Be interested to see a video on powder coating frames. Shot blasting the frame could be part of that :-0 Good effort in the gold though. Probably looks amazing out in the sun.
I think gold spraybapint may have been a good deal more practical !!! Some of them mimic true gold colour impressively well! Much better finish as well!!
Guys I am so much ahead of you 😂 In 1990 or maybe the late 80s I thought my white BMX looks boring so I asked my dad to paint it gold. I was the coolest kid at my elementary school 😁😁😁
Sorry Alex, looks a bit rough and patchy. I think gold paint or vinyl wrap may have been better. Good effort, it may inspiré some people, not me though.
For a similar finish, I will probably wait until after Christmas and cover my bike in discarded sweet wrappers… I could even do it in the purple ones….
Hi Alex, You need to talk to Dr Ollie before you write your scripts, or maybe you did and he didn't know. Gold is awesome, or maybe AuSome, anyway it catalyses loads of cool chemical reactions, and can be used as a Lewis acid as well as a catalyst in many Organic chemistry processes. I was looking at some gold mediated reactions just the other day using AuCl3, but there are many other Gold compounds which you can use to do cool stuff. Just saying, and please Ollie, keeo on point with the chemistry.....
Gold is exceptional in both chemistry and physics. There are no electronics without gold, there is no spacecraft alive without it. It's very hard to call uninteresting
i think this could possibly look better if they added a nice thick coat of clear. something like spraymax 2k clear coat or any other automotive quality clear. one or 2 cans is enough for the whole bike and it'll look like a factory clear coat and the thicker clear will potentially make the flaws look less flaw like and maybe just add depth
I have a silver bike - a bike with a uncoated bare aluminum frame, without stickers or something on it. Some do this with nice (but unfortunately expensive) titanium frames, however it also works with aluminum.
Hmm, not sure about this. Aesthetics aside, the only real justification for gold-plating/ gilding a frame would be corrosion resistance, surely? So once you 'cheap out' and use 'imitation gold leaf' (whatever that actually is) you lose that advantage... and if you're not bothered about that and just want it to look pretty, gold paint must be a hell of a lot cheaper and easier to apply... I seem to remember a gold-plated Brompton being shown at the London Bike Expo (?) back around 2009, but then that was valued at something like £10k - and that was a lot of money for a bike back then :-)
I always enjoy the Alex builds no matter how awesome or silly. Must say, even though the finish on that bike is not the best, I think the overall accomplishment of the task makes it a great bike. Keep up the great work.
I think that if you want more mirror like result you would have to use electroplating, not leaves. Maybe you could do tall bike next. Weld two (or more) bicycle frames on top of each other and try to learn to ride it 😅
Hmmm, not that sure about the finish, did you consider a gold anodise? It would require a pro level polish, but has the potential to look pretty. Otherwise plating could have a better result. I look forwards to seeing you playing with a home plating kit, some of the chemicals in these are delightful!
If you get the bike dirty on a ride and then power hose the bike clean, would the gold leaf come off? If you think about the way that metal surfaces are chrome plated then surely that technique (with yellow chrome) would be more robust and more even.
I would have tried to do hot brass laying. You basically take a torch to the steel frame and a brass wheel brush to the heated area and it lays brass down.
I did this with a couple of tube mech mods for vaping, they were aluminum. Sanded them to get the surface flatish then mounted one on a rod loosely so it could spin free and heated the whole thing approximately rocket hot. With the torch nearby to get the heat back up I let the brass wheel spin the tube. Turned out great
Can you do this with holographic foil too? I want a holo bike but they don’t sell any so I have to make it myself and that’s the way I’m thinking of doing it. And I don know anyone I could commission to do it.
I would like to point out that actual gold leaf is not that expensive since it's very thin (~1 micron). I'm seeing 0.01 gram per square metre. At the rate of 60$ per gram of gold it means that if you're paying 10$ per square metre of gold leaf, the bulk of the cost is not the raw material. I think it would be hilarious if Alex didn't realise that he had actually covered the bike in actual gold leaf.
It’s valuable because it’s rare. Not just because people said it is. Also the only person who would own or ride a gold bike is a rapper, a Russian oligarch or a man with a tiny sausage.
