Painted, Packed and Shipped

Back in Portland late last night, I picked up the frame this morning at the power coating shop (Brooker Enterprises on SE Powell Blvd.), packed it up and shipped it for home International Express Mail together with some Velocity A23 rims for wheels that I will build (under $100 postage -- pretty cheap for 3~4 business day delivery to Tokyo of a large box w/ frame and rims for 3 wheels -- the Cyclocross set and my next dynamo hub wheel).

The paint job is about what I expected for $100, knowing that the places that do work for custom framebuilders charge three times as much or more.  There are some slightly uneven spots, but it looks nice and they did manage the dark color on the stays and lighter main triangle.  Very nice for a cyclo-cross bike.  I hope some day I can build a frame that is worthy of a beautiful liquid paint job.

I still need some kind of decals or stencils.  I was thinking of "Portlandia", but I see that there already is a "Portlandia" model sold by Pilen, a Swedish firm.  And looking the Pilen Lyx Portlandia, that shopping/commuter bike is really much more suited to the moniker, having a dynamo hub, front luggage rack, fenders, etc.  The whole standard rig.  I'll need a name that is appropriate for cyclo-cross, something that evokes images of victory in mud.

And now a week later it has arrived in Tokyo!

Is this Art?