jdawginsc 

Black saddle and bar tape, Pink or matching cables.

Or brown saddle and matching tape, and white cabling...

merziac

Sorry, not on this, no effin way, period.

Erzulis Boat 

It's a blue bike. Changing the color is just like not eating your brussel sprouts........."Kids are starving in India". Eat your damn sprouts.

smd4

If it was my bike (but in a different color) I’d repaint it blue just to spite you!

Reynolds 

Looks like that frame was too small for the owner. Maybe he had the pump and ordered frame size to match it too?

BMC_Kid 

My Tesch S-22 was a hideous neon green. I like red. It’s red now.

chain_whipped

Open ended topic and some with heavy passion, respectfully you're a good caretaker.

You're also, the end user. Face reality. Though some frame builders and painters don't always like the final product or 'flavor' yet out the door it goes. Some may even admit or question why they did 'this' or 'that'. Patience and dealing with a client specifics can be another entire topic.

Change it and make it want you want, its just a bike.

repechage

‘Dave did make some outrageous color choices for that model. Mine is neon pink.

BMC_Kid 

Yeah, tastes evolve. If doing it today, I might keep that frame as it was made originally but back 10 years ago when I repainted the frame, I just couldn't do it.

Also, that frame had been well-used, and even if I were GTG with the color, the perfectionist that I am, I probably would have still repainted it.

panzerwagon 

Subdue the blue metallizzato with a combo of skinwall tyres, stitched handlebar hyde and leather saddle in similar shade of brown. Stainless bottle cage.

This blue is spectacular to me, but totally get that tastes are personal. If the decal colors were yellow, I’d be looking for masi yellow benotto tape (wrapped over white cotton).

Too bad ergos never came with a gum hood option... or did they?

Trakhak

Back when Proteus was building custom-order bikes in College Park, MD, we'd get guys coming into our shop in Baltimore from time to time with one of those bikes. Some of the frame/head tube/panel paint schemes looked as if the guy who ordered the bike told the painter to just pick two or three M&Ms out of a bag at random.

bikingshearer 

My Eroica/Cino compliant (but not period correct) mid-1960s SC is that exact color. It's not my favorite shade of blue, and the finish is beat up enough to justify a respray should I feel so inclined. But I've never hated the color and I've kind of gotten used to it. Again, not my favorite, but I don't dislike the color $700+/- worth that the respray would set me back. If I were to get it repainted, it would be solely for frame preservation purposes (and I might go dusty rose), but at this point I doubt if I will. The patina has its attractions.

Cool Model B, BTW. The paint on yours looks to be in pretty good shape - better than on mine.

Lamont Cobb

If a bike came from Portland, I would be more concerned about rust (if the bike was ridden in the rain a lot) than the color.

merziac

First of all this bike has zero rust that we can see so far and being a custom from one of the best builders was obviously well taken care of.

Merz, Newlands and DiNucci were all well aware of the rain factor being from here and went to great lengths to mitigate it, Merz used a zinc chromate dip, industrial primer and Imron paint for some of the best state of the art paint in the business as did the others.

I have several bikes from here and none have any real rust issues 50 years later.

PDX and the PNW have been a mecca/epicenter for custom frames for a long time, the quality of the frames and their owners rarely lets rain/rust ever become a problem.

Being newer here, I would encourage more thoughtful consideration before weighing in on something we are very passionate about.

I can assure you that even on the rare occasion that one of these is in rough shape that this is the place where we sort it out and get it turned around.

Many here are expert rock stars and relish the opportunity to save them.

satbuilder 

I have a Proteus frame out in the shop that sort of fits that description. It’s sort of tan with a sky blue head tube.

