The winter refuses to let up. It’s -12 on April 7th and snowing lightly. I understand that snow in April in Calgary is a normal event, but it’s supposed to be “Victoria-style”: snow squalls that melt again. This is frigid.
So, I’m still riding Zwift indoors, but starting to prep for the season. I have stripped my red/silver decals off of my Roubaix in preparation for a new set which are on their way.
I am going to apply them as soon as they arrive.
The story of the new decals is a mix of good and bad. Tammy bought me the original red/silver from an eBay seller back in April 2016. I got tired of the unrelieved black of my Roubaix almost immediately and lusted after some colour. The picture that really inspired me was this:
The eBay seller’s listing was simpler and different colours, but I really liked the result. I didn’t get a lot of compliments, mostly because once I applied the decals, it looked stock. Even Tammy today was surprised that I had applied the silver decals.
It was apparent soon after I applied them that they would not last forever. There were narrow and pointy bits that started peeling. I fixed them up, but the lifespan of the bike was going to be longer than the lifespan of the decals. Unfortunately, the eBay listing was no longer up. The seller was still there, but selling other decal packs for other bikes. I considered a few options, including buying a hobbyist computer-driven cutter. Vinyl is available, but it didn’t have any pattern to go from.
I reached out to the seller (in Hungary) and they said: buy one of the other decal sets in the listings, and then follow up specifying the actual bike and colours. I did so, and I attached the Astana picture above. I didn’t expect a lot. Perhaps blue on the “outside” and yellow on the “inside”. But then he sent me a mockup for approval:
This is where things went sideways. I was so excited. I wanted to get these so badly that I immediately hit the “buy” button. The problem was, I hadn’t updated my shipping address on eBay since before we moved from Sooke. It took me over a week to realize that the decals were not actually coming to me. Dad went out to our old address a couple of times to try to speak to the current owner, but was not successful.
At that point, a month had passed, and I was not happy. There still was some possibility that the Sooke recipient got the package and sent it back, but I wanted to cut my losses. I ordered a second set from the seller (after correcting my address) and they are on their way. If the first set end up back in Hungary, I will pay for the shipping for a second set.
But the long-term plan involves getting the cutter. When I get these decals, I am going to scan them. Then I will have a pattern to work from.
The new decals look great