I will give you a like for the effort, but man - why didn't you use sandblaster for the job? Shouldn't be too difficult to find one where you live, I'm sure.
Cerakote Clear... you literally just did a video about Cerakote at Sturdy Bikes where you got the logos, and also where they have the sandblaster that you could have used.... although to be fair, GCN puts their own logo on enough things that you may as well get a sandblaster for the shop. side thought: would cerakote clear (oven cured) extend the life of a chain ring significantly enough to outweigh the cost of having it done?
You should have just got them vapour cleaned would have been way easier, plus you wouldn't get any scratches in the aluminium, woild have made the polishing alot easier also
@@Archiconocido Not really, there's no real labour in any of it - the black anodised ones are ALREADY polished. Black was a style choice, everything is black right now. They will bring back silver if that style comes back, but don't hold your breath.
I owned a powder coating and polishing shop during the peak of my cycling years, about 22 years ago, and did all kinds of crazy things to bikes. You brought back memories for me.
I used sodium hydroxide crystals, dissolved in hot water, in stripping anodized coating of aluminum parts. No need for sanding or grinding, preserving the shape of the parts. Just polish it to shine right after.
As a professional polisher . 1 use oven cleaner to strip the anodize off the parts . 2sand the parts from 220 to 400 3 use a polishing lath that’s at least 1.5 hp Yellow buff with white compound White buff with blue compound Polishing can be dangerous so leave it to the professionals we have all the right equipment to do the jobs .
I wouldn't say it's that dangerous. It's sketchy when a piece pings on the polishing wheel. Definitely would wear a mask and glasses. Mainly to stop wax getting all over your face.
Alex, mister aero, sodium hydroxide (oven cleaner) removes anodising in minutes, I did the same to a classic Cinelli Groove stem, stuck it in oven cleaner for 30 min, then polished and sprayed with lacquer. Massive respect for your endurance on this.
I did a similar thing decades ago where I polished my Shimano 600 crankset. I used 400 grit sandpaper to remove surface imperfections. I used 800 grit sandpaper to finalize the surface. Always make sure to dip the sandpaper in water after about 30 seconds. Polish the cranks using a metal polish for 2 or 3 times. Spray some acrylic clear coating and let is dry....that's it, no need to re-polish....
I like the Campag "tumbled in nutshells" finish. I stripped the anodizing from a set of RS-410 cranks last winter - without the power meter (and at 1/10 the prize), I gambled and used some caustic soda to remove the anodizing. Much faster than doing it manually and the result was much more pleasing than black cranks on my vintage steel touring bike!
A jeweler friend of mine polished and drilled his Campagnolo cranks. It looked like swiss cheese but never broke. Here's to you Jimmy wherever you are.
The Dura-Ace 7700 on my old 2002 Trek 5500 is just such a great looking groupset. 9000 looked fantastic as well. I have the GRX Limited 2x group and when I first pulled it out of the box and just was giddy with how beautiful it is. I realy wish Shimano would offer Dura-Ace in polished again. Black is OK for carbon but man I miss the highly polished groups from Shimano and Campy.
Great work. One tip I have is invest in a bench grinder, that you can fit polishing mops on to, because it makes polishing so much easier. I did the shiny work on my motorcycle a few years ago and it took ages because of the complicated shape of the parts. However, it looked amazing after and was protected with an acrylic clear coat. Last year I did the cranks on my MTB, because they were starting to look tatty. It was not as good as the motorbike, but it is still pretty.
I polished a set of chorus cranks that were gray years ago. I used a buffing wheel and various grades of jewelers rouge dressing for the wheel. They were beautiful!
my head screaming those weren't ready for polishing when you started polishing. needed hand sanding with a few stages of wet paper before to get those long scratches out that you can still see in the "finished shots" before polishing.
Kudos to Alex for his patience. It does look pretty nice, but I have two observations for anyone interested in doing something similar to this. If he had used a bench grinder with polishing wheels and the appropriate rouge, it would have probably been easier and quicker, and also, it needs some sort of coating to prevent oxidation. Perhaps spray lacquer or clear powder coating. Anyway, good job Alex! 👍
Bert - Not sure of Shimano's Anodizing but back in the 1980's we use the cheapest hair spray to remove the anodize color off our BMX parts then sand & polish took a couple of hours. Same result with alot less elbow grease. Try this on the back side.
