the bare aluminum and carbon that looked perfect! After beginning to start identifying how I wanted to piece it together I was foiled once again by the classified. A complete, disc brake equipped Specialized Crux showed up for less than what I was budgeting for the Giant build. I couldn't resist and once again I had an extra frame to do something with.
Thus I started to once again piece together a SLC Bicycle Collective build. For the paint, I wanted to use the leftover paint from The Windsor project and had extra black and clear coat from the Rhinestone Cowboy. My idea was to do a fade between the purple, teal, and black with the multi-color clear flake topcoat. This one was fun because I just went for it and let it turn out how it was going to turn out. Once I was finished I ran into a problem. There was a coating on the aluminum and carbon that was preventing the paint from adhering. Whoops! At this point I wasn't willing to invest more time into so I warned the person I sold the bike to they'd probably have to strip, sand, and repaint the bike eventually. I'm curious what they ended up doing with it!
Specifications
- Frame: 54cm Giant TCX Aluminum
- Fork: Giant Full Carbon
- Wheelset: Shimano RS11 Clincher
- Tires: Specialized Tracer Pro
- Drivetrain: Shimano Ultegra 6700 & Dura-Ace 7900 FD
- Shift & Brake Levers: Shimano Dura-Ace 7900
- Crankset: Shimano Ultegra 6700 53/29
- Brakes: Unbranded Side-Pull
- Handlebar:
- Tape: Supacaz Purple Fade
- Stem: Bontrager 90mm
- Seatpost: Norco
- Saddle: Cannondale
Spray.bike Paint Colors
Rhinestone Cowboy
Rhinestone Cowboy
As a result of The Windsor being stolen, I was fortunate enough to have insurance replace the bike with this lovely State Bicycle Co. 6061 Black Label. I initially got it in the raw aluminum and promptly started putting stickers all over it. After a couple of years I decided I wanted something different as my daily commuter/around town bike so I decided to remove all the stickers as best I could and sand the frame and fork to prepare for a new Spray.bike finish.
I decided to go simple and go all black on the frame and utilize the Kierin multi-color flake clear coat on the top for a really sharp look. Black always looks good, and rainbow flake clear coats also always look good! For the fork I only did the clear coat as it was already bare carbon. Simple! I sold it and promptly replaced it with yet another fixed gear... The Eye of the Tiger. I guess I'm still a fixie guy for now!
Specifications
- Frame: 6061-Grade Double-Butted Aluminum w/ Tapered Head Tube
- Fork: Full Carbon Fiber Fork & Steer Tube by Essor USA
- Wheelset: Black Label Mid Profile Wheels
- Tires: Continental Gatorskin 700x25c
- Crankset: Black Label Track Crank - 170 mm
- Chain: KMC Z1 Gold
- Cog: All-City 20t
- Brake: Front Caliper Hand Brake
- Handlebar: Wide Riser Bars
- Grips: Vans Grips
- Stem: SBC Black Label Oversized 90mm
- Seatpost: SBC Black Label
- Saddle: SBC Black Label Aerodynamic Race