It’s something of a tradition to do a special paintjob for World Championship bikes. This is the bike that Aaron will be piloting at Val di Sole this weekend.

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The finished build (Pic: YT Industries/Instagram)

It’s a hand painted YT Industries Tues. We like it.

Pics by David Ohl

Gwin has been at World Champs before (still never won one) but YT Industries have not. So this is the first opportunity they’ve had to go to town with a crazy World Champs paintjob.

Only they haven’t gone particularly crazy. The design is one of the more sedate yet stylish World Champs paintjobs we’ve seen. Its matte finish is a particularly tasteful idea.

I can’t be easy having to work around the American flag and avoid ending up with a naff or kitsch final result. The USA flag detailing is well executed. Not that many stars anywhere. Some nice red and white stripes on the linkage and in the extended seat tube area.

The actual painting of the frame was done by a skilled German guy called Adrian Flor from Dresden. Flor spent around 50 hours in total working on the frame. There’s hardly any sticker work used on the bike (it was deemed too easy) so pretty much everything is Flor and his airbrush, masking tape and scalpel.

As well as the sheer talent and skill of the painting, Flor also had to work within a ‘budget’ of allowed paint. YT didn’t want him to go over the usual 300g of paint they apply to their Tues frames. In the end Flor used just 230g of paint.

Let’s just show a load of lovely piccies shall we..?

It’s a lovely, lovely paintjob… but will it help Aaron Gwin finally win his first World Championship? We shall find out this weekend.