mollusk

Not really.

I will be presenting my steel bike club credentials soon and I am quite the opposite of OCP.

I just took my 2002 Lemond Zurich frame (Reynolds 853) to the local powder coater because it was getting some rust in a couple of places. Black was the quickest and cheapest so I went that way. I really don't care how it looks as long as it is protected and I can ride the hell out of it. I did some exploratory sanding on the rusty bits to see how bad it was. (Not too bad, thank goodness, but it was bubbling the paint quite severely and would damage the frame if left unchecked.) I almost went the route of just spraying primer over the raw bits, but I knew that the local powder coater has a good rep with sandblasting bike frames with a gentle hand and the cost versus me spending the weekend with finer and finer sandpaper and spraying primer was a no-brainer.

I am obsessive/compulsive (OC, but not P) about drive train noise, however. On my Curtlo (another steelie) I have been trying to track down a metallic "click" for the last couple of weeks. I think that it is the left pedal. Right now I know that it is not the chain ring bolts, chainring flatness or deformation, bottom bracket, crank attachment, seat attachment, seat post/frame interface, FD alignment, FD attachment to the seattube, front and back wheel attachment, or chain. I have also inspected the frame for cracks and have found none. I'll track this down soon.