Wow imitation gold leaf actually exist!So this mean people are being scammed into decadently eating fake gold leaf while getting scammed into spending insane amount of money for it.
I think you should have said earlier, that you aren't using real gold. This bronze alloy leaf looks ok on a video, but if you were to compare it in person to real gold leaf, you'd see it looks nothing like it in colour. Bronze leaf is much bigger and thicker than gold leaf. Gold leaf is truly only a few atoms thick and much harder to work with. Also because its bronze, even though you have lacquered it. I think it will tarnish quite quickly if you use the bike.
Excuse me - gold is stupid. I think, that using real red and yellow autumn leaves under hard laquer coating, can be perfect finish for gravel/adventure bike.
Not my cup of tea, but I love customization projects. Nothing more boring than a peloton with only maybe 3 or 4 different bikes across everyone... As for the next project: carbon fork with disc brake up front, but keep the rim brake on the rear! Please don't butcher *another* frame!!
Sorry mate, but I don’t think this one would even get a “nice” in the bike vault. This seems like a project that would have been tackled by someone REALLY bored during covid lockdown. Spray paint or vinyl wrap would both have looked an awful lot better.
What other bike projects would you like to see us take on?
How to remove gold leaf from a bicycle frame.
Be interested to see a video on powder coating frames. Shot blasting the frame could be part of that :-0 Good effort in the gold though. Probably looks amazing out in the sun.
You should have used gold paint not crumply gold leaf.
make a swing bike. you could travel to califorina to work on it
Bamboo bikes THEN some paint and a bit of gold leaf here and there....but bamboo bikes
I was wondering what I'm gonna do with my 24-karat gold leaves lying around the house. I was about to throw them away!
I think gold spraybapint may have been a good deal more practical !!! Some of them mimic true gold colour impressively well! Much better finish as well!!
Or electroplating
I've a stash of old kit kat wrappers. Wondering if I can do an even more budget version.
I'll be sure to refer to this amazing "tech" video the next time I'm applying gold leaf to my bike.
Perfect video to dampen the tinyest motivation to gold leaf a bike frame :-D
You couldn't be more wrong. Gold is very interesting chemically and electrically. Its value is not just cultural.
Where was Ollie on this
Guys I am so much ahead of you 😂 In 1990 or maybe the late 80s I thought my white BMX looks boring so I asked my dad to paint it gold. I was the coolest kid at my elementary school 😁😁😁
I remember doing the same with my secondhand BMX in 2005! Ahead of these guys but not as swell as you :)
someone PLEASE enter this in Hack or Bodge
🤣
Looks great...with the lights dimmed!🤣 Give that man an Olympic gold medal🏅
Looks like you let the local nurseries kids loose with there craft box 🤣
After applying the gold, it is necessary to burnish it to smooth out the imperfections. I used to use a soft cotton ball.
Sorry Alex, looks a bit rough and patchy. I think gold paint or vinyl wrap may have been better. Good effort, it may inspiré some people, not me though.
Gold anodised would've been the best option i think
that's a polite way of saying IT LOOKS LIKE SHIT
It turned out exactly as i suspected it would.
What shite? Lol
For a similar finish, I will probably wait until after Christmas and cover my bike in discarded sweet wrappers… I could even do it in the purple ones….
Hi Alex, You need to talk to Dr Ollie before you write your scripts, or maybe you did and he didn't know. Gold is awesome, or maybe AuSome, anyway it catalyses loads of cool chemical reactions, and can be used as a Lewis acid as well as a catalyst in many Organic chemistry processes. I was looking at some gold mediated reactions just the other day using AuCl3, but there are many other Gold compounds which you can use to do cool stuff. Just saying, and please Ollie, keeo on point with the chemistry.....
Gold is exceptional in both chemistry and physics. There are no electronics without gold, there is no spacecraft alive without it. It's very hard to call uninteresting
It would have worked better using a lugged steel frame, and just plated the tubes and stays, with the lugs polished to mirror finish
I had the check the calender to make sure today wasn't the 1st April!!!
