Our five year old tandem is powdercoated white and while we try to take care to avoid scratches and such, it has proven difficult. Transporting it to our ride starts seems to be as rough as anything we do while riding. I like pristine stuff but you can choose to polish or use and we choose to use our bike and use our time doing other things other than cleaning and polishing. That said, I'll not choose another white bike unless it's an extremely good deal.