Getting Loose on a Recluse!

My latest project is Intense’s all-mountain machine, the Recluse.  New for 2017, the Recluse features a monocoque carbon frame, 150mm front / 140 mm rear suspension travel, and boost-spaced 27.5” wheels.

As with all #Chainlined builds, the bike that left the factory and the finished product will be vastly different (because life’s too short to stay stock).  The Recluse will be equipped with a variety of Deity, SRAM, DVO, and Hope components, but more on that later…  First, the bike must be stripped down to the naked frame and given a sweet new paint job!

After a few coats of primer, the next step is masking... You don't know tedious manual labor until you've spent EIGHT HOURS delicately cutting & covering every square inch of your frame with tiny strips and squares of tape.

I'll be honest, given all that work and how cool the design looked, part of me considered grabbing the clear coat and calling it right then.  Luckily I grabbed a beer instead and carried on haha.

After masking comes the fun part... Paint (fumes lol).

After laying down the first layers of paint and removing the masking, you can really see the design start to come together.  If you've kept up with my last couple builds (the Black Condor ACV & Agatha the Primer), you've seen me do some interesting things with gold leaf.  Just wait until you see how copper leaf I lay pops against this sky blue and pepto pink background!