Reversed Paint Job - Intentionally Aging an Evil Following 11

Those who know me, know I am always picky about keeping my bike nice and in good shape. They also might know that I accidentally ruined some of my friends’ bikes pretty poorly. I finally reached a point where Karma intervened and taught me an important lesson about transitoriness.

Problem Solving 

During my latest trip to Mexico, shuttling some pretty rough roads wore down my relatively fresh- looking bike, and I was considering giving up on my strenuous efforts to keep my bike nice and neat. At this point, I had two options: First, ignoring the fact that my bike gets beaten up by riding hard and often, or second, finding a long-term solution to get me out of this recurring situation. There must be a threshold of wornness I believed I had to pass that my bike would develop a new but unique look based on its battle scars. At this point, I began to consider purposefully scratching my frame with intention. But I thought that my psyche could potentially evolve and provide relief with this idea of de-stressing the original paint job, as opposed to taking the easy way out, and covering it up with a ‘new’ one. This idea had a tiny but essential clue; new scratches would add to the bike’s existing look and let the look further develop during my future adventures.

Getting it Done

In the typical fashion of a do-it-yourself project, I repurposed my living room and turned it into a temporary workshop for the project. After mounting my beaten up frame on the stand, I experimented with different methods to stress the paint job the way I envisioned it. I had to go through several failures with sandpaper to ultimately grab an electric drill tool out of my girlfriend’s nail kit. As it turns out, the drill was the perfect tool to carve accurate and purposeful shapes out of the paint without damaging the underlaying carbon structure.

Almost immediately after I started, panic set in. By situational default, I turned around to ask my girlfriend if she could share some bravery with me and contribute her drilling skills to the project. After completing the first little scratches, we slowly worked our way over the rest of the frame. It took us a few evenings to go back and forth over the frame to match ‘first-stab’ styles to the more refined look of newer ones. A final polish over the whole frame provided a smooth finish by removing any old faded paint, and figuratively gluing the intentional paint by the manufacturer, and the intentional destruction by my own doing.

Looking Back

This project reminded me that complex problems might need to be solved in unconventional ways and that we should embrace the uniqueness that comes with objects as they age. I think this applies to many facets of our lives and all of the ‘things’ that we may possess. I think this project helped me to possess my bike, and not have my bike possess me. Next to the satisfaction I experienced scratching into a gorgeous frame, I also achieved to emphasize the inscribed history of my bike through its distressed finish. Although the process was terrifying at moments, discovering the value of aging helped me breathe soul back into my bike and came with a surprising amount of personal development. Cheers!

Bike Check

• Frame: Evil Following V3
• Fork: RockShox Pike Ultimate 140mm Shock: Push ElevenSix Coil
• Headset: Works Components -1.0 Stem: Spank Split 38mm
• Bar: Spank Spike 25mm
• Grips: SQlab 60X
• Brakes: Magura MT7 Chrome
• Rotors: Magura Storm HC 203/180 Seatpost: Magura Vyron
• Saddle: SQlab 612 Ergowave Derailleur: Shimano XT
• Shifter: Shimano XTR
• Chain: Shimano XTR
• Cassette: Shimano XTR
• Wheels: Spank 350 Wheelset
• Tires: Maxxis Minion DHR2 2.4WT
• Cranks: E*Thirteen LG1 Race Carbon 165mm
• Pedals: Spank Oozy Reboot

Design, pictures, editing, and words by Moritz Brüggemann supported Sync Workshop & Schmott Studios
Special thanks to Amelia Marek

Warning! The featured methods can damage the supporting frame structure and lead to material failure. Coating manipulation should only be performed by professionals. Purposefully damaging the frame will end the product warranty, and I do not advise it!