03 Dec 2007

I’ve had an inkling…….well, it’s not really an inking because I’ve been aware of it from day one, so it’s just say it occurred to me from the day I first drew a stripe that the stripey goodness that is the Thylacine may not appeal to everyone. I know, you’re shocked. Actually I don’t know what’s more shocking - the fact that I was aware of the possibility, or the fact that I did it anyway. So, in the great style of the old Bontrager frames, I went the full literal stripey top tube panel.

Despite the fact that it probably took me 4 months to settle on a design, I’ve never really been super-dooper happy with the top tube decals. I knew people wouldn’t ‘get it’ because a good chunk of the cycling fraternity couldn’t get their brain past ‘it looks like a tiger’, and that for some it would be a bit too kitch and/or literal. Both are fair points. However, this is THYLACINE Cycles, so what would it be without something stripey? The stripes are the animals icon, it’s readily distinquishable marque, and I’m at the point where the idea of not having them would be akin to sacrilege.

So, what’s a guy to do for the illustrious 2008 season, but spend another stupid amount of time revamping the icon. Behold the new stripey-stripes!

Yep, we’ve gone all post modern and more figurative, so for any frames ordered after December 31st, that is what you’re gunna get! Headbadge and downtube decals remain unchanged for ‘08.

Posted by warwick @ 7:01 am

2 Responses to “Even more new schtuff for ‘08”

1. Tim Rowe Says:
   December 3rd, 2007 at 7:31 am

   Is this the design for all frames, or just the team ones? I like it, but for the team frames that orange honeycomb you posted photos of 18+ months back still looks kickass, and it’s unfortunate we’ve not seem more with that paintjob.

   The only thing I personally think could be an improvement/addition (and this is just my personal opinion here) is that nowhere on the frame does it say what it is. It’s be nice to see on the top tube, seat tube or seat stay the model name, eg ‘Arete SL’, ‘Ether’ etc. But I can also see reasons against it

2. thylacine Says:
   December 3rd, 2007 at 7:41 am

   Tim,
   I actually don’t like the idea of model names. In fact, I only dreamt up model names so it would help people compare apples with apples.
   In a perfect world, I wouldn’t have any - a customer would just say “I want a steel 26″ hardtail” and I’d build whatever I thought was the perfect bike.

   Of course the other reason there’s no model name decals is we simply have too many models now and it would be ridiculously expensive to do separate decals for them all!!!

   FYI it’s only the top tube decal that is new. The Team Paint is still available to anyone that wants it - I just put the new decal on a Ti frame in the above picture because we’re doing quite a few of them these days so that’s just what I happened to be designing at the time.

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