They look great! Little tip for you, when I used to build my own bikes I used to use ez off oven cleaner to remove anodizing little easier than using dremel, still need to do a lot of polishing but it works
Simple tip. Use caustic soda (drain cleaner) to get the black anodizing off. After this you can go straight to fine sandpaper so no deep scratches to remove.
I don't have anything anywhere near as high-end as any of you elite cyclists - but I've just done the same thing to my powder-coated square-taper cranks and it looks freakin' AWESOME!
Two thumb up! 😲 I've thought about polishing my Ultegra group set but just didn't want to start the process and find out the underlying metal wasn't able to be polished. I'm glad Alex took the risk for me.
Agree about the Autosol, I renovated a 70s Colnago and when I rebuilt the wheels I took the opportunity to polish out the surface corrosion on the un-anodised Ambrosio rims before respoking. Autosol was perfect for the task.
Hey Alex, I've done this to 4 sets of Dura Ace cranks, 7400, 7710 track and 2 sets of 7800 and 1 set of 7800 levers for my resto mods, if you are going to do it again, first of all don't don't don't cover with caustic oven cleaner, this does remove an anodised finish but also eats into aluminium. I know mine were already silver but they are silver anodised or lacquer / some sort of finish that had to be removed, lots of scratches. I hand sanded 240 wet n dry, 400, 600 then a hard felt buffing pad in an angle grinder with austosol, this finish is absolutely unbelievable, you can't beat 9000 revs when polishing! PS. I haven't done chain rings but feel your pain.
I miss the old high polished component days. I think high polished makes a bike look lighter. Vs Black which looks heavy. But thats just oldschool me view.
I did this to an Ultegra chainset back in 1985. I soon learnt that the anodizing is not just a finish, but a protection for the softer aluminium. The faces of my crank arms were soon scored with incidental and unsightly rubs.
I'm not in love with the polish finish, but I have done a similar work on my XTR crankset but with a brush finishing and I'm really satisfied if it. Apart from that detail, nice work and a unique way to customise your bike (also a unique way to say goodbye to the warranty)
There's a few methods that could be used to get that end result. The easiest method that someone at home could do, would be to use a paint stripper to remove the black. This should NOT be done due to the Shimano cranks being two-piece, and bonded/glued together. A chemical stripper would likely damage that glue. The easiest way to remove that black finish would be to disassemble the crankset, then media blast it all with walnut shells. Also, your finished job is shiny, but not mirror. To get true mirror finish on aluminum, you would have had to wet sand the surfaces with progressive papers from 300 to 1200. Then buff with buffing compound, and finish with the polishing compound.
They look decent but if you think this is one of a kind, may I suggest you look up the work of CycleRetro based in Australia. They’ve done things like this, a bit more flawlessly, and even engrave the logos! Pricy service but a multi-axis CNC mill they use would set a DIY hobbyist back about 100 grand.
The crankset looks beautiful, but, I must've missed the point where Chloe came in and asked, "Alex, I've been asking you for ages, when are you going to ... (fill in the blank)?".
Man, the music at 8:52 was great!! It's Sunday, just watchin' bike videos and enjoying some coffee & a bowl here in Denver. Fun to watch the video & crank it up!
My favorite finish was the old Campagnolo clear milky looking anodizing on their cranks in the 70's. Something about it, and I don't think it's ever been matched.
Great looking crank set, in the past I've done lots and lots of polishing of bicycle parts, as for Mothers, great stuff but is better used on previous polished items. As for polishing chainrings it's best to mount them onto a board first, pre drill holes the size of the chain ring bolts then use longer triple type bolts and screw them in from the back side this way you'll have a greater grip when holding the ring firmly, trying to polish freehand is dangerous if the ring gets caught onto the polishing wheel then it's take flight. Instead of using a polishing lath , use a good size bench grinder, you should be able to find after market polishing accessories that can convert a grinder into a Light l duty polishing machine. Good luck with the next polishing projects.
