spray.bike - has anyone any experience?

[p3eps]

My daughter got a new bike for her birthday, and yesterday took her maiden voyage...

That now leaves her old Specialized Riprock redundant. It's bright pink, and in immaculate condition. Previously, I've found kids bikes sell for a fraction of what they cost... so I loathe the thought of selling it.

My boy is about 4 and a half, and she was 6 when she got that bike. I was considering stripping it down and having it professionally re-sprayed... and then I saw spray.bike cans online. They look fairly idiot proof... but I wondered if anyone had any experience of them?

I figured a few coats of whatever colour he likes, some OEM decals, and then a couple of coats of clearcoat on top? They're not expensive, so if I made a backside of it, I could still have someone professionally paint it - and not lose more than £20-30.

 

[steve_sordy]

I'd have a go with the spray cans, your boy can go to Halfords with you and choose the shade of red that he wants! Then at least you will always be able to touch up the inevitable scrapes.

An alternative to actual paint and maybe better for your boy could be powder coating. I was going to have that done for my grandson's bike, but it involves an oven at 180degC and I was a bit concerned about the fibre-glas rear triangle. (Yep, I know, who has heard of that ever being done on an alloy main triangle?) It would have cost about £80 vs a paint job of £110. A few years ago now.

PS: Spend more time that you think you need in preparation. It will save you time and money in the end.

Edit: I said plastic coating and I meant powder coating. Corrected. Doh!

 

[KnollyBro]

If it was my kid, I would strip it down, sand it with 400 to make sure the new paint would stick and paint with a few coats of black spray paint. Then find some stickers off Aliexpress and be done. Your boy will be happy to have a decent bike to ride and you will end up selling it again in a few years when he grows out of it. Kids are not as picky as you think if they are brought up properly to be grateful for what they have.

 

[RustyMTB]

I had one powder coated a few years ago. That came out really well. Was cheap too, about £50 from memory. Obvs would be more now but there's no end of little places dotted about industrial estates that can do it.

 

[Ark]

no one wraps bikes yet like they do with cars?

 

[p3eps]

I had one powder coated a few years ago. That came out really well. Was cheap too, about £50 from memory. Obvs would be more now but there's no end of little places dotted about industrial estates that can do it.

I have a place that powder coats our pressure recorder cases (for work) when we're refurbing them. I've sent them wheels before, and they did 4 for £100. I bet they'd do me a good deal.

 

[p3eps]

no one wraps bikes yet like they do with cars?

I wondered about that... but cars are large flat(ish) panels - and bikes are generally thin round tubes with no separate panels to hide the seams!