painting bike frames

"Haakon Studebaker" wrote: (clip) Is it very difficult to paint an aluminum
bike frame? (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Is it shiny bare aluminum or painted now? If it is bare aluminum, I would
sand it lightly, and spray it with a good metal primer. If it's painted, I
would sand it lightly to get rid of any gloss and then spray paint it.
Giving it a distinctive, easily identified appearance, without making it
look garish will be up to you.

You will need to remove or mask all the parts that are not to be painted.
Definitely take the wheels and seat/seatpost off. Probably best to take
off the cranks, chainrings, stem and all the handlebar stuff. From there
on, it probably depends on how competent you feel about reinstalling things
like brakes and deraileur.

You can probably do a whole frame with one spray can, but you want to create
a design, so you will need a can for each color. And a roll of masking
tape.

Most people don't know the proper technique for spray painting--they hold
the button down and wave the can back and forth. The proper technique is to
start the spray at the same time you start the sweeping motion, and stop the
spray at the end of each stroke.

Painting your bike a special color will not keep it from getting stolen.

In Portland Oregon, the local bicycle group placed 40-50 bright yellow bikes
around the city for people to use and leave for the next person.
They had all disappeared within a couple of weeks. A stolen bike can be
painted.

"Haakon Studebaker" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Is it very difficult to paint an aluminum bike frame? I'm thinking of
painting my bike something to make it stand out should this bike get
stolen. I'd like to do something a bit more lasting and artistic than
spraypainting it pink in random places.