They’re beautiful! You worked hard to get a great look; well done, Sir! I’ve been saying for years that Shimano should offer polished/clear anodized/ lacquered cranks, derailleurs, and shifters as an option. I currently have a full Dura Ace 7700 groupset on a “Maillot Jaune” yellow 98 Basso Gap; hands down the most beautiful bike I’ve ever owned. I also have an inexpensive, second hand, chrome plated, ‘12 Motobecane Strada LTD with Ultegra 6603 crankset and shift/brake levers; also stunning. Last but not least, I’m updating my white w/teal panels, chrome fork legs and rear triangle, ‘73 Raleigh Grand Sports with Ultegra 6503 crankset and levers. All 3 bikes are rocking vintage XTR 9 speed rear derailleurs (two M952’s and an M971 on the MotoB’) and XT CS-M771 cassettes on the 3x10 Ultegra’s (XTR CS-M972 on the 2x9 Basso). Shiny toys that keep this 69yo bike maniac stylish and happy, with wide gear ranges to let me climb easy and descend fast. Live long, ride fast, be happy!😎❤️
I did exactly this to a Shimano 105 groupset for an upgrade to a 1980's Raliegh so it was in keeping with the age of the bike. Stickers available on Ebay.
Thanks Alex awesome vid! This makes a great argument for having power meter pedals rather than cranks. Getting that mirror polish finish would be a great place to have them chromed or re-anodised in another colour. As for the stickers, how about laser etching so they don’t rub off? As for why I liked it so much, I’m looking at doing a restoring an old Raleigh Record Sprint (from 1984 the one with the steel “aero” tubing), keeping it in the original black and gold, and this has given me ideas for modernising the group set, whilst keeping the original look and feel to the bike. 👍🏻
I did this last year before riding PBP on my Ultegras. Ran out of polishing felts discs, the super protectice, hard-wearing coating was killing me double, knowing I did make the crankset technically less durable, and it took awfully lot of time and effort. I left the absoluteBLACK subcompact chainrings in contrasting anthracite-grey and I love the result. Would I do it again? Yes. This year I also did the rear derailleur, the cage for standard cassettes requires polishing maintainance. If you think the curves of the driveside crank and chainrings are a PITA, then don't start on the RD ... ;))) The second RD for wide ranges cassettes got a (un-polished) stock silver Garbaruk cage, with coloured pulley wheels matching my colour motive in the accents.
Hey Alex, it may be a good idea to look into the various types of blasting. Soda blasting (or maybe a slightly more aggressive media) could probably be a much better solution for the initial stripping before polish.
If the size of the font was a bit smaller I think the final result would be cooler. But great work nonetheless! Can't wait to see the whole polished groupset mounted on the bike!
My heal regularly rubs the drive side of my Ultegra crank so it's now got an area that's polished to a mirror finish. I was dismayed when I first noticed I was rubbing the grey finish off but now I quite like it, it's like a battle scar.
Its pretty common here in our country for the older riders to have their cranks polished...its throwback to the time when everything chrome was all the rage back then
Shiney! Would a polishing tumbler (like the ones used to polish brass ammo casings) work? Doesn't sanding/grinding off the paint soften the tooth profile creating wear? Has this look on an old Trek. Once scuffed & scratched, the bike looked old but wasn't. Seems chrome plating would solve the "look maintenance" & corrosion problem (but is it worth the cost?).
Try using easy off, the oven cleaner, to take off the anodizing, then polish. Old trick we used to get our BMX bikes looking all chromed out. DA has a clear coat type finish which could probably also be taken off by some kind of finish stripper.
I might do this on my cheap beater with some old M543 cranks just to see the result. Now, i just have to find the right tools and the time and energy for the entire process.
The thing I love most about this video is that Alex got paid for two days’ work sitting in his garage polishing his crank. Tell me Mrs Alex was away for a few days without telling me Mrs Alex was away…?
When you have to buy new chainrings, you could soak them in caustic soda for a while. It'll take the anodization off for you. Then you just need to buff.
beautiful shiny crank. Wonder if you could do this to the durailluers. Also I might suggest wearing a mask when doing this so you don't breathe in the black dust.
Looks very nice but a lot of work! Reminds me I still have a DA 7800 groupset in my parts bin, which is the last all-silver-polished DA groupset. These DA 7800 cranks where controversial at its time but imo still look amazing and so do the derailleurs, brakes and STIs. Maybe I should build a little project with these parts...
