haighter

I'm in the market for a new road bike. I've been all over the San Francisco LBS circuit and I've come away with no new bike and something of an annoyance: it seems all new road bikes are horrendously over-badged.

I started my search with the 'dale CAAD 9, having started riding on an '87 Cannondale. I couldn't get over the egregious use of the Cannnondale brand all over the frame. I then saw a Gary Fisher with solid components but that had even worse use of graphics and badging - thing almost looked like an Ed Hardy t-shirt or something. Anyways, you can see where this is going.

I know a bike should be mostly about the ride, but I also have to like looking at something that I just invested $1000 or more into. Bikes from the 80's and 90's seemed to have cleaner lines and a lot less "noise" in the design department.


Am I alone in this thought? I imagine not, but someone is getting paid to design these bikes and I can't imagine why they would manufacture some of these monstrosities. We need to go back to the good old days when a Cannondale was only badged on the top tube and headtube, with maybe a "Made in the USA" near the chain stays.

Flatballer

Pedal Force has just plain carbon fiber.

Many semi-custom manufacturers (Jake Kane bikes for example) will do whatever paint/logos you do or don't want.

But yeah, I agree. It's getting a little ridiculous. I want to look at the lines of the bike, not 18 huge logos everywhere.

Sonoma76

side note: I'm really impressed with the bike fit calculator on Pedal Force's website. Right Click-->Add to Favorites

Flatballer

No kidding. I discovered that the other day, very thorough, seems quite accurate.

pgaulrapp

You could always budget for the cost of a repaint into the total of what you're willing to spend.

Or buy a frame and build it up.

And if some of it is just stickers, you could just take a hair dryer at its hottest setting to them, and they'll peel right off.

bigtea

Buy ti....peel off the decals. I did that to my 2004 Firenze and the Fulcrum wheels on it...pure gray stealth.

ManWithNoName

Totally agreed. I ride a Surly, which is relatively plain to start with and I still scraped off about half the decals with a credit card.

trelhak

Bikes from the 1980's may have had smaller decals, but you can't say they weren't as garish.
Look at these tiny decals.

Creakyknees

the OP nailed it with the "Ed Hardy" comment... that's just the fashion these days.

wait a while, it'll change.

cccorlew

Orbea may be the champ in the number of times the name appears on the frame. I think I counted 13 on my friends.
Seems excessive.

Little Darwin

I don't know the bike, but 13 makes sense.

2 - one for each blade of the fork
2 - one on each side of the seat tube
2 - one on each side of the top tube
2 - one on each side of the down tube
2 - one on each chain stay
2 - one on each seat stay
1 - head badge
===========================
13 - Total

I'm surprised they missed the brake bridge.

kwrides

Actually, the new Treks have 2 on each side of the down tube, which adds 2 to make the total 15!


and Orbeas now have 2 on each side of the down tube and forks, so that actually adds 4 to make the total 17!!!






The CAAD9's look bare compared to this if you ask me. And yes, that Fish does look Ed Hardy

trelhak

I used to own a Gios V107. That one had two 'Gios' on either side of the three main tubes, one on the back of the seat tube, one each on all four stays, one on the sides of the fork blades, one on the fronts of the fork blades, and the headbadge.

Nevermind that it was painted in a color called 'Gios blue' that everyone recognizes anyway.

It stands in stark contrast to the Japanese style, which generally doesn't use a lot of decals. Nagasawa's standard style has a name on either side of the downtube and the badge on the headtube and the front of the toptube.

fatallightning

Sourpuss Magee

I think Specialized's Tarmac is somewhere around 26!

botto 

please tell me that's not your bike.

cuda2k

Please for the love of all that is cycling, someone put a real group back on that bike. C-Record or late Super Record would suffice, but I'd let a modern 10sp group slide as well just for functionalities sake.

----------------------------

As a general rule, I try to avoid bikes that have the brand name on the frame more than 4 times per side of the bike. My fuji has the words 'fuji' real small in a fade pattern on the seat tube, but that's not really distracting to the eye in my opinion.

dna59

Yea I agree with them being overly decal'd. They take away from the beauty of the frame. MY OCR isn't bad at all, but when I got it I peeled off as much as I could and those under the clearcoat will be off when I repaint and I will only replace the Giant on the downtube.

botto 

hey 99er, record or chorus works as well.

cuda2k

Sorry, you're about 6 years too early there with the 99'er comment. But yes, circa 90 Record or Chorus groups would work as well. I was still probably riding my K-mart special mtb when Lemond was winning the TdF.

eMwolB

If you lined up several of the top selling bikes...all painted one solid color without decals or badges, would you know the brand by looking at it? Not me. I am not a fan of newer bike graphics.

voltman

You wouldn't be able to tell a Trek Madone from a Cervelo S2 from a Colnago C50?

bonechilling

The new 2010 Cannondale CAAD9 will have an all-black option. That is, a black logo on a black frame. According to my C'dale rep, they expect it to be their best selling bike this season.

zott28

Haighter,
I'm down with less graphics too. There is a guy in Santa Cruz that will media blast a bike for $50. He can do any material. He took the bad paint off of my litespeed while I waited. I'm not sure what you'd need to do to carbon if it's raw, maybe a light coat of clear, steel would need to be repainted, but Aluminum and Ti can stay raw with little maintenance.

brianappleby

if you get a metal bike, you can powdercoat it for around $100, add another $50 if the fork needs to be done.

Carbon costs closer to $300-500 to repaint, because the paint removal process is more delicate, and you can't powdercoat carbon.

Or you could suck it up and just get the bike that rides the best.... we all look like idiots to the general public anyway, running around in spandex with googly eyed sunglasses. Seriously, who are you trying to impress?