Frame Protection

[Murphius]

I’m curious about your experiences with respect to frame protection and damage due to rock strikes (that would chip a typical painted frame) and scratches. I opted not to include the frame protection and am now curious if I can run the frame “naked” or if I should plan on adding a paint protection film or honeycomb type protection to high wear areas.

How has your Pole without PPF held up?

Where have you see the most damage? Top tube, rear triangle where the rear wheel constantly throws material, battery cover door?

Any issues in the areas you’ve got chips/scratches other than aesthetics?

 

[slickrock]

I'll let others reply who have the bike without PPF. My Storm Grey bike came with it very professionally applied (no easy task). At first I liked the protection aspect of it - a berm gave way on one of my rides and took a spill that would have totally marred the swingarm. OTOH, the film does interrupt the CNC aesthetic of bike and the sheen is slightly different from the untreated areas. Dust can collect in the channels where the film is cut to accommodate the contours of the frame.

If I were to redo (maybe toss hat into the ID ring?), I would probably go silver with no PPF, and no decals (maybe keep bonnet badge). Perhaps PPF just on the battery cover. I've have naked, burnished aluminum bikes in my stable with finish that have held up for decades.

 

[DaveG01]

After waiting for three weeks for nothing to come from Adesivi Bici Personalizzati e Decalcomanie Bici Online | Bike Stickers Ive now raised a paypal claim as they have agreed a refund and haven't. (knew it might take a while and love a bargain) three weeks and they said after production it hadn't come up to their standard and would be even longer, I don't believe them
Looking forward to getting my invisiFRAME, custom frame protection for your bike kit today for my KSL.
Have had some bashes before with this kit on another bike and it held up well. Quite easy but time consuming to apply (three beers worth)

 

[Murphius]

Thanks for your comments. I’ve religiously used RideWrap and Invisiframe on past bikes but don’t really see the point on my future silver Voima. Just wanted to be sure I wasn’t overlooking something.

Was particularly curious if impacts look worse than one would expect or if abrasion through the electrophoretic coating had any consequences I wasn’t considering.

 

[Vanquisher]

Anyone got a Raw and weren't sure about the frame protection film, decided to go for it, then when it arrived, decided it was really visible and not a good look.?? Or is it just pics that make it look so obvious??

I'm really torn on this one. I've always had Invisiframe on forks and frame and it's worked a treat when you hit the deck and kept the bike/forks scuff clear. Which is a result for keeping good second hand value in your bike. But if it looks like the pic and is that obvious, I'm a bit reluctant.

On a side note. Does the frame always come with the black Pole decals and it's just that some folks have removed them??

 

[BigG]

Black decals can be removed. They are applied on top of protective film if you order with it.
Film not very visible on my storm-grey frame and it’s very thick and protective. It’s more visible due to subsurface scattering on the photo and overall visibility depends on lighting conditions. It looks absolutely normal in person, not a hack job at all.

But If I to buy another voima or sonny I’d skip and go raw.
I do have raw uncoated pole machine since 2018 and crashed multiple times. It holds up just fine. 2018 pole is completely raw aluminum though. Raw voima is still covered by invisible coating afaik and doesn’t oxidize as easily as true raw.

 

[Vanquisher]

Black decals can be removed. They are applied on top of protective film if you order with it.
Film not very visible on my storm-grey frame and it’s very thick and protective. It’s more visible due to subsurface scattering on the photo and overall visibility depends on lighting conditions. It looks absolutely normal in person, not a hack job at all.

But If I to buy another voima or sonny I’d skip and go raw.
I do have raw uncoated pole machine since 2018 and crashed multiple times. It holds up just fine. 2018 pole is completely raw aluminum though. Raw voima is still covered by invisible coating afaik and doesn’t oxidize as easily as true raw.

Thanks a lot. So your first paragraph had me thinking, this sounds good, it's mostly the photo's that are exaggerating it on the Raw and it doesn't look like a "hack job".

Then your second paragraph says you'd skip it if you ordered again. So, why would that be if it doesn't look bad and It's thick and protective?? (it looks as thick as Helitape in the pics)

 

[BigG]

Storm grey/gold is easier to scratch, so film is a must have.
On raw scratches are less visible and easy to buff out and polish away.

I’d go filmless second time because I’d go raw color, not because I dislike the film.
Film actually does a great job and doesn’t ruin the looks really.

 

[Vanquisher]

Storm grey/gold is easier to scratch, so film is a must have.
On raw scratches are less visible and easy to buff out and polish away.

I’d go filmless second time because I’d go raw color, not because I dislike the film.
Film actually does a great job and doesn’t ruin the looks really.

Great thanks. Good point on the Raw coping with scuffs better. I am going Raw myself.

I think what happens is that, as a Voima build is so expensive (UK import taxes are huge), these types of considerations are not so straightforward, as you don't want to trash it so that it's worthless on the used market.