How to paint a unicycle

[HeavyPedalist]

this is how i painted my unicycle! tell me what you think!

HOW TO PAINT A UNICYCLE

[turbo5speedgl]

The green and purple look awesome together if u could paint the wheel green i think it would be perfect.

[HeavyPedalist]

ya i totally wanted to! i know some uni look SICK with the neon green rims… but the automotive shop didn’t have any bright greens. or any neon colors. just metallic and some duller colors. so the purple was my best bet. thanks tho!

[BlueFlyer83]

Nice paint job and good choice of music! Say, where did you get your K1? I bought my wife’s White Russian off of Meijer.com and the bottom bracket/bearing cups don’t look nearly as heavy duty as yours. Do their models vary that much? I was debating buying myself one too however I wasn’t too impressed with the quality of the K1’s from that site.

[unihopper]

@BlueFlyer83

Nice paint job and good choice of music! Say, where did you get your K1? I bought my wife’s White Russian off of Meijer.com and the bottom bracket/bearing cups don’t look nearly as heavy duty as yours. Do their models vary that much? I was debating buying myself one too however I wasn’t too impressed with the quality of the K1’s from that site.

The White Russian has a Devil frame, and his unicycle has a Black Domina frame. The Black Domina frame is on the Alien Backflip, Green Spirit and Black Domina Unicycles. The Devil frames have much thinner tubing than the Black Domina frames. It shouldn’t be an issue as long as you don’t land on the bearing caps really hard.

[BlueFlyer83]

Thanks Unihopper! I don’t think she’ll be doing any extreme trials stuff…I think.

[maestro8]

95% of a good paint job is preparation.

Sanding is one method to remove paint, but it’s not enough to prepare a surface for painting. Any grease, oil, etc. on the metal’s surface will prevent paint from adhering properly.

The video does nothing to stress the importance of applying successive thin coats of paint. If you want a good looking job, this is a must. If you want a “showroom finish”, intermediate sanding steps are required.

I put a written tutorial together years ago that covers these points and more:

Spray-painting your uni

I posted this in RSU a while back and it got buried… just in case you get the mad idea to rattle-can (i.e. spray paint) your uni or components thereof, this may help you achieve a paint job that’ll last a little longer than a few weeks. first, check out this case modder’s site on how to achieve a “show car” paint job (be sure to read parts one and two): how-to, part one as the site says, the first key to a good paint job is preparation. of the process, the preparation takes the most amount o…

[HeavyPedalist]

@maestro8

95% of a good paint job is preparation.

Sanding is one method to remove paint, but it’s not enough to prepare a surface for painting. Any grease, oil, etc. on the metal’s surface will prevent paint from adhering properly.

The video does nothing to stress the importance of applying successive thin coats of paint. If you want a good looking job, this is a must. If you want a “showroom finish”, intermediate sanding steps are required.

I put a written tutorial together years ago that covers these points and more:
Spray-painting your uni

yes i can see your point. but as stated at the beginning of the video… this is how i painted my uni. i understand that the vid title says how to paint a unicycle. which might not be exactly HOW to paint a uni. but rather a title i chose to get more views, interest, and so forth.

Successive thin coats of paint is pretty basic knowledge i figured. i mentioned that i put on 3 or so coats eventually. but i’ve had alot of experience with spray painting models/figurines which needed thin coats so as to not lose any detail and so yes i agree with you that thin coats are necessary. but obvious.

your article is very thorough and helpful and i only had a chance to skim over it but i’ll definitely be referring to it when i prob re-paint my uni another color just for fun after NAUCC. I wanted to use a sand blaster but I didn’t have the time to go looking around town or one to use and yeah the oils and grease should be cleaned off before painting… idk who would paint a frame with out cleaning it. i just forgot to mention some of the smaller details and appreciate your comment! thanks for the great article link though!

[HeavyPedalist]

@BlueFlyer83

Nice paint job and good choice of music! Say, where did you get your K1? I bought my wife’s White Russian off of Meijer.com and the bottom bracket/bearing cups don’t look nearly as heavy duty as yours. Do their models vary that much? I was debating buying myself one too however I wasn’t too impressed with the quality of the K1’s from that site.

makais.com has great prices for k1 unicycles. keep it on the down low tho! or prices go up if stock goes down… also i recommend what unihopper said. the black domina looks sick! kevin kartchner has one and i love it. wish i got that instead of the alien backflip. the spirit looks silly i think. some weird green splash painting and random rim colors (as far as i’ve seen) look bad with the white and green. the black domina prob looks boring on the website… but looks bad-a in person and black looks good with any color… so if you have any extra rims or neck pieces your could throw those on and make a sweet accent color with the black. but yeah…

[Dane_M]

It should also be mentioned that it is not recommended to spray paint without a respirator in a confined space (looks like you were in a garage)

I just do my painting outside, hang my item on a wire, and spray downwind.

Nice tut. You’ll bash it up and paint it again before you see any effects of adhesion issues, if there are any.

[HeavyPedalist]

it was partially raining that day and i didn’t want to wait. but i had the garage doors open halfway to help it dry quicker. and yes. good point. but ya it’s getting dinged up by now and i might paint it again at the end of the month. different color… idk! i keep learning and improving how i’ll paint my uni i guess

[Jt00]

Hey, I’m getting a black Torker DX. I had wanted the wooden-looking version, but on Amazon.com, the black version was about $70 cheaper. Not super important, but does anyone know if it’s possible to give it a wooden-looking paint job?