The importance of decals

In my opinion, decals can make all the difference when repainting a bike. Getting stock decals from eBay is one option I've done in the past, like on my Colnago restoration (bike was powdercoated):

But more recently, I've had some fun picking out a new font and choosing my own color to compliment the new frame color:

Schwinn above was spray painted using Krylon

Gunnar was powdercoated

In the above two examples of the Schwinn and the Gunnar I bought the decals from a small online business called www.bikenames.com. They've always have good communication, the prices are reasonable, they're quick and even better I can send him a font I've found online that I like and he takes care of the rest.

For the Raleigh Randonneur project, I'll be using metallic gold vinyl and the font is called Birmingham. It'll look something like this:

Raleigh Randonneur

I've had this bike for over two years now, bought originally off of Craigslist for $60 when I needed a bike to trek the 3 miles to my then job working as a marketing analyst for a small printing company.

I made some functional improvements in the thing, swapped out the cottered cranks for more modern three piece variety. New handlebars, Suntour bar end shifters, I even repainted the rusting downtube one weekend. The bike was transportation, nothing more. And nothing less, I needed it and couldn't tackle a repair or project that meant it wouldn't be ready for duty come Monday.

I don't work at the same place anymore, or live in the same place anymore, and I own a modern day station wagon now, so the bike has sat in the garage. Until now.

The Raleigh Randonneur project is on.