– Watch video below –
(Paid advertisement)
Clark Brooker built his powdercoating business by painting custom chopper motorcycles. But, being based in SE Portland (at 3714 SE Powell), he can’t ignore how many bicycles he sees around the neighborhood. Sensing an opportunity, Clark (and his son Brad who works with him) decided to focus on painting bicycles.
Locally owned. Supportive and focused on bikes. Brooker Enterprises is the perfect business to help us launch a new feature here on BikePortland.
In partnership with filmmaker Dan Kaufman from CrankMyChain Cycle TV, we’ve created a short video-story about Brooker Enterprises. Brooker has paid us for playing this on the Front Page. This is a new advertising program we have developed as a way to sustain and improve BikePortland. Dan, Elly and I are approaching select local businesses with this opportunity. The idea is to make short films that provide you with informative and interesting content, give exposure to local, bike-friendly businesses, and provide us with a much-needed revenue stream.
Check out the video below (if you have questions/feedback about this new video-story ad program, please contact us privately):
— Check out BrookerEnterprises.com for more info or bring your old bike into their shop at 3714 SE Powell. You can also call Brad or Clark at (503) 236-2565.
I just found these guys eariler this week. Brooker says it’s $100 for a powdercoat, and their color options are great.
I had a bike painted there two years ago…they did a great job. Highly recommended.
I’d love to be able to pay $10 or $20 a year to my local bikeportland.org or streetsblog affiliate to make sure they remain ‘of the people’.
I hear you Peter…but I can guarantee that this site will always remain “of the people”. if it ever veers from that, please let me know.
I would love if I could keep things moving forward solely with individual contributions, but that is not as easy as you might think.
Also, a big part of what I hope this site can do is to help local, bike-friendly businesses prosper. My vision for this new video ad program is to create compelling content (and remember, Dan and I have creative control, not the advertiser) that introduces folks to a new product/service/business and also provides us with revenue so we can continue to offer more original reporting and other features.
sorry to veer off topic… I’d like to keep these comments more focused on powdercoating. If anyone has questions about the paid-video-story program, please get in touch with Elly at elly@bikeportland.org.
pretty cool.
Good to see a local business shift to offer bike services.
Also Smart way to monetize your site while staying true to all things bike.
That is sweet
Awesome! I wondered how powder coating worked. Now I know! “Pinky” looked so sweet after the powder coating.
I have an old MTB that’s now my single-speed. It has a rattle-can paint job that’s mostly gone.
I’m sold! This spring I’m taking it to Brooker Ent.
Any word on if/how they are ensuring the frames actually belong to the person bringing them in?
I recently noticed their new sign identifying that they paint bicycles too as I was driving down Powell.
I’m looking at my bike right now that I had powder coated there about a year ago. They did a great job for a reasonable price. I got a cool green that changes tint/hue depending on the thickness of the coating.
Tell that guy spraying the powder cost to please wear a mask!
I’ve used Brookers for about a dozen powdercoat jobs. They’ve always done a good job at a reasonable price.
@steve,
I highly doubt that someone who rips off a bike is then going to turn around and pay $$$ to have it professionally painted. That said, i wish there was an easy way for everyone in the bike community to check for stolen serials.
The video-ad can be a good thing; I appreciated learning more about the actual powder-coating process. As long as you stick with this kind of format and don’t descend into wholesale shilling I think you’re onto something.
Highly doubt it all you want, it happens regularly. We see them in the shop all the time. Usually it is a cheap rattle can job, but we have seen them professionally done.
I have a friend that had 3 bikes stolen. When they were recovered each had been repainted. All three had been powdercoated. It seems a perfectly legit question.
What are they doing, if anything, to ensure the bike belongs to the person having it repainted?
As far as “ads” go this was pretty awesome. Its educational, its local, its relevant to the site and I would not have known about their services without this. That being said I really appreciate your disclaimer on this being an ad. Very professional. As a consumer of this site I can say I like this ad and will not only continue to read this site, but will use this (and hopefully other) businesses that advertise here. Keep up the good work Jonathan, and I hope this helps you guys run this site (and recover form your robbery).
“I have a friend that had 3 bikes stolen… All three had been powdercoated.”
I stand corrected. Were they Uber-expensive rides, or did the thief work at a powder coating shop? Otherwise, it makes no sense to me.
“sorry to veer off topic… I’d like to keep these comments more focused on powdercoating.”
IMHO, the real story here IS the conflict of interest. I value this site tremendously as a resource, and Jonathan, you’ve never given me reason to doubt your integrity, but this is a slippery slope. Our “traditional” media outlets didn’t turn to mush overnight. The path from journalism to infomercial happens one tiny justifiable step at a time.
I had an 80’s Nishiki frame/fork powder coated a nice seafoam green there last summer. Turned out real nice IMO but I’m hardly an expert.
steve – not sure they check to see if it’s stolen but the serial number is still clearly visible on the frame I had done there.
