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I'm just building up a 2012 Alpine 160 frame and fitted the 2011 36 floats I bought a few months ago. Now, the stantions on the forks are gold as what you'd expect but the 2012 RP23 shock is a bronze/brown colour 😕
Anybody else heard of a difference in the coatings for each year?
I've got 2011 floats with Kashima, saw some new 2012's yesterday and they are a darker colour than mine.
There was a massive difference between the different 2011 forks, my 831s were a totally different colour to my 36 floats. So yes colour differences between the years would be probable
Apparently the colour is not the Kashima coating itself (which is in fact colourless) but the colour of the anodising.
And there's also massive variation of the anodising colour within the same manufacturing year.
Just seen a video on youtube confirming the Kashima coating is darker for 2012 products. So much for me trying to get matching collar & cuffs! Touch OCD but its p*ssed me off a bit 👿