Santa Cruz Bikes

More Shiny, More Tough

"We could probably do a real good job of representing how monumentally awesome this clear coat will be, get some mad studio shots, polish them in photoshop, and just go over the top in making these glossier than lipstick on a hooker. But it's the last couple hours before we break for xmas, and all we managed to get together was this kinda blurry shot taken by someone we suspect to be under the influence. Even still, you can see that the new clear coat (left) makes things brighter and more shiny. It's a good thing, really. You'll dig it. And we promise to spring some better photos on the blog once we get our noses back to the grindstone in January.."

Another thing we've been wrestling with for a while now has been getting around to applying clear coats on top of our powdercoat finish. Done right, this will make our final product tougher, longer lasting and more lustrous. All good things. But not as easy to do as you might think.
Frames have to be prepped, sprayed, baked, let cool, then sprayed again, then baked again. This ends up increasing the time and complexity involved in running frames through Victor's capable hands, and in this case it meant we had to buy a new bake oven and then figure out where the hell to put the thing. But it is done, almost all wired up, and you should expect to see a subtle shift in the finish of the bikes coming out of here, starting about now.