Just thinking, add some Colango decals and everyone will be drooling over it 🥳 🇮🇹 💴
The golden standard of GCN DIY jobbies 😁
Finally, my christmas present wrapping is made to look good.
i think this could possibly look better if they added a nice thick coat of clear. something like spraymax 2k clear coat or any other automotive quality clear. one or 2 cans is enough for the whole bike and it'll look like a factory clear coat and the thicker clear will potentially make the flaws look less flaw like and maybe just add depth
Gold paint would obviously be much much better.
You should have done it to a Schwinn Varsity, then anyone who picked it up would believe you actually had a gold frame.
Next week on GCN TECH - How to turn a gold abomination red, with a 5 quid aerosol can.
Hack/Bodge: Bodge-97% Hack-3%
Mistakes were made. Once you'd applied all the "gold" you should've turned the brush and used the shaft to, carefully, rub out all the imperfections.
Would it then become perfectly smooth, without any creases, or can it scratch off?
@@andrei0525 Depending on how ductile the fake gold leaf is you can burnish it down pretty well, real gold is really ductile.
Make it a fulll aero bike! 🙏 (with gold chain obviously)
No sorry bro, that is no good. Send it to the sand blaster and get the frame anodised, that "gold leaf" has to go.
I think a lot of commenters and viewers didn't realize this was imitation gold leaf.
Hack/BODGE of the week!
I have a silver bike - a bike with a uncoated bare aluminum frame, without stickers or something on it. Some do this with nice (but unfortunately expensive) titanium frames, however it also works with aluminum.
Hmm, not sure about this. Aesthetics aside, the only real justification for gold-plating/ gilding a frame would be corrosion resistance, surely? So once you 'cheap out' and use 'imitation gold leaf' (whatever that actually is) you lose that advantage... and if you're not bothered about that and just want it to look pretty, gold paint must be a hell of a lot cheaper and easier to apply...
I seem to remember a gold-plated Brompton being shown at the London Bike Expo (?) back around 2009, but then that was valued at something like £10k - and that was a lot of money for a bike back then :-)
Where are the really useful and interesting tech/maintenance videos GCN used to do? Gold plating a frame is just clickbait nonsense.
I always enjoy the Alex builds no matter how awesome or silly. Must say, even though the finish on that bike is not the best, I think the overall accomplishment of the task makes it a great bike. Keep up the great work.
Before you bolt on everything, you should go over the bike with a nice coat of paint stripper first or you will never hear the end of it.
I think that if you want more mirror like result you would have to use electroplating, not leaves.
Maybe you could do tall bike next. Weld two (or more) bicycle frames on top of each other and try to learn to ride it 😅
Raffle this bike !
Uhhh...yeah ? Come on lads !..........weak
Hmmm, not that sure about the finish, did you consider a gold anodise? It would require a pro level polish, but has the potential to look pretty. Otherwise plating could have a better result. I look forwards to seeing you playing with a home plating kit, some of the chemicals in these are delightful!
If you get the bike dirty on a ride and then power hose the bike clean, would the gold leaf come off?
If you think about the way that metal surfaces are chrome plated then surely that technique (with yellow chrome) would be more robust and more even.
"There's a few imperfections" Said Stevie Wonder...
Too yes like about too fix gold paint chrome bike nice
All that gold, what's the weight up to now then, 25KG!!! Ooooomph.
I would have tried to do hot brass laying. You basically take a torch to the steel frame and a brass wheel brush to the heated area and it lays brass down.
I did this with a couple of tube mech mods for vaping, they were aluminum. Sanded them to get the surface flatish then mounted one on a rod loosely so it could spin free and heated the whole thing approximately rocket hot. With the torch nearby to get the heat back up I let the brass wheel spin the tube. Turned out great
I wonder how much more expensive and complicated would galvanic gold plating be. It would look so much better though!
Can you do this with holographic foil too? I want a holo bike but they don’t sell any so I have to make it myself and that’s the way I’m thinking of doing it. And I don know anyone I could commission to do it.
I would like to point out that actual gold leaf is not that expensive since it's very thin (~1 micron). I'm seeing 0.01 gram per square metre. At the rate of 60$ per gram of gold it means that if you're paying 10$ per square metre of gold leaf, the bulk of the cost is not the raw material. I think it would be hilarious if Alex didn't realise that he had actually covered the bike in actual gold leaf.