Not very attractive, but it’s a well built frame. It’s a bit too big for me, so I’ll be moving it on soon

daka

Based on some of the work I've done at the Bike Exchange I'd say longevity of the paint/finish can be a challenge for very small builders who don't have or can't access the capitol equipment required for chemical dip-type surface treatment and prep before paint. I rebuilt a Boone McReynolds frame recently that had a lot of touch-up already performed and rust bubbles appearing here and there (not just on the top tube where sweat falls). It looked to me like Imron paint that had been applied perhaps even directly on the bare metal - I couldn't find evidence of a phosphate coating or primer where the paint was coming up. The paint adhesion just wasn't very good. It's a shame too, because all of the skilled work at the brazed joints and the thinning of lugs was otherwise exemplary. As you mention with respect the Merz frames, not all small builders have this issue - I rebuilt an Ed Litton bike of a similar age about a year earlier and the finish on that bike was far more robust and consequently in much better shape.

georges1

Lovely bike It is a mix of Campy Record, Sachs New Success and Dura Ace 7410 equipment. The shifters are campy and the read derailleur is a typical Sachs New Success derailleur

georges1

I always pick carefully my bikes, never had such a mishap.

merziac

Agreed, Mark worked for Jim for awhile after leaving Strawberry that also had very good paint for the time and was well aware of the challenges, this paint is reported by Mark to be original Joe Bell and appears to be be in very good shape from here.

Regardless, it would be a shame to change it for any reason unless there is rust, corrosion or something bad we're not seeing, that seems to not be the case.

All my Merz's have original paint and are all in good shape all things considered.

merziac

Finding such a bike in this condition let alone at all is never a mishap IMO, you get what you get when they show up, DiNucci's are so scarce on the ground that I have only seen 1 in real life and only know of 4-5 others, I have 2 Strawberry's that Mark built and they are almost as rare, I was very lucky.

I would buy any DiNucci that showed up regardless of size, color or condition if I could, especially with it being the only PDX triad builder that I don't have yet.

Not holding my breath at this point.

georges1

I know that you have rare bikes Merziac,l I have some rarities as well . One that I bought despite being a much smaller size than what I usually ride, the CT Wallis in Reynolds 731OS, another one was the Grandis Overmax (never seen one like it in my country), Vetta Team built by Billato (extremely rare and very low production frame set in Deda Zero 18MCDV6HTtubing, never seen one in my country), Fausto Coppi Lugano by Maschiaghi (Mega Genius tubing) very scarce, also the Daccordi Fly (with Altec Or custom tubing) which was produced to very small numbers (never seen one identical before) and the Veneto Art Decor (Altec2 tubing) never seen one in ten years. I buy uncommon road bikes either because of the tubing or the fact that they were custom made. I also have high end mass production road bikes that are of excellent quality as well. Yet, I have rarely seen the streets or in the nearby neighborhood a Pinarello Stelvio , a Cannondale CAAD4, a Peugeot Prestige 708 or a Raleigh Team Z in Reynolds 753. They have become rarities over the years. Though I know that there are some serious collectors who might have these frames or these bikes but I have never seen them. Most of people who are into expensive bikes, I see ride carbon bikes, sometimes titanium and very few ride steel frames. I don't have anymore space for other bike projects because I have reached the maximum number of bike projects my garage space allows me. I am now focused on finishing all my road bike projects and buy the maximum of Dura Ace 7800 spare parts, selle Italia saddles and Look pedals.Once it will be done, I will enjoy them.

mhespenheide 

On the one hand, it sounds like you already have a DiNucci, it just has a company name on it rather than his own name. On the other hand ... he's still building, right?

merziac

Yes and no, he reportedly has a backlog he's working on so not sure about getting a new one which would be amazing needless to say and out of the question now.

He was on the short list when I built the new Strawberry but I didn't really have an in and was happy to have it be hands on right here in PDX.

I do have 2 he built and another that he designed and has his DNA but an original by him is a goal as a separate thing altogether, an original standalone.

Not very likely at this point but you never know.

systemBuilder

Well, the paint would only be original once, and the downtube decal is pretty cool. I would strip all the blue parts (maybe you can just strip the blue anodizing layer off the rims with lye / oven cleaner), and if it's still too blue for you, perhaps you can have someone paint some panels on the bike ... give it a 70's vibe .. 1974 raleigh gran sport ...



One of my favorite paint jobs of all time is red with these asymmetric panels :