I love my Lauf Seigla gravel bike, but after two years, 10,000 miles, and two trips to Unbound Gravel, my paint is pretty scraped up and chipped from all the mud and gravel. My plan for now is to strip it down at the end of the season to get the frame repainted by some local pros. This gives me the opportunity to create a wild custom paint job.
I’m super excited, but being presented with a blank canvas is pretty intimidating. I’ve never had custom paint and I have no clue what I want. Do I go for something subtle or ostentatious? Do I want clean and sharp lines or something more freeform? In the search for inspiration, I took a stroll around the TPC warehouse. It didn’t take long for something to catch my eye.
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This is a 2023 Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL7. In my opinion, Specialized has some of the best stock paint in the business, and it often saves its wildest designs for its top-of-the-line S-Works models.
The colorway of this particular Tarmac has one of the most absurdly long names I’ve seen: "Gloss Marbled Lagoon Blue-Purple Haze - Orchid-Blaze/Violet Purple Topcoat/Midnight Shadow." Count up all those colors and that’s… 5? Yeah, 5 different colors on a single frame.
These colors are splattered on the frame in a “marbled” pattern that reminds me of a Jackson Pollock painting. (Maybe there’s a better artist to reference, but my knowledge of art is limited.) This Tarmac looks like nothing else out on the road and I was instantly drawn to it. Maybe I’ll request something similar for my Lauf Seigla when the time comes.
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Ashton Lambie's custom-painted Lauf has just as many colors as the Marbled Lagoon Tarmac, but the design is much simpler. Is that better? Photo: Ben Delaney
I do wonder if I’ll get tired of paint this loud. I’m also vain enough to worry about some of my kits no longer matching my bike (silly, I know). The pearlescent white paint is one of the main reasons I chose my current bike. It’s simple, refined, and timeless, and it matches everything.
Sometimes, I think paint like this is too much. Then I look back… and I keep looking… and I daydream about owning it. I think about all the graffitied walls I’d pose it against. I think about how it will stand out from all the other bikes at my next race or group ride. I think about pedaling it into the sunset, and looking down at a rolling piece of art between my legs.
Maybe "Gloss Marbled Lagoon Blue-Purple Haze - Orchid-Blaze/Violet Purple Topcoat/Midnight Shadow" is exactly what I want.
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