Rodeo’s in house paint to order and custom paint options use Cerakote as our “paint” medium.
Cerakote has unique qualities compared to liquid paint. It is a very thin polymer / ceramic coating with the pigments / solids suspended in the polymers. For each color the composition of the coating can be quite different based on different methods developed to give the coating it’s desired look. At the same thickness, Cerakote outperforms liquid paint pretty dramatically for durability. Cerakote is applied at approximately 1 mil of thickness and paint at about 6 mil of thickness, so Cerakote ends up being much lighter as well as it relates to the coating. Both finishes can scratch and rub off over time if for instance a bikepacking bag rubs against a frame or dirty parts contact each other regularly. Paint can take longer to rub off due to it’s increased thickness but Cerakote does not flake and chip the way paint does.
Anywhere that bags or straps rub against a frame will develop wear marks or bare spots with both paint and Cerakote, but it will happen much, much quicker with Cerakote than liquid paint because of how thin Cerakote is. The only way to properly protect a frame from bag / strap rub is to fully cover those areas of the frame with frame protection such as Ride Wrap or 3M clear bra, or “helicopter tape”.
Cerakote It tends to get tiny nicks that don’t spread vs chips on paint that can slowly grow larger and fail more visibly. Inversely, Cerakote can’t really be touched up, at least not yet. Once it is on that’s pretty much it and if you add wear and tear to your bike consider it patina vs trying to keep the bike “perfect” forever. We do offer RideWrap protection at an additional charge if you’d like to rest easier knowing your frameset is armored for whatever you plan on throwing at it.
Cerakote does have metallic and color shift options, which can be very cool.
Cerakote doesn’t offer a mirror gloss finish like traditional liquid paint. It tends to go on more matte or satin for most colors.
Liquid paint will have a larger color spectrum and more niche finish options like prismatics and flakes.
