Team Estrogen Bike design

I thought I would start this thread to document the build up of a bike I am building for my wife. We have been together for over 10 yrs and have been riding for a few years.

She has outgrown her current Trek 2200
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/4...ek2200pink.jpg

So for her B-day in Aug, I am having a Trek Madone custom painted and I wanted to incorporate the TE logo, name, and byline into the frame.

TE has been very generous and provided me with the vector artwork to do this. :)

I have a friend that is a graphics design artist...but I would like to hear some ideas from the TE members. IE where should the logos go, the by line 'Where Style Meets the Road and of course TE.com, paint ideas, etc.

Here is a cpl of designs my wife has commented on...but I am open to all ideas!

http://velonews.competitor.com/files...2/P2030057.JPG

http://www.citybikesonline.com/media.../g/bg2_1_2.jpg

There is about a 2-3 month production lead time for the stripping, painting and shipping and then I do the build up....which is why I am starting so early on this.
Thanks in advance for any feedback!
-Mark

Looking at the old bike's set up....just checking to see if you have planned to order the H3 version of the Madone in order to accommodate that riding position.
Beyond that...Sounds like a really nice gift. :)

Is this a surprise?

Oh, you're good!

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Originally Posted by Seajay

Looking at the old bike's set up....just checking to see if you have planned to order the H3 version of the Madone in order to accommodate that riding position.
Beyond that...Sounds like a really nice gift. :)

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Edit: sry its the 2010 wsd, not the 2011 H3.

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Originally Posted by Bike Chick

Is this a surprise?

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No. I surprised her with the original Trek because I knew she wanted it..but with the custom paint..I didnt think that was a good idea. :)

is she on team estrogen? ('cause I assume the paint job isn't a surprise if she's a normal forum member...) If she's not a normal forum member, I wonder why she'd want the logo?

I am a forum member, and I'm pretty sure I'd never custom paint a bike with the team estrogen logos :) Especially not a bike that costs as much as a madone.

But if you're sure she'll like it.. and that she really likes pink that much, go for it!

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Originally Posted by Cataboo

is she on team estrogen? ('cause I assume the paint job isn't a surprise if she's a normal forum member...) If she's not a normal forum member, I wonder why she'd want the logo?

I am a forum member, and I'm pretty sure I'd never custom paint a bike with the team estrogen logos :) Especially not a bike that costs as much as a madone.

But if you're sure she'll like it.. and that she really likes pink that much, go for it!

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She is not a forum person...forums are not really her thing...but buying from the TE shop is.
The original idea was the Diva..but she is too tall for that frame. The madone frame was almost half the cost. Im going to build it up with the ultegra takeoffs from my Van Dessel rivet.

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Originally Posted by markymark

No. I surprised her with the original Trek because I knew she wanted it..but with the custom paint..I didnt think that was a good idea. :)

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Smart. That's why I asked. If DH was sweet enough to buy me the bike, I would want to decide what paint job I wanted. TE is one of my favorite places on the web but I don't think I would want the logo on my bike but that's just my opinion.

What does your wife want?

+1 on the wishes of the wife and making sure she would want the site logos, etc.

I like the Orbea paint myself, the heavier mix of black in with the pink/white, but that's just me. Your wife isn't shy about the pink for sure, that clear from the first Trek, but I'd still want a little darker color on the bottom so the dirt didn't show quite as much. See how that Madone got really dirty around the BB. I'm sure that area would be really hard to clean and if you have a paint job like that, you want it to sparkle, just my two cents would be to keep white away from the crank and bottom bracket.

A bike that nice being dirty would bother me :)

Shannon

Interesting feedback...so the general consensus would be custom paint, w/o TE logos...

This all originated because Trek will not sell their decals and the frame is getting painted no matter what and she didnt want to leave the frame blank.

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Originally Posted by Bike Chick

What does your wife want?

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If she had her way...the Orbea Diva, but she is too tall for the bike. We had a local shop try to fit it, but the stem reach made the bike unstable on downhill runs. We live a few miles from Skyline Drive and hill climb/descents are mandatory.

I got a good deal on the madone frame and she wants some pink in the frame, but not as much as her Trek 2200 (which is a stock Trek color they offered in 2006 for the Breast Cancer initiative).

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Originally Posted by markymark

Interesting feedback...so the general consensus would be custom paint, w/o TE logos...

This all originated because Trek will not sell their decals and the frame is getting painted no matter what and she didnt want to leave the frame blank.

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If she doesn't want the logo, what about a favorite phrase or a name for the bike? There are many ways to personalize the paint. Personally I would rather have nothing than a commercial logo - but we all have different tastes. For my custom bike I had to resist the urge to have my name for the bike painted on it :o

Does anyone remember who posted the thread where her boyfriend had surprised her with a custom painted specialized ruby for christmas? I guess it was the christmas before last, but it was a gorgeous sparkly pink and had her forum name or nickname down the top tube.

That might be a good thread to find for Markymark to get ideas.

I mean, the team estrogen logo up in the top corner of the screen is nice, just that swirly thing, so that's not bad to put on there... I just wouldn't put teamestrogen.com or where style meets the road on there.

But I love shopping at TE, I love shopping at REI or at Amazon or at steepandcheap. But I totally am not going to get any of my gear painted with their logos or trademarks. Steepandcheap/backcountry.com has a stylized ram trademark that when they send me the sticker, I'm happy enough sticking it on my bike tray or something like that 'cause I like the sticker.

But that's me, I'm not huge on logos. But Markymark knows his wife better than we do, so maybe she would really like having the TE logos and such on her bike.

Markymark, if you can check out lunacycles's blog or home page, she makes custom steel bikes and many of them have gorgeous custom paint jobs. That might give you some ideas as well. If you look up her user name, there will probably be a link to her blog or name.

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Originally Posted by markymark

This all originated because Trek will not sell their decals and the frame is getting painted no matter what and she didnt want to leave the frame blank.

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Did you check eBay? Search Trek decal. Lots of decal sets come up. I had a bike custom painted and got a decal set from the manufacturer. I liked it because I got to put the decals where I wanted -- and to leave some off!