This is awesome! Does anyone know if the black anodising could have been removed with chemicals? Also, does anyone know somewhere to anodise bike parts in UK? One off small order.
I have an old Tiagra crank (with a matching stronglight chainring) from 2012 that came with a polished look, paired with a 6600 Ultegra polished rear-deraileur. It looks good on my Steel framed bike. I honestly don't know why manufacturers stoppped doing the option. We were told that anodised black was all we needed 🤷
Would you love to mirror polish your cranks? 😍
That's not shiny
I will give you a like for the effort, but man - why didn't you use sandblaster for the job? Shouldn't be too difficult to find one where you live, I'm sure.
Cerakote Clear... you literally just did a video about Cerakote at Sturdy Bikes where you got the logos, and also where they have the sandblaster that you could have used.... although to be fair, GCN puts their own logo on enough things that you may as well get a sandblaster for the shop.
side thought: would cerakote clear (oven cured) extend the life of a chain ring significantly enough to outweigh the cost of having it done?
You should have just got them vapour cleaned would have been way easier, plus you wouldn't get any scratches in the aluminium, woild have made the polishing alot easier also
While it's absolutely proof that Alex is Mr. Dura-Ace collector, no way to argue that now, it is also a beautiful crank.
ALEX, THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND....Above all, the MAN with the unlimited supply of dura ace cranks
He Picked the recalled 9100 dura ace with the faulty power meter, bottom of the barrel when you peak under the hood
He is neither a myth or legend, he's a real bloke, I agree with the rest, you're obviouusly a long time follower of his activities.
I think GCN should launch a petition to request Shimano reintroduce the polished finish.
It's much cheaper to just black anodize them. Skip the labour intensive polishing process. Hence why.
@Archiconocido This is exactly why we need a massive petition.
Also confuses people who think black = carbon fibre@@Archiconocido
@@Archiconocido then they could sell the polished version at a premium. People who buy Dura Ace don't care about money anyways.
@@Archiconocido Not really, there's no real labour in any of it - the black anodised ones are ALREADY polished. Black was a style choice, everything is black right now. They will bring back silver if that style comes back, but don't hold your breath.
I recommend wearing eye protection when grinding metal parts at 10000 rpm. A particle mask would be a nice bonus as well.
I owned a powder coating and polishing shop during the peak of my cycling years, about 22 years ago, and did all kinds of crazy things to bikes. You brought back memories for me.
I used sodium hydroxide crystals, dissolved in hot water, in stripping anodized coating of aluminum parts. No need for sanding or grinding, preserving the shape of the parts. Just polish it to shine right after.
If sodium hydroxide doesn't work it means the parts is painted not anodized.
Yes, 30%sodium hydroxide in hot water will work fantastic and removes all the anodizing. If nothing happens the aluminium is painted which sucks
@@JohnPilling25 Then use paint stripper
Should have taken the black crankset to the Sturdy workshop and used their sandblaster 🤣
and cerakote it afterwards
@@better.better god no. cerakote looks wank
This LOL
@@MTBScotland wrong, especially if you go for a colourless version.
not sure if you can sand blast anodized parts sand blasting is for wet paint. I think, could be wrong. machine shop might use acid to get that off.
Good job you had these cranks just hanging about in the parts bin 😉
so lucky !
...never gets old, does it? 😁
Get them clear coated like Shimano did with limited edition GRX
Yes, and it will keep them shiny for a long time, otherwise they are going to lose the gloss finish because of...aluminium.
and he literally just did a video about Cerakote
Or like Shimano used to do with Dura-Ace 10-Speed cranks.
@prestachuck2867 those weren't polished, though, just satin, but the general idea holds, right.
the vintage font was absolutely the perfect icing on the cake, nice one alex
As a professional polisher .
1 use oven cleaner to strip the anodize off the parts .
2sand the parts from 220 to 400
3 use a polishing lath that’s at least 1.5 hp
Yellow buff with white compound
White buff with blue compound
Polishing can be dangerous so leave it to the professionals we have all the right equipment to do the jobs .
