Frame Colour

[spanner1718]

Looks more like Peacock metallic to me

[Bensons]

Thank you very much everyone, Chat, please don't tell your friend I insulted her frame colour! It is just so not what I wanted.

I am going to have to address it because I would be paying for a respray as soon as possible if I didn't.

Yes, willcee, it is a vintage sort of colour, my husband first showed it to me on an old Mercian and I liked it (and it reminded me of my old car).

What a shame, I was so looking forward to it.

[simonhill]

You've got my vote. It isn't the same colour and I don't like it either.

Complain asap.

If they question it, you could point them to this thread, although all the technical stuff has rather muddied the water.

[Bensons]

In daylight it looks different but I still don't think it is right.

[Heltor Chasca]

I'm sorry you are disappointed. For what it's worth I think it is lovely. Not far off my daughter's "91 Dawes Super Galaxy. I hope it all woks out...b

[Bensons]

Thank you Heltor, I suppose I was just expecting/seeking something more subtle which is more me!

I have just had my old Galaxy resprayed by Dave Yates, he did a really lovely job in 7 working days, really really happy with it. He is a lovely man to deal with too.

We are going to ask if they think they have used the wrong paint because we do, thanks for all your opinions which cemented the fact that it doesn't seem like the normal expectation of a slight screen to product colour difference.

This was a 'treat' to myself, first time I have had a decent new frame. Anyway, it is only a colour I suppose and will be ok in the end.

[mercalia]

Looks like it has a metallic sparkle undercoat? that will lighten the colour?

[Bensons]

Do you mean the red one Mercalia? I love that one, really pleased with it - that is my old bike respray, it is the new green frame that I think isn't really the colour I chose.

We have now asked the question - will report back with the answer.

[fastpedaller]

It looks good to me - but then that's on my monitor!
I know it's not helpful, but for future reference what I do in these circumstances is get a colour chart from the local paint shop (preferably one that is gloss) select a colour and send the supplier the colour sample through the post. I just wish everyone would use the British Standard or RAL colour charts, that would save all confusion. I can only assume the paint retailers don't want to use the standard colours, because then we would buy small touch-up colours rather than do a whole repaint, so they employ people to dream up crazy names like 'seascape green' on a regular basis. Where would we be if nobody used a standard measurement system (like ft/inches or Metres) but just made up their own all the time?

[Brucey]

FWIW if you want to know exactly what a given colour will look like in daylight, you need a sample of that exact paint, under daylight illumination. Nothing else will do!

Computer monitors are a real minefield because they are unlikely to render even flat colours accurately even when they are set up 'properly' for a whole host of slightly complicated reasons (which I am happy to bore everyone with if necessary).

I'd also add that the metallic element makes life more complicated too; this always gives the paint a certain 3D aspect and this is unlikely to be well-represented on a computer monitor.

If anyone else is wanting to match a car colour, there are some very simple methods that you can use to ensure good results. For example;

1) tell the people what the paint you want to match is. It will have a name and a paint code, and if the people respraying your frame are using car paint (quite likely if it isn't powder coat) then their supplier will be able to produce paint that matches it pretty well.

2) get hold of some touch-up paint in the right colour, paint a small metal item with it to your satisfaction, and then send it to the refinishers with an instruction to match it.

If you (say) go into Mercian Cycles and compare the paint samples on tubes in the shop with the printed version in their leaflet and then with the same things as represented on a couple of different computer monitors, it will soon become clear that you are looking at four entirely different things. I'd suggest that the chances of accurately matching a lightish metallic colour with a strong shade via computer as being vanishingly small.

FWIW I think the colour you have ended up with may not be the one you wanted but once the bike is built up it could look fantastic. All in the eye of the beholder I suppose....

cheers

[Bensons]

Thank you, I will tell Mr B that there are some likes (at last).

I think that a jersey like the one on the left could set it off nicely (my 9 year old informed me earlier that Princess Tiana was the green one).

