I’ve sanded and rattle-canned some of my tri bikes in the past (I’ve been happy with the look, longevity hasn’t been the best obviously) but now I am getting a new gravel bike frame and hate the color scheme.
I want to change it up and have a connection where I could get it cerakoted but haven’t heard much about that being done on bikes.
So questions hoping to get answered:
Are people doing this?
Drawbacks? Mainly thinking weight perhaps?
Otherwise the hardness seems particularly well suited for gravel and my quick searching says it can be used on composites, specifically bike frames so… why not, right?
My only question would be around if the coating is at all brittle- and would then chip/ flake off whe you get stone flinging up off the front wheel into the downtube, especially if the composite flexes at all when struck. (But I’m no Cerakote specialist so happy to be over ruled!).
I might be misunderstanding but are you asking if cerakote is like paint (as in comes in colors)? Cerakote, like other ceramic coatings are not paint but can be put on over most hard surfaces and will protect the paint somewhat. What you will really like about using it on a gravel bike is how easy it makes cleaning…the ceramic treatment changes how the paint surface interacts with water and dirt (and everything else) so that most things don’t stick. I put some on my cross bike this fall and just hose off the mud and grime.
Prep is important for Cerakote.
If existing frames has chips and scratches it needs to be sanded/prepped so the surface is uniform. Any flaw will show up as Cerakote is so thin.
I had the great idea of having a local place Cerakote a set of Dura-Ace crankarms. I did not prep them and the outcome was not great in terms of how they looked.
Cerakote is great on frames and components and has been in use for many years with great results.
Check out the instagram account for Titanium Finishing in PA… they’ve been doing it forever with spectacular results both for frame builders and private customers.
When done properly the stuff is pretty amazing, you can plastically deform the metal that it’s painted on and it won’t crack, it’s far more durable than paint, and it’s so thin in application that it can often be painted right over threads and the like without affecting fit in a meaningful way. We’ve been doing it on bottle cages and other components for 3 years now with essentially no warranty or complaints of note. You can definitely wear through it in some environments… like 1000 bottle insert/remove cycles in a very sandy environment will abrade it off of a bottle cage, but compared to paint it’s no contest.
There are lots of beautiful colors, though the ‘effects’ you mention are pretty limited, there are some additives that give it some additional sparkle, but to get anything more than that takes numerous coats and an expert hand in the mixology.
Overall, highly recommended, very light, durable, strong/chip resistant and so on.
I bought a raw carbon frame, put it up it on the stand and wiped it down with two cerakote wipes and nothing else. That frame has 6000km on it and looks just the same as the day I coated it.
I bought a raw carbon frame, put it up it on the stand and wiped it down with two cerakote wipes and nothing else. That frame has 6000km on it and looks just the same as the day I coated it.
