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Cruisers who can't bring themselves to pay a couple thousand dollars to replace perfectly functional parts, no matter how pretty the billet replacements are, still have a few options. Owners of bikes with cast rims can have them either polished or powder coated, or both. Spoked rim owners can have them re-laced with fancy spokes and add oversized rims.

The polishing of metal traces its roots to the time before there were motorcycles. When polishing metal, the heat generated by friction seals the metal’s pores, adding luster to the surface. Polishing is, in its most basic sense, the progressive elimination of scratches through the use of increasingly finer abrasives. The sheen comes from making the scratches in the metal so fine that they are invisible to the naked eye. In the final stages of polishing, rouges (compounds of grits, lubricants and metals which help to bring out the metal’s natural color highlights), not sandpapers, provide the ultra fine abrasives. Although brute force plays the primary role in polishing, the finesse of the detailed work separates the professional polishers from the garage metal buffs.

Powder coating is a dry finishing process in which a powder, consisting of finely ground particles of pigment and resin, is given an electrostatic charge and sprayed on the part to be coated. The charge holds the powder to the part until a curing oven melts and fuses the powder into a uniform coating. Since the powdered paint doesn't contain the volatile organic compounds (VOC) found in most liquid paints, powder coating is an environmentally friendly process that provides a durable finish. Although good powder coaters can come close to matching almost any paint color including candy colors, powder coating is slightly less flexible in color choice than paint, though much more durable.

Resources:

WWW.MANUFACTURERS.COM
WWW.MOTOHANSA.COM
WWW.BIKEBANDIT.COM
WWW.ASCYCLES.COM

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