My First Bicycle Frame

I have been powder coating now for somewhere around 4 years. I have done countless sets of wheels and motorcycle frames and other car and motorcycle parts. I've even done some one off coating projects like handrails and milk jugs. But the one thing i hadn't coated in 4 years was a bicycle frame. I began spreading craigslist adds in all the bike sections in the local area's trying to get one call to coat one just to find out what it was like. I knew that one day someone would call and want one done and I had no idea how to price them.

Finally early this year I got a call from a gentleman who had a tandem bike frame he needed coated. After talking with him for awhile not only did he need it coated he needed a custom fade on it. Not exactly what i wanted to jump head first into for my first bicycle frame but you have to start somewhere might as well take a challenge.

The project started with a trip to my off site sand blaster, Consolidated Stripping. They have huge industrial blasters you can rent space in by the hour which is great for these bigger projects that don't fit in my in shop blast cabinet. After getting the bike all cleaned up and prepped it was time to lay some color. The fade was a little tricky on this only in the sense that they wanted certain tubes certain colors. After about 30 minutes of spraying the colors were laid out in a nice custom fade that i thought the customer would like so into the oven it went.

Once it emerged from its baking cycle the frame looked great. The customer was ecstatic about it and is now bringing me more and more bike frames.

Travis Ridenour

TLR Coatings

TLRCoatings.com

Kalamazoo, Michigan