I think it was me who said my LBS charged $40 to strip and put my bike back together. Basically, they stripped it and held onto the parts, I took the frame to a powdercoat place and had it powdercoated in a two step process for $150 and then brought it back to the LBS to be put back together ($40 total for both strip and rebuild) You can't do designs, like flames etc., with powdercoating, but if you want, you can do things that would be taped off (like stripes or half/half). It was pretty neat actually. The bike I did this to was DH's old mtn bike and although its a great bike for me that I will keep another few years, I didn't want to spend a ton to get it painted. So, I figured that the $190 (okay, then I had to get new water bottle holders ) that I spent will tide me over for a few years!

If the components on your existing bike work well for you and you can find the right price for new paint, its pretty fun to be able to choose your own color! But, sometimes its worth it to buy a new bike to get the new components etc. Let us know what you find out!

Here's a picture of the bike I had powdercoated. You can't really tell but its got a red base that looks firey orange in the sun.

Tracy