Yeah, Alan has no clue about grades of different abrasive materials.
The 9100 cranks are 2 piece bonded. Not a good idea to use any caustic approach (as it is, the bond is known to fail and the cranks crack).
I do not recommend using a sodium/potassium hydroxide caustic cleaner, as that could ruin the bond between the 2-piece cranks.
Dear professional polisher, shouldn't he be wearing a mask for this or is there really no danger?
I wouldn't say it's that dangerous. It's sketchy when a piece pings on the polishing wheel. Definitely would wear a mask and glasses. Mainly to stop wax getting all over your face.
Alex, mister aero, sodium hydroxide (oven cleaner) removes anodising in minutes, I did the same to a classic Cinelli Groove stem, stuck it in oven cleaner for 30 min, then polished and sprayed with lacquer. Massive respect for your endurance on this.
Oh Alex with another set of dura ace cranks lying around in the parts bin
As long as Alex has any Dura-Ace components on the garage floor, these videos will keep coming; it’s practically a bottomless pit of content
I believe an ultrasonic cleaner on hot setting may strip the anodising. But I know there are different finishes.
I did a similar thing decades ago where I polished my Shimano 600 crankset. I used 400 grit sandpaper to remove surface imperfections. I used 800 grit sandpaper to finalize the surface. Always make sure to dip the sandpaper in water after about 30 seconds. Polish the cranks using a metal polish for 2 or 3 times. Spray some acrylic clear coating and let is dry....that's it, no need to re-polish....
I like the Campag "tumbled in nutshells" finish. I stripped the anodizing from a set of RS-410 cranks last winter - without the power meter (and at 1/10 the prize), I gambled and used some caustic soda to remove the anodizing. Much faster than doing it manually and the result was much more pleasing than black cranks on my vintage steel touring bike!
A jeweler friend of mine polished and drilled his Campagnolo cranks. It looked like swiss cheese but never broke.
Here's to you Jimmy wherever you are.
The Dura-Ace 7700 on my old 2002 Trek 5500 is just such a great looking groupset. 9000 looked fantastic as well. I have the GRX Limited 2x group and when I first pulled it out of the box and just was giddy with how beautiful it is. I realy wish Shimano would offer Dura-Ace in polished again. Black is OK for carbon but man I miss the highly polished groups from Shimano and Campy.
YESSS!!!. give us options, love the clear look of bare material, Clear coat for protection. Also, why always black. imagine light gray, lovely.
5:25 It's not like damaging that cable would make Shimano's power meter any less accurate.
Great work. One tip I have is invest in a bench grinder, that you can fit polishing mops on to, because it makes polishing so much easier. I did the shiny work on my motorcycle a few years ago and it took ages because of the complicated shape of the parts. However, it looked amazing after and was protected with an acrylic clear coat. Last year I did the cranks on my MTB, because they were starting to look tatty. It was not as good as the motorbike, but it is still pretty.
Did the swingarm on my zxr750H1 in the 90's. Many times I wished I'd not started it. Looked beautiful once finished though
I polished a set of chorus cranks that were gray years ago. I used a buffing wheel and various grades of jewelers rouge dressing for the wheel. They were beautiful!
Yes! Polished is the only way D-A should be!
my head screaming those weren't ready for polishing when you started polishing.
needed hand sanding with a few stages of wet paper before to get those long scratches out that you can still see in the "finished shots" before polishing.
Oven cleaner is the best way to remove anodized coating from components
Kudos to Alex for his patience. It does look pretty nice, but I have two observations for anyone interested in doing something similar to this. If he had used a bench grinder with polishing wheels and the appropriate rouge, it would have probably been easier and quicker, and also, it needs some sort of coating to prevent oxidation. Perhaps spray lacquer or clear powder coating. Anyway, good job Alex! 👍
Bert - Not sure of Shimano's Anodizing but back in the 1980's we use the cheapest hair spray to remove the anodize color off our BMX parts then sand & polish took a couple of hours. Same result with alot less elbow grease. Try this on the back side.