Well that looks horrible 🤣
Rough as a badgers....start again
That is the reason gold is very valuable. It does not react with almost anything. And contrary to bitcoin it has really intrinsic value.
Don’t leave your bikes lying around the GCN mega base! 😉
That thing you talk about in the beginning that has its value only due to social construction, that is every fiat currency in the world ;)
if you paid 1k for real gold foil its still a better investment than getting an osp
we need a part 2 for this video!! build a bike with that frame!!!!
It’s valuable because it’s rare. Not just because people said it is. Also the only person who would own or ride a gold bike is a rapper, a Russian oligarch or a man with a tiny sausage.
Should have got manon to use her spraying skill to spray it gold
First!! 😀😀😀 If you shut one eye and squint the Gold leaf looks awesome....
Hundreds of medieval monk scribes are on Line One and want their gold leaf back. Oh, that's right, it's fake. As you were.
There is some inherent value in gold because it’s useful for computers and very costly to mine.
Wow imitation gold leaf actually exist!So this mean people are being scammed into decadently eating fake gold leaf while getting scammed into spending insane amount of money for it.
And the point of this was??? Sorry my dudes not understanding this one? It looks hideous and honestly what a waste of materials.
Poor Frame😵💫
It ain't no oil painting 🎨 🙈
Could have used gold anodizing dye.
So... how hard is that stuff to get off, anyway?
I think you should have said earlier, that you aren't using real gold. This bronze alloy leaf looks ok on a video, but if you were to compare it in person to real gold leaf, you'd see it looks nothing like it in colour. Bronze leaf is much bigger and thicker than gold leaf. Gold leaf is truly only a few atoms thick and much harder to work with. Also because its bronze, even though you have lacquered it. I think it will tarnish quite quickly if you use the bike.
of all the precious metals gold is the rarest, thats why its valuable...
Plug the holes & electro plate , but the cost. ? 😰
yeah I was sort of expecting electroplate myself....
Why not just build a bike frame in gold colored Tungsten tubes? They’ve already been convincingly faking gold bars in tungsten for years.
Isn’t the main reason for that the sheer density of tungsten? Apparently 7x that of aluminium… I’m not looking forward to riding that bike!
Excuse me - gold is stupid. I think, that using real red and yellow autumn leaves under hard laquer coating, can be perfect finish for gravel/adventure bike.
This looks rough, im also not quite clear why this is on the tech channel.
How to check if your gears are worn
Well, at least you tried.
A bike that's a winner before you turn the pedals
Definitely a bodge
No, really I wouldn't add anything else to this fascinating build as it possibly might ruin its potential scrap value.
I want to do this to my stem and maybe my cranks on my mtb
how about gold electro plating
Bodge
They say one can't polish a turd. You trully couldn't and now you try new tactics
not great, not terrible
You'd have to get a lAUf fork to match...
I was thinking it's about gold plating but okay.
I want a matte black road bike, not gold
Great video and well done for the effect but it looks bloody terrible.
that's horrendous hahaha
Don’t waste your time, skip to end to see finish id horrible. Time waste click bait again from GCN.
Gold bike wrap...
Not my cup of tea, but I love customization projects. Nothing more boring than a peloton with only maybe 3 or 4 different bikes across everyone...
As for the next project: carbon fork with disc brake up front, but keep the rim brake on the rear! Please don't butcher *another* frame!!
That sounds... interesting 😂
@@gcntech FORK! Not frame! Carbon FORK with disc brake for this frame, whilst keeping the rim brake on the rear!
Next step Alex...becoming Olympic champion. The unwritten rules say you cannot wear or ride a champions kit without being a current or ex champion 😉
hair dryer to remove wrinkles!
Sorry mate, but I don’t think this one would even get a “nice” in the bike vault. This seems like a project that would have been tackled by someone REALLY bored during covid lockdown. Spray paint or vinyl wrap would both have looked an awful lot better.
Electroplating would be more durable.
That looks like crap!
why bother with gold leaf when its not even real gold leaf? Could have spraypainted it gold. Oh wait. Clickbait.
What a waste of 9 minutes I'm never going to recover from. 😴
11th
#Bodge