"Just one more job".
I realised a few days back the rear axle was bent. I think this happened because of the spacing, and me overdoing it with the chain tensioners and then going ham with the ratchet on the wheel nuts. I think the ogre in me and my BMX side causes that, so unless something has a torque value I always go stupid.
This isn't a huge issue. I bought these for 16 quid with a voucher, as sadly the donor axle is the wrong thread type.
I could have left it, but I didn't want anything bad happening on a ride with me miles from home. Any way, whilst piddling around with all that a few days ago I also noticed the sealed bearing that seemed perfect was actually far from it. It is 30 years old, and when you removed it and span it it rumbled and there was lots of play. Not an issue, took me about 5 seconds to ID it and buy a replacement for about 2 quid delivered.
I then took another look at the wheel, and the murky matt clear coat was pissing me off so bloody bad. I knew if I tried to buff it I ran the risk of making it shiny, and that is exactly what happened. TBH the whole wheel was rushed because I did not want to invest a shed load of time (or money) into it if it was not going to work. However, as 30 miles on it showed last summer, it definitely works.
So, knowing the real risks and how hard it is to paint satin or matt clear out of a can (you can't fix any blemishes as they just go shiny when you apply any compounds) I decided to go balls out. Enter Chromacoat.
It's new, and expensive. Unlike chameleon or flip paints it can change through three colours. Now I used something similar on my Ruben, and it looked great. Until you touched it and it just fell off. However, that was the fault of the rubbish 1k clear coat I bought.
This time I decided to do it properly.
That's real, with activated hardener, 2k clear coat.