They look great! Little tip for you, when I used to build my own bikes I used to use ez off oven cleaner to remove anodizing little easier than using dremel, still need to do a lot of polishing but it works
Nicely done! Love polished parts. I have polished the mechs, brake assembly and levers when I restored my 90s Specialized. Well worth it
Simple tip. Use caustic soda (drain cleaner) to get the black anodizing off. After this you can go straight to fine sandpaper so no deep scratches to remove.
The 9100 cranks are 2 piece bonded. Not a good idea to use any caustic approach (as it is, the bond is known to fail and the cranks crack).
Wow, the weight savings alone must be worth the effort.
We're not sure Alex thinks the same
Ohh another 0.000009 watt gain, well worth the effort 😅
I don't have anything anywhere near as high-end as any of you elite cyclists - but I've just done the same thing to my powder-coated square-taper cranks and it looks freakin' AWESOME!
your process made me appreciate more my dura ace 7800
Yes, I also like my shiny 7800 parts
9:55 My potions are too strong for you, traveller!
Two thumb up! 😲 I've thought about polishing my Ultegra group set but just didn't want to start the process and find out the underlying metal wasn't able to be polished. I'm glad Alex took the risk for me.
Agree about the Autosol, I renovated a 70s Colnago and when I rebuilt the wheels I took the opportunity to polish out the surface corrosion on the un-anodised Ambrosio rims before respoking.
Autosol was perfect for the task.
Love it! I would remove the clear anodizing on my campy cranks and polish them to a mirror finish back in the day.
Hey Alex, I've done this to 4 sets of Dura Ace cranks, 7400, 7710 track and 2 sets of 7800 and 1 set of 7800 levers for my resto mods, if you are going to do it again, first of all don't don't don't cover with caustic oven cleaner, this does remove an anodised finish but also eats into aluminium.
I know mine were already silver but they are silver anodised or lacquer / some sort of finish that had to be removed, lots of scratches. I hand sanded 240 wet n dry, 400, 600 then a hard felt buffing pad in an angle grinder with austosol, this finish is absolutely unbelievable, you can't beat 9000 revs when polishing!
PS. I haven't done chain rings but feel your pain.
Love the Northwest Arkansas hat! Can’t wait to see that video, with Alex rocking his shiny crankset!
I miss the old high polished component days. I think high polished makes a bike look lighter. Vs Black which looks heavy. But thats just oldschool me view.
Alan, I’m not sure Dangerholm would agree with your claims. His finish is unreal
This one looks MEGA!!
They look bloody great
You could also do a matte brushed finish, easier maintenance
I did this to an Ultegra chainset back in 1985. I soon learnt that the anodizing is not just a finish, but a protection for the softer aluminium. The faces of my crank arms were soon scored with incidental and unsightly rubs.
I’m loving the weird and crazy project old “whatshisname”. keeps doing. I hope there are more.
Great job!! They can be polished a little more and at the end, at an expert's, a thin layer of varnish is applied, for protection!
I'm not in love with the polish finish, but I have done a similar work on my XTR crankset but with a brush finishing and I'm really satisfied if it. Apart from that detail, nice work and a unique way to customise your bike (also a unique way to say goodbye to the warranty)
Long live the Dura Ace cranks, the joke that never stops giving
There's a few methods that could be used to get that end result. The easiest method that someone at home could do, would be to use a paint stripper to remove the black. This should NOT be done due to the Shimano cranks being two-piece, and bonded/glued together. A chemical stripper would likely damage that glue. The easiest way to remove that black finish would be to disassemble the crankset, then media blast it all with walnut shells.
Also, your finished job is shiny, but not mirror. To get true mirror finish on aluminum, you would have had to wet sand the surfaces with progressive papers from 300 to 1200. Then buff with buffing compound, and finish with the polishing compound.
They look decent but if you think this is one of a kind, may I suggest you look up the work of CycleRetro based in Australia. They’ve done things like this, a bit more flawlessly, and even engrave the logos! Pricy service but a multi-axis CNC mill they use would set a DIY hobbyist back about 100 grand.
Gotta love your patience Alex, lovely end result.
Now you've got to do a full bike :D
My father had a raw aluminum GT road bike that he gave to me and I started polishing. It was a bit too much bling for my tastes. 😆
Gorgeous, more of this!
Very informative to do things "THE HARD WAY" first! Next projects will be faster.
