Experience with U5 Vaporcoat?

[Rich_W]

Sent my Madone 9rsl in for warranty for paint and creaking issues. Likely the outcome will be a replacement frameset and I'm thinking about going with the least paint/lightest option. Anyone have experience with U5 Vaporcoat? Durability? Visable defects, etc?

[Delorre]

A friend of mine has an Emonda with U5 Paint. It's really super thin and don't seem to resist very well to degreaser etc. His bike has lot's of stains around the BB area, chain stays and rear dropouts. I don't know what he is using, it's just what I see every time I ride with him.

[Delorre]

And if you go U5, before building the bike, polish it to gloss with first a medium strength car polish and after that a finishing compound and/ or Wax. I did the same with my first Canyon. That matt paint was super thin, turned to gloss in place with potential rub (top tube f.ex) and a nightmare to have an even finish. It took some time to do it well, but polish to gloss was the thing I did to that frame. So easy to clean, great resistance to scratches, you could see the nice carbon structure underneath the clear etc. Got a lot of nice comments also!!

[Rich_W]

And if you go U5, before building the bike, polish it to gloss with first a medium strength car polish and after that a finishing compound and/ or Wax. I did the same with my first Canyon. That matt paint was super thin, turned to gloss in place with potential rub (top tube f.ex) and a nightmare to have an even finish. It took some time to do it well, but polish to gloss was the thing I did to that frame. So easy to clean, great resistance to scratches, you could see the nice carbon structure underneath the clear etc. Got a lot of nice comments also!!

Totally agree and thats a great point on waxing/polishing before the build to even it out.

As for stains, the original matte cyrstal white stained if you just squinted at it. Only thing that really cleans it is a magic sponge. On top of that, cleaning the chain with a typical park tool and degreaser basically tints the whole area in grease from the spatter...