- Joined
- Jun 3, 2015
- Messages
- 1,024
- Location
- Nashville TN
I am, personally, unquestionably a purist when it comes to carbon fiber. My wife has a running joke - she always whispers the words "carbon fiber" in this sarcastically reverent tone.
But I also hate passing judgement onto others. I would personally never hydrodip carbon film, but it's a damned clever idea and beats the pants off of covering things with 3M DiNoc carbon-look vinyl, although some people do that as well and you know what? that's fine. The pieces the OP did, I've been kicking around the idea of powder coating them black this winter.
99.9% of people won't be able to tell the difference unless looking at it very, very closely.
Re: LEDs. I thought it was the stupidest thing ever. Then I saw a few installations, where it just lit the ground. Made the bike look like it was floating on light while rolling at night. VERY cool effect. Furthermore, you never miss seeing a bike with LEDs. At night, if a car hits a bike with LEDs, they are so drunk they're blinder than Stevie Wonder. And getting hit by cars sucks. Hell, I used to wear hi-viz yellow.
I'll end with this. My wife recently purchased a couple of Chanel handbags. Those things cost STUPID money - total bill could have bought a brand new Ducati Scrambler with a Termi. They make really great fake handbags that are extremely difficult to tell apart from the real thing. So why spend so much? She said "because *I* would know it's fake". It is this mutual understanding that got me permission to blow a ton of money on real carbon fiber for my bike.
So you have to dissociate appearance from personally caring if it's real or fake. I'll tell you this - not caring if it's real saves you a LOT of money. And in the end, creative thinking and doing what one wants with their own bike wins.
But I also hate passing judgement onto others. I would personally never hydrodip carbon film, but it's a damned clever idea and beats the pants off of covering things with 3M DiNoc carbon-look vinyl, although some people do that as well and you know what? that's fine. The pieces the OP did, I've been kicking around the idea of powder coating them black this winter.
99.9% of people won't be able to tell the difference unless looking at it very, very closely.
Re: LEDs. I thought it was the stupidest thing ever. Then I saw a few installations, where it just lit the ground. Made the bike look like it was floating on light while rolling at night. VERY cool effect. Furthermore, you never miss seeing a bike with LEDs. At night, if a car hits a bike with LEDs, they are so drunk they're blinder than Stevie Wonder. And getting hit by cars sucks. Hell, I used to wear hi-viz yellow.
I'll end with this. My wife recently purchased a couple of Chanel handbags. Those things cost STUPID money - total bill could have bought a brand new Ducati Scrambler with a Termi. They make really great fake handbags that are extremely difficult to tell apart from the real thing. So why spend so much? She said "because *I* would know it's fake". It is this mutual understanding that got me permission to blow a ton of money on real carbon fiber for my bike.
So you have to dissociate appearance from personally caring if it's real or fake. I'll tell you this - not caring if it's real saves you a LOT of money. And in the end, creative thinking and doing what one wants with their own bike wins.