I made a comment about a silver groupset on the vintage pinarello build. Wish for the 10k but Alex stays in my heart.
The crankset looks beautiful, but, I must've missed the point where Chloe came in and asked, "Alex, I've been asking you for ages, when are you going to ... (fill in the blank)?".
Wouldn't it have been better to sandblast it or use some chemical process to remove the paint?
It's anodizing on the chainrings he could have used a concentrated sodium hydroxide bath, purple cleaner degreaser ...
@@LaurentiusTriariusi used sodium hydroxide on some heatsinks where dimensions aren’t crucial and it was really easy to strip the anodisation
I recently did my chainrings with Caustic Soda. Took me 15 mins to strip off the anodising, and another hour or two just buffing it up to a shine.
The rings maybe, but the cranks are aluminum and lye eats aluminum voraciously
I work at bastion and polish a lot of titanium. I have been thinking of taking an old groupset to work and trying this but you beat me too it!
Awesome! Can't wait to see the full kit on the retro bike
You're not the only one who thinks that!
Man, the music at 8:52 was great!! It's Sunday, just watchin' bike videos and enjoying some coffee & a bowl here in Denver. Fun to watch the video & crank it up!
My favorite finish was the old Campagnolo clear milky looking anodizing on their cranks in the 70's. Something about it, and I don't think it's ever been matched.
Great looking crank set, in the past I've done lots and lots of polishing of bicycle parts, as for Mothers, great stuff but is better used on previous polished items. As for polishing chainrings it's best to mount them onto a board first, pre drill holes the size of the chain ring bolts then use longer triple type bolts and screw them in from the back side this way you'll have a greater grip when holding the ring firmly, trying to polish freehand is dangerous if the ring gets caught onto the polishing wheel then it's take flight. Instead of using a polishing lath , use a good size bench grinder, you should be able to find after market polishing accessories that can convert a grinder into a Light l duty polishing machine. Good luck with the next polishing projects.
They’re beautiful! You worked hard to get a great look; well done, Sir! I’ve been saying for years that Shimano should offer polished/clear anodized/ lacquered cranks, derailleurs, and shifters as an option. I currently have a full Dura Ace 7700 groupset on a “Maillot Jaune” yellow 98 Basso Gap; hands down the most beautiful bike I’ve ever owned.
I also have an inexpensive, second hand, chrome plated, ‘12 Motobecane Strada LTD with Ultegra 6603 crankset and shift/brake levers; also stunning. Last but not least, I’m updating my white w/teal panels, chrome fork legs and rear triangle, ‘73 Raleigh Grand Sports with Ultegra 6503 crankset and levers. All 3 bikes are rocking vintage XTR 9 speed rear derailleurs (two M952’s and an M971 on the MotoB’) and XT CS-M771 cassettes on the 3x10 Ultegra’s (XTR CS-M972 on the 2x9 Basso). Shiny toys that keep this 69yo bike maniac stylish and happy, with wide gear ranges to let me climb easy and descend fast. Live long, ride fast, be happy!😎❤️
Great stuff. I polished an old XT MTB crankset. Looks great. Yes it takes a while. I left my chainrings black though.
I still rock the old Dura Ace 7800 cranks on my older crit bike simply because they are the polished aluminum color!
I think one of the best things about vintage bikes are those chrome and polished components. They take the bike to another level
They look heckin’ amazing
I did exactly this to a Shimano 105 groupset for an upgrade to a 1980's Raliegh so it was in keeping with the age of the bike. Stickers available on Ebay.
Thanks Alex awesome vid!
This makes a great argument for having power meter pedals rather than cranks.
Getting that mirror polish finish would be a great place to have them chromed or re-anodised in another colour.
As for the stickers, how about laser etching so they don’t rub off?
As for why I liked it so much, I’m looking at doing a restoring an old Raleigh Record Sprint (from 1984 the one with the steel “aero” tubing), keeping it in the original black and gold, and this has given me ideas for modernising the group set, whilst keeping the original look and feel to the bike. 👍🏻
Some clear lacquer will help keep them shinny
ASTONISHING BROW!!
