Jixr

I have a bike that i'm starting to think is fully chromed.

( not an old bike but i figured you guys would know this kinda stuff best )

the fork tips and dropouts are chromed, a few nicks in the chain, seat, and bottom bracket tubes show chrome, but the back end of the bike could be just dipped and the rest painted.

Is there any good way to maybe do a little spot check on some of the other parts of the frame to see if its chrome?
( I was thinking seeing if I can poke a small hole in the paint with a needle or something )

I love the look of old bikes with the paint worn out and chrome exposed, and if i find my bike is like that, i'd just beat on it and not worry about trying to keep the paint pretty and over time to get that look.

Andy_K 

I don't know a good way to be certain that the entire frame is chromed, but I believe that if the frame is painted then there had to be at least some roughness to the chrome. Sometimes this is minimal and the bare chrome still looks beautiful. Other times it looks like someone took sandpaper to your chrome frame. Other than reputation of a particular frame I don't know if there is a reliable way to know which of these you'd have even if you did know it was all chrome.

zukahn1 

A couple of ways to check without screwing with the paint or finish are to pull the fork and bb and clean stuff up if it is indeed full chrome you should likely be able to see some chrome under the paint. This will also allow you an opportunity to service the bearings and inspect the inside of the frame for issues like rust, since the bike likely needs service inspection this kills two birds with one stone. Also if you send us some good pics of the bike someone here will likely know if it's full chrome under or just silver colored under coat with colored over which was common on 60's and 70's bikes.

Vintage Raleigh

Some older bikes were partially chromed as the process allowed it.
The less toxic newer process, I believe only allows for full chrome.
A fully chromed frame will have the exposed areas polished to high gloss, the unpolished areas elsewhere will be a rough undercoat grey.

Jixr

Well the bike is actually a modern 2011 bianchi pista.

But, mine is in a rare color scheme. Most of the pista's that are painted are fully painted without the exposed chrome tips mine has, and that same year they sold a fully chrome one, so i'm kinda hoping that from the factory they were all chromed, and then the select ones were painted. No idea for sure though

Vintage Raleigh

Hard to say. I do know though that paint doesn't take too well to polished chrome.
Are you wondering if it's fully chromed and polished?
If so any paint chips would expose the polished chrome underneath I'm guessing.

Andy_K 

Here is a picture that illustrates what I was talking about above. I've got a Pinarello Montello that originally had chrome stays with the rest of the frame painted but chrome underneath. An owner before me had the paint stripped. This one is fairly smooth, but you can still see that it's unpolished if you look close enough.



Notice how the seat stays are nicely polished but the other tubes have a brushed metal look. That actually looks pretty nice from a few feet away. However, there's no guarantee that you'll get that look if you strip your paint/powder. I've seen another Italian frame with the paint stripped away that just looked dull and scratched.