Help, the red anodisation on my middleburn RS7 cranks has gone a nice shade of well faded red, (Admittedly after 3 yrs hard use and its clashing with the bike (Ohh god im a tart...) how can i get rid of it without resorting to emory paper

mercury is terrrible effective at removing aluminium oxide... unfortunately, after that it won't stop removing it :)

just leave them you pimpy tart!!!!

I did a chemistry project on anodizing aluminium once. Sodium Hydroxide removes the oxide layer, but unfortunately this then leaves you with bare aluminium. This oxidises again naturally, but the natural oxide layer (as opposed to the aodizing one) is structurally weak and I don't know wether you'd want to go about anodizing your cranks again.

try to get them powder coated or take them to a Car respray place and slip the geezer a tenner to spray them up black, dont know how well it will stick but may be worth a go.