Who knows, if they think they have used the wrong colour I will have it re done. If not I will ride it through as much mud as possible for a while, maybe it will grow on me, but I doubt it. I probably won't worry as much about someone stealing it as I would have done so that could be the silver lining I suppose.

[pwa]

The last time I had a frame re-enameled I took it to Argos in Bristol, where the umpteen colour options were displayed on tube sections that could be lifted off the rack and placed next to others to work out good combinations. A good system.

The paint job I had there was fragile, but that is another story.

[531colin]

In the first photo on page 1 the frame is blue.
In the top photo in the conservatory (with the dog in the background) the frame is green.
I haven't decided what colour it is in the second conservatory photo......its either bleen or grue.....

I'm please to see BJ will still do an extended head tube.
I don't like those gear cable guides on the bottom of the head tube, I think they bend the cable too much, the outer is liable to chafe, fray and rust here, and I would have gone for vertical dropouts.
It must have been 25 years ago that I got my BJ built, and it still rides beautifully. I moaned about the price at the time, which I have long since forgotten......for me its the way they ride that really matters.
I hope you enjoy yours.

[mattsccm]

I'll be brutal. If you didn't see the colour you wanted on a bike at the painter you were using then the likely hood of getting exactly what you want is not good. Checking colours via a monitor (unless its some sort of super monitor and that isn't 100 guaranteed ) is open to flaws. Send a photo , paper or email and saying match this won't work either.
Too many factors to be sure.
Sorry, you didn't do it properly.
Not meaning to be rude.

[Samuel D]

Bensons: was your frame photographed under compact fluorescent lamps in your original post? Even the best of those are useless for colour rendition. Commonly sold ones are beyond awful.

Incredibly (and yet not incredibly at all!), the Bob Jackson colour swatches here are in a JPEG that hasn’t been tagged with a colour profile. This basic mistake makes me doubt the swatches were photographed suitably (i.e. in daylight-balanced light with a profiled camera), processed suitably (i.e. with colour management throughout), and exported suitably (i.e. in the sRGB colour space). However, your web browser must assume all of those things (and a great deal more) to display them. It could assume another colour space (e.g. Adobe RGB) but that would be even dafter, so it doesn’t.

Despite this complete lottery of colours, you have copied and pasted the Bob Jackson swatches onto the photo of your frame using a process with unknown colour management. Suffice to say there is no hope of those colours being remotely comparable. It would honestly be as useful to talk about colours over the phone!

Unsurprisingly, your copied-and-pasted Verde Aqua Metallic is a different colour on my display than the Bob Jackson swatch, even if I apply an sRGB tag to the Bob Jackson image.

Your second photographs, in the conservatory, were taken with an iPhone 6 Plus in predominantly daylight, and are properly tagged sRGB. So, as shown on a calibrated and profiled display, they are likely to be a lot more accurate. Calibrated and profiled displays used to be the preserve of colour professionals (photographers, graphic designers, printers (which I once was), etc.), but recently companies like Dell, Samsung, and especially Apple have taken a stab at getting these things half-right from the factory. Still, we can have no idea what sort of post-processing the iPhone did to the photo, only that its intentions are capable of being properly interpreted when displayed at the other end. Its intentions are typically to make pictures look pretty in an Instagram feed. Its intentions are unlikely to be colour accuracy.

Importantly, the conservatory photos were not taken in daylight-balanced light even though they were lit by daylight: there is way too much green pollution spilling in from the garden, and there is light of unknown quality coming from behind too.

You may think these things are nitpicking details, but it should be obvious from the completely different results in your first and second photos that they are not. Without rigorous colour management, comparing colours is completely pointless.

I don’t mean to imply everyone should practice rigorous colour management. That would be completely unrealistic. But failing that, it is pointless to compare colours. In practice, this simply means it is pointless to compare colours on the web. You can tell green from red, but beyond that it’s guesswork.