Last time I took my bike in for maintenance, the tech recommended that I cover up the many scratches on my bike with nail polish. I thought “nail polish?”, but once I got home I thought about it and it made sense that it would work. The nail polish gives the scratches a protective coating, prevents the paint from peeling, and prevents further erosion of the frame.
Above: Today, I got a chance to clean off the bike and coat the scratches.
However, I guess that not everyone thinks that using nail polish is the best solution. Here’s what this guy had to say:
Nail polish? Let’s get this right… rail riding the roofbars of moving SUVs, before trecking miles through the frozen Arctic wastes… then they go home and use their nail files to remove the rust, nail varnish to treat the scratches, and lipstick to cover unsightly marks on their seat covers? You guys are sooooo macho.
(That was sarcastic, if you couldn’t tell.) I read a few online message board discussions that dealt with this topic, and people presented several different solutions. Still, I think that using nail polish is one of the best (and easiest, and cheapest) fixes. I used clear top-coat nail polish, but I guess if you had colored nail polish you could use that instead. It would make the scratches less noticeable (you can still see the scratches on my bike, even though they are coated).