After close to 500km the Xtracycle is still performing well. I actually look forward to my daily commute now. Although I'm very happy with the Free Radical kit I do have one small criticisim. The finish on the snapdeck appears to be secondrate. The lovely wooden look of the snapdeck is reminiscent of an old surfing longboard and is for the eyes the highlight of the whole package. It is a shame then that for the price of a couple of coats of quality marine varnish the manufactures have opted for a thin, easily scratched coating that may as well not be there. Mine is starting to show signs of wear, and UV damage after only 2 weeks. It's a problem that is easy enough to recitfy and it is only cosmetic, but it's still a shame. I am over the moon about the rest of the product. Becuase of this I got to thinking about recoating my snapdeck. While I'm at it I thought, why not personalise it a bit. Here's a few of my first ideas created in photoshop.
These are the original graphics. Quite nice but not hard wearing at all.
My first thought was to just go plain wood. This bit of plywood is a bit plain but with the right grain (and stain) it could look very nice.
A variation of the original idea but with a green stripe to match my frame and a white heron.
A simpler variation.
I'm really liking this one. I could get a decal made from my photoshop drawing, then varnish over the top to protect it.
I'll post more ideas as I have them.
7:27:45 PM 
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