JV (#16), as long as you disclose the two competing interests, there is no ethical issue. The reader is fully informed and can make up their own mind. And the fact that this is a paid advertisement is disclosed in bold at the second sentence in the second paragraph. Anyone who’s read the site for long will know that Jonathan will disclose when this is the case.
More to the point, I too wonder what the owner could do to screen stolen frames. This seems like a simple, if perhaps a bit expensive (for thieves), way of obscuring a theft.
I am all for local business adverts.
Re Steve’s comments: Are you kidding me? How do you know whether a bike in a bike shop that is getting maintenance isn’t stolen?
Stop slandering Clark Brooker and his business.
I am going to bring them some VW parts to coat and see how they do.
Thanks!
i second #14!
Thanks, Jonathan, that was fascinating —
Brooker did a powder coat of an old B’stone frame for me about a year ago & it’s held up great – still lustrous, & seemingly impossible to scratch despite my best negligence. The powdercoat does seem to be a dust magnet, for some reason(?).
It would be good to have a bit of info. on prepping a bike for powdercoating – a special tool is needed to remove the headset (i used the Bike Repair Collective’s) and not everybody has the tools to remove a bottom bracket. And what about head badges…?
Maybe this is the next instuctional video. Keep ’em coming.
I got my fenders powdercoated there. They are wonderful! They had a great selection of colours, they were pretty fast and did a great job.
Can the powder coat plastic fenders? Can they add reflective beads or something to the mix like they do on pavement stripes. K’t maybe you could do this for your next bike? 😉
This is useful information. I can’t afford to get my bike painted at the moment, but it is a goal of mine to get my mixte repainted.
I remember seeing this shop’s sign and thinking, “Seriously? Awesome!”
And, I think that this kind of advertising fits in great with the site. As long as the ads are for locally owned bicycle-related businesses, and we are told when something is paid advertising, I have no problem with it. We learn something new and possibly useful and bikeportland.org gets financial support so they can keep up their excellent reporting. Sounds like a win-win all around to me!
Re:
“Tell that guy spraying the powder cost to please wear a mask!”
The neat thing about the powdercoat process is that it’s not spraying particles into the air. The plastic powder is electrostatically charged, which attracts it from the “gun” to the frame, where it’s held temporarily while the frame is put in an oven and the coat is melted onto the surface. It doesn’t spray excess particles into the air where they can be inhaled.
It looks like they’ve got the process down. I might have my vintage Lightning recumbent:
http://home.comcast.net/~jeff_wills/lightning/index.htm
redone in “Eddy Mercyx” orange.
Jonathan – I’m fine with the video ad. You got to make a living. Working in non-profit finance has made me realize how hard it is to find public interest projects. BikePortland is clearly, and will remain a public interest project, I have faith.
As from Brooker – rock on! That is great. I’ll likely get my beat Gunnar Sport redone in the spring 20,000 miles have not been kind to the paint. Now I just need to find someone to paint on a few details for a reasonable amount of cash.
I prefer Class Act.
Sweet… I have a beat up hot pink 80’s Univega. I would love to get it repainted.
What a great ad. It’s so rare that an advert offers something that I would actually want, but wouldn’t otherwise know about.
a dub #24, you can powdercoat anything that will stand up to around 425 degrees, twice. Once to preheat/clean it and then again to bake the finish on.
as far as the mask goes, what you didnt see was the huge suction filter pulling excess material in. the process works by giving a negative charge to the ‘paint’ and a positive charge to the object. usually you can thicken the coat by adjusting the power of the current. with this system there just isnt that much product left floating around, my guess is the local craft baker inhales more flour dust in a day than the local powder coater.
Awesome! I’m totally doing this. Anyone know how much it costs if you don’t break your bike down beforehand? I mean, could I roll in my entire bike and they’ll take care of disassembling/reassembling ? How much more is that? I can’t find prices on their site..
Also, how long does it take. Could this be done in a day?
re: Steve’s stolen frame question
I have an old (but awesome) Univega given to me from a friend two years ago. I would love to get it painted like this, but if the shop investigated as to my ownership of the bike, I would have nothing more convincing to offer them than someone who had stolen the bike would. In a city with so many bikes with stories like this, I’m not sure how a shop can verify ownership without compromising a large amount of their business from actual bike owners.
Anyone know if they can throw any 3M or glass beads into the powder coat to turn the whole frame reflective at night? That would be worth its weight in gold.
steve: just curious, how do I prove that a frame I bought at Goodwill is mine exactly?
Really, this is not a powdercoat shop’s responsibility. Before about 1971, stock Harley Davidson frames don’t even have serial #s, the VIN is on the engine. I doubt it’s a powdercoater’s responsibility to find out whether a HD frame is hot or not.
And, you can’t powdercoat anything the doesn’t conduct electricity, so obviously you can’t powdercoat plastic. That’s what makes it electrostatic powdercoating.
