Jocelyn Lovell Bike: First Look

I went to pick up the completed frame today from Noah at Velocolour. I must say, I was totally blown away at how beautiful it looks. I remember Doug Fattic telling me that the key to success in frame building is very simple: have a good painter. I think Noah has made me look very good.

I doubt the colours will come across that well in these indoor shots, but they're absolutely beautiful. The blue is very light, the cream very creamy, and the red nice and bright. The masked headtube looks wonderful, and the painted pump is fantastic—I'd thought about having a panel on the seat tube, but this sort of has the panel effect while preserving the minimalist feel.

Noah used masks instead of decals, and the logos all came out looking great. I love the way the red jumps out of that massive white headtube. (And the Mafac spring retainers look so good that they almost seem worth the incredible effort...)

Again, not the greatest photo—but you can see the white-painted triangles on the Nervex crown, the 531 fork decal, and a bit of the downtube logo. Literally every possible tube on this bike is 531: all the frame tubes, the chain and seat stays, the steerer, the head tube, and the fork blades.

A better look at the fork and the lower headlug. I'm very proud of how nice the crown looks now, given how ugly it was when I started with it. (My lug work is far from flawless, but isn't so bad. I generally like the shapes, even if they're not filed as thin as I'd ideally like them.)

The colour contrast is really, really nice!

This is the other creative paint detail: the tops of the tack ends are painted white. I hear that a few people who've seen the bike in the shop have commented on the angle of the dropouts/track ends—they should be parallel to the ground with the TT level (so that the head tube angle/BB height is constant regardless of the position of the rear wheel), but they're angled with the chainstays, like on a normal bike (so that the rim stays in line with the brake pads). It's a minor thing and it won't bug me too much—and I was only following the angle of the track ends themselves.

So now it's time to build it up—I have a feeling JL will look even better with all his parts. I'll have some professional-quality photos taken when it's ready.