Where can I get my bike painted?

We often get people asking, "Where can I go to get a quality paint job in Chicago?" This can be tough because conventional paints will be soft or chip easy, and most a lot of "professional" painting operations are unskilled at handling bicycle frames. It is rare to see good results from a place that does auto painting, becuase they just aren't use to dealing with the tight bends, corners and crevases in bicycle frames. Further, most auto paints don't last long under the wear and tear of normal bicycle use.

A good alternative is to have your ride powder coated. Powder coating is about the strongest finish I've seen for bicycles. It doesn't chip easily, it's hard, and it cam be done in lots of colors and finishes.

Yuval Awazu, UV, has announced that UV Metal Arts has added professional powder coating to it's offered services. For $199.00 you can get your bike frame and fork stripped and poweder coated. UV mixes his own colors too, so you can choose practically any color under the sun. He can do cool effects such fades from one color to another (I also dig the metallic flake finishes). He can coat anything metal, and any type of metal. So if you want extras, such as a crank, stem or matching rims and hubs- UV can do it. See the pretty blue rack he powder coated above. See also the cool powder coated spokes shown here. A picture of the complete bike (build by Marcus of Yojimbo's) is below.

UV's shop is in located at Bubbly Dynamics, in Bridgeport.

If you would like to see and example of UV's work you can check out the new custom Llyod Cycles touring rig in the front window of Boulevard Bikes.