Custom Paint by JB, Gallery 1
Builders who use only JB have named galleries.
View painted bikes and frames by top builders, graced by the JB touch.
Full Bike View of Keith Lippy Custom Randonneur, with bespoke racks front and back
Pre-build frame detail photos of the Keith Lippy above
Just imagine the hours it took to mask and pinstripe this amazing Pegoretti…
RICHARD SACHS CYCLES, Red CX House Industries HARD project, photo Carlos Alejandro
RICHARD SACHS CYCLES, Red RGM CX
RICHARD SACHS CYCLES, Red Pista Model
HOLLAND Time Trial and Triathalon Special
Twice as nice… the HOLLAND Tandem
This MASI was Restored in every detail by JB's team.
A carefully restored CINELLI classic road bike glowing with intense and radiant JB color.
a rack of ScHwinn Paramount Team bikes from back in the day.
On the day we took delivery and unboxed the frame,
we peeled off the layers of bubble wrap (lots of it!), and the sunlight hit the paint for the first time, we were simply stunned. In the sunlight, the paint almost explodes--it seems to be lit from inside. (The special RS red applied by Joe Bell is actually a "candy" color--a base coat of bright white is topped by several layers of translucent color; the light hits the white, bounces back through the layers of red, and creates the most amazing color effect we've ever seen on a bike.) And the color is just one aspect of an obsessively perfect paint job. The cutouts in the lugs are flawless--JB's work on this small feature involves several steps all by itself, including laying down a base coat under the color.
Below the amazing paint is Richard's stunning workmanship. The lugwork is simple and elegant--just a hint of flourish on the front of the head tube. The brazing and filing that took hours of Richard's time are reflected in the the crisp lines of the lugs, the cool "points" filed into the fork ends where they meet the blades, and in a dozen other tiny features. You can spend hours poring over this frame, finding little hidden details. Example: There's a trademark stamped on the bottom of the chainstay that has been carefully filled in with yellow highlight by JB; nobody but the owner will probably ever see it, but it's there, a reflection of his attention to detail. Example #2: The masking on the head tube crisply divides the red and white along a line that goes exactly down the middle of edge of the lug. The lug is about 1.5mm thick, so that fine line is extremely precise. You look at some of this work and think, "How did he do that?"
—Eric Norris, excerpt from Richard Sachs road test
COMMENTS:
There was a time back in the ’90s where I think we went more than a year at Bicycle Guide where Joe had sprayed every single bike we ran in Hot Tubes. I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say he is arguably the most important bicycle frame painter the U.S. has seen. Every other painter I know has cited him as an influence. The funny thing is just how modest Joe is about his own abilities. He’s far quicker to praise the work of other guys than he is to recall any of his own work.
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