Right then, let me tell you about the studs thing.
I’m gonna start with a confession - I’m really not a huge fan of the whole frit look. I love the secure and reassuring grip it gives and it’s obvious advantages over griptape. Thing is, even when it’s done really, really well, to my eyes, it just looks crude, messy, lumpy, unrefined and like a surface job that got all bubbled and blistered and bleh somehow. I’m not gonna post photo examples. You know what I’m talking about.
I was looking for a better alternative when I did the Disco Panther but couldn’t find anything better. Criteria were:
- Grippy! Sharp
- Durable, hard-wearing
- Mustn’t obscure or distract from the graphic design
…ideally add to- or be part of the design, even
- Appears more precise, deliberate and orderly
- Makes you want to lick it
I finally found these studs in 3, 2 and 1 mm in various finishes:
They’re perfect sizes for the purpose and the proportions are great. You get a decent sized base surface area to adhere down to the deck and to resist the shearing forces they’ll get… proportionally speaking, that is, cos Christ on a bike, they’re so insanely fiddly to work with! I mean, they’re miniscule! I tried a few different approaches to getting them set onto the deck including pre-fixing them to a glass-fibre weave to then laminate onto the design but in the end, I went with just laboriously gluing each one directly onto the laminated deck and then applying the numerous coating layers over them to properly lock them into place.
There’s loads more I could tell you about that whole process and I definitely will. I’ve learned so much so far and I expect to learn so much more as I continue. Once I’ve finished these first four, I’ll do a complete and thorough write-up on the whole process - maybe with some videos too - so you can all do it as well if you want. By then you’ll benefit from everything I learned from getting it wrong and from making it better. Considering everything I’ve gained from this community over the years, it’s important to give back.
But back to those studs themselves…
Yeah, I do. These studs are ultimately decorative ornaments or something. They’re definitely not intended for this purpose. They’re like plated alloy trinkets so I’m wondering if…
- …they’re going to wear out/down significantly quicker than glass, dulling their sharpness and grippiness.
I’m hoping that the generous number of coating layers I’m applying would help slow that down though, if it’s actually a thing at all.
- …bonding to what is basically just a plating layer might cause studs to come loose over time.
You can see above that I’m building a solid meniscus of epoxy around each stud so there’s next to no chance of that.
…but you never know until you try!
I’m thinking silver on the Benetton and the Martini, and gold of course on the JPS.
AMIRITE!? 
. This ain’t my thread though, 
