Trek Madone Carbon?

billsbike said:

Hi, Just curious and would like to get some feedback.
I found a Trek madone in the store on sale, good price and I go to test ride it and it's a Project one paint job, one that I can live with due to the price of the bike. But the front section is painted in what they must call (Pearl Carbon) and the paint looks real thin it's metallic gray, so there's this DARK SPOT on the top tube (it's on the side of the tube). It drove me nuts. It literally stopped me from buying the bike, because the rest of the bike is mint! Am I nuts to let this bother me? I figure maybe I should wait or do some more shopping. It must be the that the raw carbon has a dark spot in it.? I know carbon or raw carbon as trek must use it isn't going to be perfect but the rest of the bike is nice, why does there have to be this quarter size spot on the side of the top tube that you can see from 50 feet away. Well just had to share this. There was another in the store and the paint job was terrible! The fork had all kinds of scratches in it and there where spots in the paint, oh well. Should I consider a Colagno? 😕

I emailed Trek and asked them what this could be. They responded quickly and said "It wouldn't be the carbon, it's the paint job, thats why it's on sale." It was a (project one) bike, so I wouldn't be suprised if the stores get some of their not so good paint jobs.