I've had several bikes powdercoated, one painted. The powdercoating was about 1/4 the cost of the painting, but the paint job was primer, 2 coats of base, decals, 4 coats of clear, so it definitely was a notch above.

Two of the powdercoat jobs approached the paint for quality, lug definition, and impact. They will be durable well beyond the paint's toughness, and the decals went on over the powdercoat. I have no plans to clear-coat them over the decals, as modern decals are much better than older decals.

My latest powdercoated frame came out as a disappointment. It will be clearcoated over the decals, as the decal maker asked me to try that with a decal he's developed. The frame was already stripped, and was chromed under the paint. The coater didn't do a very good job masking the seat stay caps or the fork crown, and I forgot to tell him not to coat the fork ends. He said the first coat was flawed, so he re-did it. It's way too thick. I now have 2 choices: get to work with sandpaper for a couple of hours, apply the decals, and then have it clearcoated....OR.... see if he'll re-blast it and re-coat it. Frankly, with my time so limited lately, I'd pay him again to do it right, as he's very reasonable and I have a mixte yet to be coated. This bike is white, and there may be a coverage issue with white over chrome, so if it's re-done, it will be in black.

Given what I'm paying, I've got no problem if the one downer job is a learning experience, and it won't bother me to pay again. I'm sure he'll give me a decent deal.

The main attractions to powder-coating for me are 1) durability and 2) price. The quality of the coats have been, with only one exception, excellent.

The main attractions to painting for me are 1) high quality and 2) better selection of colors and paint types. The quality of the base coat/clear coat jobs have been consistently high, but they should be for the price.

I have to decide to coat or paint a Cinelli frame in the near future. The painter takes months and costs 4x the coater. At present, if I can get it powdercoated with the quality of his previous efforts, I'll go the powder coat route, sand it, and clear over the decals. I simply don't want to wait months and months for a job that costs 4x as much and doesn't really look that much better.

As my powder-coat guy gets better, the choice is easier. I hope the white over chrome job was just a bump in the road. As the frame value goes up, I think the owner of a frame should think more seriously, though, about paint vs. the powdercoat.