[Tenacious Doug]

Just on the most important part of my new bike choice.......colour! Trying to decide between white or matte black powdercoat or translucent blue for my V10.....all of them will look good however I have always creamed my pants over the translucent blue paint job BUT have heard it can be more easily worn than the standard colours. I would rather have a more basic colour if it is going to stand up better to scrapes and scuffs.......especially the annoying scuffs from pedal strokes from my big thighs

Anys with experience?

 

[DRB]

Santa Cruz paint sucks. Its coming off with the slightest excuse.

I will say that it is improved on my Heckler but my 1 year old bike has 5 year old paint. By the way mine is the trans blue....

 

[Freak]

We put clear MX protectant film on Velocity Girls old V-10 (trans-blue) over the top tube to protect it from the pedal scrapes you're talking. It did a good job.

 

[Castle]

first..... santa cruz discontinued there matte finish's and replaced them with gloss, so the black would be a gloss black......

if you go to your local MX shop you can snag Moto number plate protectant and cut it to size it's a 3M product....... make sure you get clear becaues it comes in colors....

 

[Mackie]

Originally posted by Tenacious Doug
matte black powdercoat

I think that they scrapped the matte colors for 04. Perhaps they will be back for 05.
Something about the stickers not sticking to the finish.....

 

[JRogers]

Hmmm... Not sure how the trans colors hold up. All that I have seen looked good, though. I owned a regular red Bullit a while ago (bought in 99 or 2000 maybe?) and the paint held up simply okay. Not great, not terrible. Last season I got a white one and the paint looked thrashed after less than a season on it. The slightest cable run, scrape or anything just seemed to take it off. There were places that got some cable rub that I didn't cover and the paint literally flaked off. Anyways, I don't see how a trans paintjob could be any worse. I'd go for that.

 

[jimmydean]

If the powder gets a dull look to it, you can use a non-abrasive car polish (Something that says it's safe for clearcoat finishes) and buff the finish to shine again. You can scratch powder, but it doesn't chip if it's applied right. SC does a good job with the powder, but it is a little lighter (thinner) than others.

Karpiel double, even tripple coats. That is some of the thickest powder I have ever seen on ANYTHING.

 

[Dingus McGee]

SC powder has alway sucked. But then all paintjobs get ratty .
I like scratches and don't understand people who buy a color based on it's perceived resistance to scratching or scuffing. I always detune my gloss frames with 0000 or 00000 steel wool anyway.

Oh and 'up yer kilt' -ya distant relative.

 

[buildyourown]

I have a trans blue S8 and the finish looks pretty decent after 4 years. It loses that glow after awhile and kinda just lokks navy blue now. The swingarm is trans gold (warranty) and it still looks good after 2.5 years. That would be my vote. My new bike is white. It looks great, until you work on it for 15 min and get greasy finger prints all over it.

 

[BRacing]

the only SC paint that holds up well is a fully polished bike. As it dulls and scratches, you just rub it with "Mothers Mag Polish" or "Brasso" and it looks brand new again.

I've had 4 SC bikes, and polished is the only one that looked good after a year.

-B

 

[HGR Frucci]

Here's my gloss gray that showed just showed up yesterday. I was hoping for Trans Red, but it wasn't available, so I took first my second choice...

It looks really nice - but hey, its going to get scratched. If its not, you're not riding it.

Ride it now, and just spend the $150 next season to get it re-done if you like...