I am totally okay with local businesses getting an opportunity to advertise to the public in such a professional way. I found the video to be extremely eye opening and informative. I am all for this ad campaign. It is helping this site stay up and promoting local business! Sweet!
While I don’t really have a problem with advertising on a site, I do have a problem with it being mixed in with content without being clearly identified. Yes, it does say “this is paid for”, but only after you have clicked through. It needs to say that above the fold.
Well, I learned a lot! I didn’t know what powder coating was, now I do. And Pinky looks amazing. Definitely cool that a motorcycle builder not only recognizes a new market but is embracing it.
As for this being a paid ad…Jon is a dear friend of mine – consider that my disclaimer.
It wasn’t that long ago when the only income he saw from this site was some voluntary donations, a raffle here and there, and sticker and shirt sales – sorry to say, that combination of resources was not – and still isn’t – more than a trickle of revenue….
If you want the man on the job full time – and you should, he needs to pay the bills. Are “paid video posts” one of the ways to do that? Well…
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on this but I trust Jon not to fall down the aforementioned slippery slope on this type of thing…he has rock-like integrity that will keep him anchored above the fray.
And if you see Jon today, please wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
All the best,
Tony
Happy Birthday Jonathan. Have a great day.
I have had mixed results at brooker. It is nice that they are going after bike business but I don’t think they have much mechanical knowledge about bikes. I let them strip the paint from an aluminum frame and it came back with a small dent and some stripped bb threads (probably from sandblasting, I had to get the bb re-tapped afterwards). They also coated the bb faces, the rd hanger area and got some excess coating in the headtube (I had to strip the coating from all three areas to get bb and headset flush and to be able to attach my rd hanger). The paint job was decent, but there were some areas where they oversprayed it which resulted is some obvious lines of runoff and there were a couple spots where it looks like some type of dirt or grime got into the powdercoat before it dried. If you have a steel or cheaper/heavier aluminum frame you want to get done I would consider them but I wound think twice before taking a high end ti or aluminum frame there.
JV #17 – I agree as well, at some point another “ad story” will be run directly after this story, and so on.
I wish all the success to Brooker, I have thought of getting one of my bikes painted for sometime. I do question if any other painters in town offer this service and how they feel about this ad or possible loss of business because of it.
SHK #39 – You raise some serious concerns about the treatment of your bike. I have an old Benotto that I would love to paint, although have concerns about the condition it might be returned in. Not to mention that that the paint close to the lugs on Pinky seemed to be coated a bit more than other parts of the frame.
JV wrote:
I hear your point JV. All I can say is that I care too much about this site to ever let it slide down that slope. You’ll just have to trust me on this one. We are completely independent and all editorial/advertising decisions are made by me… the same guy who started this thing and has toiled at it for far too long to see it lose integrity. My main priority in all decisions made is maintaining that integrity, credibility, and trust in the community. Please judge us by our actions, not by the record and trajectory of other media outlets.
—
Corey Burger wrote:
Thanks for that feedback Corey. I have edited the story and added “Paid advertisement” in the caption to the photo above-the-fold.
thanks.
Gabriel: see stolenbicycleregistry.com 🙂
More specifically, see http://mobile.stolenbicycleregistry.com, which will even work on your cellphone.
(And I think the video/ad tie-in is a fantastic addition. Perfectly niche targeted, helps your blog, helps the site, helps the advertisers, and it beats the heck out of a banner ad. Keep up the innovative work.)
Fantastic video. I’ve driven by a number of times and wondered what it would be like to have them powder coat my old road bike that I’ve been thinking about rebuilding. pretty cool. I also support the additional revenue from it being a paid spot. I think that this totally fits in with the spirit of bikeportland! Jonathan has always kept it real in the past and I’m sure, he’ll keep it up with this new project.
Dan
One note — if you’ve got a silver-brazed bike, be careful with anyone stripping paint with a burn-off process, whether that’s an oven or a torch. An oven at several hundred degrees is fine, but some shops burn off old paint/decals/stickers with a torch. Even a propane torch can remelt silver metal from the joints, effectively ruining the bike.
I’m sure these guys know what they’re doing — I would just mention that your bike is joined with relatively low-temperature silver, to avoid any heartache and dispute down the road.
hella video
i like their turnaround, pretty fast!
I have been to Booker and they are nice guys. They can do good powdercoating but they haven’t figured out how to put decals on that won’t be color-changed by the heat process.
I say this in comparison to Class Act. They will do a powdercoat, then your decals, and then a clear coat of liquid paint as to not alter the clarity/color of the decal. (no I do not work for them)
Also, regarding above the comment about paint that Brooker left on the top/bottom of the Head tube and sides of the BB……it is customary to ‘face’ a head tube and BB after painting it to get a flat surface for the headset or BB to lie flush against–It is always a good idea if you want them to perform at their best. Being a bike mechanic….most frames that come from the factory have been ‘faced’ and are ready to have the BB and headset installed.