How to turn your bike into a tiger (13 steps)

Half way through doing this, I thought 'what have I done... this is gonna be so embarrasing, I'm just gonna look like a Frosties advert...'. But! check it out, it turned out pretty cool huh?

You will need:

• Quality bike paint from Spray.Bike: Blackfriars (400ml), Whitechapel (200ml) (optional for underside), Mustang (400ml).
• Masking tape
• A knife and board so you can carve stripes out of the masking tape.
• Allen keys
• Screwdriver
• Crank puller/extractor to remove pedal arms
• Chain breaker tool (if your chain needs one)
• Degreaser
• Something to scrub your bike with
• Newspaper
• Fine sandpaper or lint free cloth (like old glasses polishing cloth), for removing excess paint.

Steps:

1. Dismantle your bike down to just the frame and fork.
2. Scrub all dirt and grease off so the paint can grip the surface (also remove any stickers and labels, as the paint might not stick well to these).
3. Set your bike up outside or in a garage and lay some newspaper underneath so you don't paint your garden.
4. Spray time! Apply a layer of black and leave to dry (instructions from Spray.Bike).
5. While the black is drying, start cutting stripes out of the masking tape with the knife and cutting board - go for lots of different sizes/shapes. Lightly stick them to something you can carry around your bike (like a DVD case) so they are easier to apply later:

6. After an hour or so, rub down the black paint with the sandpaper/cloth to remove any powdery build up, so the next layer sticks well.
7. After another hour, the black paint should be completely dry, so you can start applying the stripes you've been cutting out. When placing them try to keep the same direction/orientation of the stripes for each area (and look at a picture of a tiger for reference).

8. Keep applying stripes until the bike is suitably covered.
9. If using white paint, flip the frame upside down and apply the paint on all the bottom and inner parts of the frame, with some overlap to the rest of the frame so it can be blended with the orange. Don't forget to do the fork!
10. Next, flip the bike back over and spray the orange all over, being careful to blend it nicely with the white. Still don't forget the fork!
11. Give the paint at least 2 hours to dry, so it doesn't get damaged in the next step.
12. The best bit - peel off all the stripes with great satisfaction to reveal your new tiger bike!
13. Give the paint another 12 hours to completely cure before rebuilding your bike, and then voila!

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