Would I be mad not go for a barber's pole if getting a Mercian?

[amedias]

I've had a few Mercians, and still have 2 of them, but never had one with a barbers pole, part of me would like to and part of me thinks the novelty would wear off fairly quickly.

Normally I'm a 'colour and contrast' fan with headtube and a matching panel on the seatube (or a few stripes), but funnily the Mercian I had with the most boring paintjob No 35. (Bianchi Blue enamel with white lug lining) is the one I now miss the most. It was basic but appealing and allowed the frame and components to each add their own aspects but without distracting you with fancy panels and whatnot.

But as people have said above, aesthetics are all subjective...

[Oxford_Guy]

never been a fan of the barber shop pole thing, I had white banding on the BJ. Barber shop seems odd, as it never starts and never finishes, BUT if it could be made to rotate!! ah, but thats just silly.
100_1761_zps86f3002d by mark tilley, on Flickr


here was Blodwyn's banding

Nice, I was thinking something like that, but with the white extending all the way to the lugd

[Blodwyn Pig]

Personally I think the white banding is a subtle contrast, but if it extends the whole seat tube, well... it's no longer subtle.

[Oxford_Guy]

Think I've almost made a final decision about the paint job, now thinking of going for something relatively simple - Ruby Flamboyant, with White head tube and seat tube panel and dual bands, white lug lining, gold (maybe black) lining to panel and bands and insides of clover leaf lug cutout edges. Something a bit like this (NB: this one has White enamel, but I would consider White Pearl) - thoughts?

[click to expand photos]



Although sizes-wise think my 53cm c-t Strada is probably more like this (same colour), maybe a little bigger - BTW I'd probably display the Reynolds badge like this one:

[drossall]

The trouble with paint jobs at Mercian is that you keep thinking, "I'll just add that option", and it all adds up. (And actually, they didn't do too good a job of telling me what the total would be.) But it's worth it

I managed to keep the barber's pole out of the mix on cost grounds, but would have liked it. There's a case that, these days, steel frames are so traditional anyway that adding a barber's pole hardly makes them any more so. My frame was second-hand and, after a few years, I took it back to get it a new look.

Red stripes on blue are a mistake - they will dance in front of your eyes like a bad PowerPoint slide.

Oops. Wish you'd told me that before. After a lot of thought, and some very enjoyable playing with Mercian's frame/colour designer, I went for red with blue:

I liked the effect so much that when, a few years later, my Dawes Imperial (think Dawes Audax, but before any but a few had heard of Audax rides) needed a respray, I did lots more playing and ended up reversing the colours:

I promise never, ever to ride it near you. But I still like it

[Oxford_Guy]

Think it's definitely going to be white contrasts for the headtube and seat tube panel/bands for me. Still not 100% sure whether to go for white enamel or pearl white - was originally going to go for the latter (which a metallic blue colour), but think the plain enamel white actually looks good with the ruby flamboyant, as in the first photo in my previous post.