Awesome job and that's great Tom was able to help you out with retro Dura-Ace decals,I'm sure the crankset is a little lighter to.💯👌🏻🚴♂️
Amazing and very useful for every riders
I did this last year before riding PBP on my Ultegras. Ran out of polishing felts discs, the super protectice, hard-wearing coating was killing me double, knowing I did make the crankset technically less durable, and it took awfully lot of time and effort.
I left the absoluteBLACK subcompact chainrings in contrasting anthracite-grey and I love the result.
Would I do it again? Yes.
This year I also did the rear derailleur, the cage for standard cassettes requires polishing maintainance.
If you think the curves of the driveside crank and chainrings are a PITA, then don't start on the RD
... ;)))
The second RD for wide ranges cassettes got a (un-polished) stock silver Garbaruk cage, with coloured pulley wheels matching my colour motive in the accents.
Looking forward to see the result when you've put them on your Trek!
You can wipe the anodising off with Caustic soda and boiling water, after polishing the logo can be lazer etched for about $20
Hey Alex, it may be a good idea to look into the various types of blasting. Soda blasting (or maybe a slightly more aggressive media) could probably be a much better solution for the initial stripping before polish.
I did this to a chrome add on my dirt jump bike. I used caustic soda to remove the anodising. So much easier.
If the size of the font was a bit smaller I think the final result would be cooler. But great work nonetheless! Can't wait to see the whole polished groupset mounted on the bike!
I would have loved to buy a polished set if they were available, looks like pure fire!
Good thing you've had a Dura Ace crankset lying around.
Impressive efforts. Please make sure you wear PPE when working on a project like this.
It looks great! but we will be expecting a 6 month update, along with your routine for maintaining that shine!
My heal regularly rubs the drive side of my Ultegra crank so it's now got an area that's polished to a mirror finish. I was dismayed when I first noticed I was rubbing the grey finish off but now I quite like it, it's like a battle scar.
Alex has the best spare parts drawer in the business
Its pretty common here in our country for the older riders to have their cranks polished...its throwback to the time when everything chrome was all the rage back then
They do look amazing!
Shiney!
Would a polishing tumbler (like the ones used to polish brass ammo casings) work?
Doesn't sanding/grinding off the paint soften the tooth profile creating wear?
Has this look on an old Trek. Once scuffed & scratched, the bike looked old but wasn't.
Seems chrome plating would solve the "look maintenance" & corrosion problem (but is it worth the cost?).
Wow Alex, you are crazy!
Try using easy off, the oven cleaner, to take off the anodizing, then polish. Old trick we used to get our BMX bikes looking all chromed out. DA has a clear coat type finish which could probably also be taken off by some kind of finish stripper.
I might do this on my cheap beater with some old M543 cranks just to see the result.
Now, i just have to find the right tools and the time and energy for the entire process.
The thing I love most about this video is that Alex got paid for two days’ work sitting in his garage polishing his crank.
Tell me Mrs Alex was away for a few days without telling me Mrs Alex was away…?
Yes please. No more boring black bike components.
When you have to buy new chainrings, you could soak them in caustic soda for a while. It'll take the anodization off for you. Then you just need to buff.
beautiful shiny crank. Wonder if you could do this to the durailluers. Also I might suggest wearing a mask when doing this so you don't breathe in the black dust.
polish them properly after that some varnish just on the crank to protect it from scratches and from environment and you got The Cranks!
Looks very nice but a lot of work! Reminds me I still have a DA 7800 groupset in my parts bin, which is the last all-silver-polished DA groupset. These DA 7800 cranks where controversial at its time but imo still look amazing and so do the derailleurs, brakes and STIs. Maybe I should build a little project with these parts...
WHY HAVE YOU SHOWN ME THIS..... NOW I'M GOING TO HAVE TO TRY IT...DAMN LOL
Do it! Do it! Do it! 😁
Nice, now easier to see the cracks forming 😂
This is awesome! Does anyone know if the black anodising could have been removed with chemicals? Also, does anyone know somewhere to anodise bike parts in UK? One off small order.
I have an old Tiagra crank (with a matching stronglight chainring) from 2012 that came with a polished look, paired with a 6600 Ultegra polished rear-deraileur. It looks good on my Steel framed bike. I honestly don't know why manufacturers stoppped doing the option. We were told that anodised black was all we needed 🤷