Rebirth: Painting the Ribble

I didn’t spend much time in January when I saw a call from GriN that he was looking for bikes to paint. I dialed and as they say, the rest is history.

GriN has been painting bikes for a long time. He switched from cars to bicycles and practically paints all kinds of bikes, not just to any standard. I regularly saw more beautiful finished paintings on his Insta account. Don’t think of it like you’re give the bike and he sprays something on it. No. You take the bike to him, he completely grind it to the basics, and then builds it all up, layer by layer. Since this article is about my bike going through such a process, I think I can rightly say: a “large-scale” factory painting can hide behind these works.

I have a Ribble cgr sl, which is an allaround bike, it has a geometry between gravel and road, it really is a real all-rounder. The factory paint wasn’t bad, but I never really liked it. And as I bought it used, it was not in perfect condition. And I used it less, I thought let’s see how it will be repainted.

I called GriN, we talked a few times, then many more times, sometimes for hours, about what my idea was, what he thought, I tried to forced mine (one-color orange), and he suggested, showed a lot of colors, sometimes there was too much information what I got about the possible colors (the number of possibilities is practically endless). In the end we stayed what he suggested: a purple flip color on a purple base. The characteristic of this color is that although the base color is purple, there are two secondary colors: a willow green and a golden brown, which appear next to the original coloring. You see these colors on the bike depending on how the light falls on it. I think this is called a cameo color.

The truth is that I’ve never been a fan of these “it depends on what color it is and where you look at it” type of colors, I prefer simpler colors (one of my bikes is matte black, the other is glossy black 🙂 but the pattern that he shown, completely mesmerized. I thought we’d give it a try. If it comes in, then for the next bike I will choose to the simpler color. There will also be a spicky like this, it will fit.

We discussed the matter, GriN took the bike. Then the work began. The work that took months. I took the bike in January, we talked about the beginning of April, then it turned out to be the end of May. Sometimes I have not time to it, there was also an unaccounted repair, but the point is that this is not a 1-2 week work. I think 1 – 1.5 months: sanding, more sanding, carbon repair, base, drying, more base, drying, painting, drying, sample painting, drying, varnishing, drying, sanding and slowly it was ready 🙂

When I first saw it I couldn’t believe that the frame could be so beautiful. It was so diversely sparkling and lively. As I wrote, the bike basically has three colors, depending on how the light falls on it. Since the bike’s tubes have a sharp edges, you can see three colors at once. Basically no single color dominates, sometimes you see all of them, sometimes only one, sometimes three at the same time on one tube. The label is a hologram, it’s a shiny thing (sorry, GriN :-), very – very nice and not so noticeable on the bike, and the patterns match the image of Ribble. By the way, I look at it since then, it wasn’t even purple that became his most beautiful color, but golden brown. I see it as the most beautiful. But the purple got me. Very interesting. The quality of the painting was of course perfect. One of GriN’s characteristics is that he is a maximalist, so he does not release anything that is not perfect.

And since the first question of everyone who sees and knows this is, OK, it’s nice, but how much did it all cost: GriN makes a bicycle at a unique price, since the situation is different with each one, there is a different amount of work, mine cost HUF 300,000. Everyone can decide whether this is a lot or not, it is a subjective question.

If we look at it objectively (currently, what do you get for that much money in the bicycle industry, how much does it cost), I can safely say that it is not expensive and worth it. Of course this won’t make it easier to ride and I won’t go faster with it. But if we look at what really is a bycicle? What is the first thing you see and look at on a bike? What gives the essence of bikes? Not the wheel and not the groupset. Nobody sees them, doesn’t care, doesn’t even understand them. The bicycle is the frame.

And for that money I got a new bike. On the one hand, he completely sanded the frame, so the carbon defects became visible. Unfortunately there was a crack in a sensitive area (I didn’t even know about it!), he make repair it with a carbonman. The frame was properly base, varnished and turned out exactly the way I wanted it (okay, the way He wanted it, but in the end I really like it 🙂 So I got a totally new frame for that much money. AAnd it’s just luck that this Ribble frame is already made of very good carbon (1000).

Overall I’m happy with the whole project. It turned out much nicer than I expected. I think that GriN’s work is not painting but art. I strongly recommend him!

If you want to start a project, look for GriN! You can find him on Facebook and Instagram. Some good advice:

1. It will take a long time, but don’t be impatient, it will be ready! Good work takes time.
2. GriN can talk a lot, like everyone who knows his profession and loves it. During the project you will understand why this is.
3. Have an idea when you give him your bike, because then He will faster, but you might be better if you let him talk you into the color he suggests (it will be a flip, because he loves to paint it).
4. Accept that he can see the finished painting better than you from the beginning. He’s better knows it, if he suggests something, accept it! But you can also stick to your ideas, he will do that too. In fact, you should have some imagination.

Photo credit: GriN