Help me think this through.

I’ve been thinking seriously about ordering a new custom bike. Haven’t decided whether it would be steel or titanium, but we’re talking $5-6000.

But now that I’ve had my current road bike—a 2005 Specialized Sequoia Comp--fitted to me, I really like it and am not feeling quite as urgent a need for a new bike. It’s aluminum with a carbon fork, seat stays, and seatpost, and ultegra/dura ace components, and is a nice bike.

The problem is that I really don’t like the color. It’s plain aluminum with a clearcoat, so basically a silver bike. Boring! I want to paint it red. Sparkly, gaudy, ruby slippers red.

So here’s what I’m thinking now. My nephew has a new powder coating business in Nebraska, and I’ll have my bike out there in June when I do a 5-day tour. So, I could have a shop take all the parts off my bike, have my nephew powder coat it, have the shop put it back together and ship it back to me. (Or I could just have my nephew ship it to me in pieces and have my LBS put it back together. Thoughts on that?)

So I’d have a “new” bike for less than 10% of the cost of a custom bike. (I know, it’s not the same thing, but I really do think my current bike is “enough bike” for me at my current weight, fitness, skill, speed, etc.)

Then I could spend the 5 grand on a dive trip to Indonesia, or do the responsible thing and save it for retirement.

What would you do?