Wheel Bling

simonp123

In all the photos I see of wheel rims etc, they have loads of "bling" stickers ll over them. Is it possible to get them without all this? I have 2 reasons for wanting this, 1 it all looks a bit OTT to me and second I don't want to advertise to the local scallys when I ride past the fact I have expensive wheels on my bike, so it doesn't become more inviting to nick :evil:

njee20

Peel them off?

Jayng

buy cheap rims. Or take the stickers from the cheap rims and put them on ur exxy rims.


or... just peel the stickers off?

kidding mate.

But really, most of it are stickers. And i just can't seem to keep my stickers on!

.blitz

Stickers peel off easily if you heat them up with a hair dryer. Remove any stubborn adhesive with WD40 and you'd never know they were there.

simonp123

Some of them looked like they might be painted, hence my concern, but as you say a sticker will just come off, so no worries.
It would all just look somewhat odd as I dress in quite a stealth way, mostly grey and black (though my bike is gold and the Camelback is citronella ) so having loud shouty wheels would look odd. you can tell I'm getting old (well over 40) can't you?

llamafarmer

This has to be the first thread I've read on here where somebody wants to deliberately de-bling their bike

simonp123

llamafarmer wrote:

This has to be the first thread I've read on here where somebody wants to deliberately de-bling their bike

Really? I thought the MTBers were subtle, and it was the roadies who liked their bling

I just think it looks a bit tacky on the wheels, elsewhere on the bike is fine. Maybe I'm just wierd.

ashfanman

Fit these

It would draw attention away from the stickers and simultaneously put off all but the most craven bike thief.

Yukon Lad

i reckon the lairy graphics on the wheels look awesome (have a look at the mavic deemax) as long as it suits the bike, with regards to the local scum wanting to nick your bike yes, it probably wouldn't help the situation because of their magpie like traits, just have them sprayed in a colour to match your bike, will still look good and not be as attractive to the local scum

Yukon Lad

simonp123

ashfanman wrote:

Fit these

It would draw attention away from the stickers and simultaneously put off all but the most craven bike thief.

Yeah, would stop all but the most tasteless theif, but I'd have to ride wearing a paper bag over my head

simonp123

Yukon Lad wrote:

i reckon the lairy graphics on the wheels look awesome (have a look at the mavic deemax) as long as it suits the bike, with regards to the local scum wanting to nick your bike yes, it probably wouldn't help the situation because of their magpie like traits, just have them sprayed in a colour to match your bike, will still look good and not be as attractive to the local scum

Yukon Lad

It's a shame I have to ride through a scally bit of town to get to the local riding route, but there you go.

Back in the early 90's when i had a shiny new Marin Palisades (matt grey with luminous yellow forks 8) ) I got followed all the way home by a pair of dodgy looking geezers in a van luckily I led them down the wrong road and nipped up the pavement and lost them or I reckon the bike would have been gone from the shed a few days later :roll:

hoathy

most really nice wheels don't have too ott graphics on them. Most decent handbuilt wheels with Mavic rims only have a little(ish) yellow sticker with xm317/xc711 etc. written on it. Its only those annoying crossrides and xt factory built wheels which i'm pretty sure people only get because of the way they look that have the annoying graphics. Do yourself a favour and get some quality understated xts/hope pro 2s on the decent rim of your choice.

Father Faff

When I lived in London and got my new Trek 930 from Brixton Cycles in exchange for doing their accounts I got them to wrap it in old inner tubes which made it twice as heavy but much less attractive to the locals. I stll have it in the shed, minus inner tubes, with it's heavy old frame, side pull brakes, rigid forks, etc. Can't imagine anyone would want to steal it now. Any offers....?

And now I want some bright red DT E2200s for my Meta 5 to match my red Moab lock-ons......

accrington guy

flip side of it now - where can you get fancy stickers/graphics for wheels ?

hoathy

on annoying factory wheels.