I first saw anodized titanium in the early 1990s, probably ’90 or ’91. I still recall the blue, purple and gold on the top tube of the titanium bike. The way the light shimmered transfixed me. I vowed that day that I would one day buy a titanium frame with an anodized finish.
There was just one problem: With the exception of the occasional One-Off Titanium frame than Leni Fried anodized, you could not source an anodized ti frame, and the difference in price between a Merlin titanium frame and a One-Off was the cost of another bike, so I gave up the dream … until just a few years ago. Thrilled as I have been by the anodized finishes that No. 22 offers, I’ve been encouraged to see someone finally offer anodizing the Joe Bell, Black Magic and Fresh Frame offer frame painting. And that someone is Ano Gary.
In the annals of the small world, Ano Gary—Gary Land—lives here in Santa Rosa and I’ve been riding with him since before I moved here.
As you can hear in the episode of The Pull I recorded with him, the process of anodizing is a study in patience. Anodized color doesn’t work the way the visible spectrum of light does, so the progression of color seems nonsensical.
The progression goes:
- ~10-15V: light gold/bronze
- ~20V: violet/purple
- ~30V: deep blue
- ~40V: light blue/teal
- ~50V: yellow-green
- ~60-70V: magenta/pink
- ~80V+: green
Each color requires going through the anodizing process in succession, which is to say if you want deep blue, you must first do the 10-15V anodizing for light gold/bronze, then 20V for purple, then 30V for blue.
I can confirm that anodized titanium cages can look pretty amazing on a carbon fiber bike. To order your own anodized cages, drop by Ano Gary.