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Bought a used 2016 carbon full-sus recently. It's not had any protection on it so has a few marks on it, but nothing serious. I want to protect it from bigger dings and strap rub. If it were a new bike, Invisiframe would be a no-brainer, but I'm dithering about whether to just get a length of heli tape and do the obvious bits. Will I have problems getting it on neatly with wear on the surface? Would I be wasting my money on the full kit?
just get a length of heli tape and do the obvious bits.
This is what I do / have done on recent bikes. It's worked pretty well and kept my frames in decent nick despite a lot of riding and a bit of crashing.
It'll go on fine if you clean the frame up nicely.
Heli tape on straight tubes is great, and pretty easy to apply. When you start trying to go round corners / curves etc it's a pain - presumably this is why Invisiframe are successful. Heli tape is surprisingly expensive too.
I'd definitely do the bottom of downtube - it's usually easy to apply and that's where I get the most rock strikes. Other bits like chainstays can be a pain depending how curvy they are.
I would just get an AMS kit for the big hit/wear areas then not worry about it after that.
do the bottom of downtube
I use 2228 mastic tape for this and chainstays now, wonderful stuff.
Insulation tape... same colour if possible, but really, who actually cares.... I did my Whyte G-160 with insulation tape and it held up great, when scuffed it was 2p worth of tape to sort it.
Zefal do a kit for about £20 you will find it on Amazon.
Generic pre-cut pieces to apply to all the normal areas. Very easy to apply, much cheaper than Invisiframe, not much more expensive than helitape
I’ve also done ‘DIY’ invisiframe using the ‘car wrap’ invisiframe type sheets sold via eBay and cut my own individual sections. Paper templates then cut out round the tape.
Recall was £20 for enough to have done 2 frames.
Result actually quite decent my one learning point is down tube with lots of bottle bosses and cable guides, I did as single section with cut outs for everything. An absolute mare to then fit and lots of bubbles, with hindsight should’ve done in sections.
Depends how much time on your hands I guess and if you’d enjoy the process. I did. Mine was cheap Alu gravel frame so proper invisiframe didn’t make sense but still wanted to protect from bag and cable rub.
Pic here of head tube and cut out to deal with taper. Quite pleased with that.
Cheers folks. Good to hear that some of the cheaper options work with a bit of effort. Slightly reluctant to spend time on it, but I'm tight, so probably will! Was a bit wary of buying cheap tape of eBay with no guarantee of source, but seems like it's worked for some.
I considered buying a few metres of car wrap and selling it on - you'd get enough for at least a dozen bikes for about the same price as an invisframe kit!
Anyone want to share any links to specific ebay items/sellers, or what to look out for? There's loads of dodgy looking listings for enough "vinyl paint protection film" to do a whole car for a tenner, from China-based resellers of general tat with plenty of negative feedback. Some more reputable looking sellers, but the product descriptions aren't much different. How do you tell?
Found these:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272678092197
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265020047403
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223126359636 eBay user "paragontapes" - anyone bought this? (decent price and feedback, and matte, which would be nice - description in comic sans though 😆) See they have a website too: http://www.paragontapes.co.uk/home Presumably someone reselling the stuff in small quantities from a big roll, which is fair enough if it's decent quality.