# Trek P1 Paint Quality



## cooleshal (Aug 25, 2010)

I recentlly bought a Trek Domane 4.0 for winter/commuting purposes and am so impressed with it I am considering going for a P1 Domane 6 Series for a summer bike.

My favoured colour option is the Matte Starry Night Black/Metal Flake Yellow but I am concerned about the stories I hear about Matte paint not being durable and harder to clean - these are stories of paint finishes from other manufacturers. I would like to hear if anyone has any experience of the Trek P1 matte paint finishes and whether recommendation is to buy or avoid matter paint finish.

My second favoured option is the Crystal White/Liquid Red, and having seen some pictures on this site, it does look good.


thanks

Paul


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## tihsepa (Nov 27, 2008)

Matte paint is a pain. It really starts to look funky after a couple of years. Marks show up right away and it can be a pain to clean. A friend of mine has a matte white bike. It looked good once. Once.


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## cxwrench (Nov 9, 2004)

Trek's matte white is MUCH easier to keep clean than say the matte white that Felt uses...it's impossible to keep clean. I wipe mine off w/ Simple Green every now and then and it looks great. 


For a minute or 3.


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## 722ish (May 7, 2012)

My old Madone 4.5 was all matte, and had some blue and white on it aside from being mostly black. The only way I could keep the matte white clean was to use a bit of gt85 and spray/wipe it down before cleaning it with some matte paint protectant and sealant after. Was a bit of a pain, but showed no wear or anything over about 5k miles. I did use cable rub patches however, and I tend to be fairly careful and picky. It looked great when I just sold it a few months back, the guy who bought it kept mentioning how it looked brand new still at least.


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## cooleshal (Aug 25, 2010)

Was about to abandon the idea of matte paint until the post from 722ish. Appreciate the honest feedback from all and it is fair to suggest that consensus so far is that matte paint requires a bit more care and attention to retain its features.

If only P1 would offer a gloss version of the Starry Night Black/Metal Flake Yellow colour scheme - I tried to simulate it using the Arenberg colourways but it is not the same.


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## GDTRFB (Feb 12, 2011)

cooleshal said:


> Was about to abandon the idea of matte paint until the post from 722ish. Appreciate the honest feedback from all and it is fair to suggest that consensus so far is that matte paint requires a bit more care and attention to retain its features.
> 
> If only P1 would offer a gloss version of the Starry Night Black/Metal Flake Yellow colour scheme - I tried to simulate it using the Arenberg colourways but it is not the same.


Starry Night Black is a glossy color, not a matte color.
I have it with platinum logos (solid, team logos).
Your combo is available on a Domane Six in that paint job.

The Domane Six is an incredible bike. I absolutely love mine.


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## GDTRFB (Feb 12, 2011)

GDTRFB said:


> Starry Night Black is a glossy color, not a matte color.
> I have it with platinum logos (solid, team logos).
> Your combo is available on a Domane Six with non-matte starry night black.
> 
> The Domane Six is an incredible bike. I absolutely love mine.


I just saw where you did see a matte starry night black. After seeing the non-matte version on my bike, my guess is that the matte version is not too good looking. I can't imagine how the reflective properties of the color would work with a matte finish. Is this possibly a typo? If not, I can tell you that the P1 people are pretty good at handling special requests. They did for me, and I have a one-off paint job.


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## 722ish (May 7, 2012)

Here's a shot of it after 5-6k miles if it's any additional help. 
It surely must be a lesser quality finish than a p1 6 or 7 series as well, and the paint held up and looked great after a few years. The white was just as bright as day 1, this photo was taken the week I sold it, earlier this summer.


I apologize, I have no idea why it is all blurry and compressed like that.


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## stabor (Nov 22, 2011)

I had matte on a series 4 and found the finish surprisingly fragile. Project One may be better, but bear in mind that touching it up with a gloss nail polish will look bad. (Maybe they make nail polish in matte too, but I doubt the color choice is very wide. Don't know much about nail polish.)


Steve




cooleshal said:


> Was about to abandon the idea of matte paint until the post from 722ish. Appreciate the honest feedback from all and it is fair to suggest that consensus so far is that matte paint requires a bit more care and attention to retain its features.


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