Speedvagen has just started sending out this year’s batch of their unique ‘Surprise Me’ bikes. For another year, several brave new bike buyers have left their paint jobs completely in the hands of the Portland, Oregon based custom frame builder Sacha White. White’s Vanilla Workshop has been churning out Surprise Me paint jobs since the 2007 cross bikes at the start of the Speedvagen brand. In those years there have been some crazy designs, but it looks like the 2017 buyers have lucked out in a classy polka dot design, with a unique color combination for each bike….
Speedvagen Surprise Me 2017
This year is all about dots for the Surprise Me bikes.
White says he kinda fell in love with the little circles and finally decided the team needed to do a completely polkadot bike.
Then to balance out all of that perfect round geometry they settled on doing the text and logos freehand to add a bit of variety. While it didn’t take too long to figure our the dots, there was a lot of “trial and error trying to make unicorns freehand with a paint brush”.
Every Surprise Me bike features a different combination of colors – from classy & understated to more bright variations.
The dots even make their way to accessories beyond the frame & fork, like painted-to-match hubs, seatpost topper, stems & frame pumps. Speedvagen is even color matching their new anodized dropout faces and the headbadge.
Under the tagline of “No hints. No regrets.” any new Speedvagen buyer can opt for the Surprise Me finish. If you are overly cautious, you can always wait until the designs are revealed though. Any new bike ordered through the end of this year can still opt for Surprise Me. It will get the same design & layout, but who knows what colors it will pick. Maybe even some exceptionally loud combination to reward you for waiting?
