Swingarm Coating

What color are you trying to achieve? If black, I'd go powder. I'm unsure of how the anodize would come out. Probably dull, but not necessarily in a bad way. If you do go anodize, polish the hell out of it before anodizing to get more of a mirror finish.

I thought I put black but I didn't.

Cerakote if you are going for a sorta flat black? Although PC might hold up better, but I’m not sure

Sweet, post it when it's on and what parts you did.
I would go powder.

Cool yea I'll probably do powder. It will be easy easier to find a good PC'er then it will be to anodizer.

Do you guys suggest doing the linkage as well?

I buy and part bikes out. So I bought a locked up 09 bike and unbolted the whole rear end off it so I'll be using the swingarm, linkage, rear brake and rear wheel. I already have SSS suspension on it.
Here's a pic

Yes linkage too.

Thanks

Hard Anno black for the swingarm, don't even consider anything else! Leave the linkage or remove the cast marks and polish it up.

PC adds weight and chips too easy. When it does chip it's not like you can just touch it up. Hard anno black will hold up great, and looks fantastic, it'll come out a really nice satin black. Black rims are mostly hard anno black, there's a really good reason they aren't PC'd.

I've tried calling two places that anodize around me and neither place answered the phone or called me back. Might have to ship it somewhere to get done.

The YZ is hard anodized while the CR is powdered. Anodizing is going to resemble whatever the swingarm looks like now. (I.e if it has scratches, the scratch will remain but only black..the casting will have a different finish than the sides and will be different shades black.). Powder will fill in scratches and be an even color throughout. When powdercoating is done right it holds up pretty well. Anodizing will scratch and chip as well just as rims do. Me personally, it’s cheaper and more readily available to powdercoat than anodize so I do that on all my bikes and flips I do. I think it holds up pretty damn good also. It’s really up to you. I wouldn’t do the linkage either, I would sand the castings off and polish like mentioned above.

I believe I'm gonna get try and get a quote to do both and decide then. If the anodizing is way more than powder I'll probably just do the powder.

Definitely go anodising, spend time and clean it up nice and get out all of the scratches and work it until you get the finish you want, Hard ano is by far the better option over powder coating, If anodising chips off then its not hard anodising, make sure you tell them you want industrial hard anodising not just decorative. Decorative is just that and has almost no resistance to weather or sunlight. Hard anodising becomes part of the surface of the aluminium and can not chip off. Find a reputable anodiser that knows what you want and won't just fob you off, took me a little while to find a good one here in australia but its worth it.

Think that you must remove all other material than aluminium on the swingarm.

Nuts inside the swingarm (chain tensioner)
Brass thing that connects the shock

I asked a anodizied company, they needed the exactly aluminium that the swingarm is produced of.

Dirtdemon wrote:
Think that you must remove all other material than aluminium on the swingarm.

Nuts inside the swingarm (chain tensioner)
Brass thing that connects the shock

I asked a anodizied company, they needed the exactly aluminium that the swingarm is produced of.

100% correct. I’d strip it to just aluminum for powder as well.

What have you guys paid for swingarm anodizing? There's only one company in Alabama that does hard coat black.

Jterry wrote:

What have you guys paid for swingarm anodizing? There's only one company in Alabama that does hard coat black.

I paid $500.00 AUD for the frame, swinger and subframe. So I'm thinking about $150.00 to $200.00 max would have covered just the swinger.

Call me a prick, but I'd never consider a bike that has been touched by a "Scotch Brite Warrior" or a "Powder Coat Expert"

EDIT: Not trying to be a jerk, but a friend bought a bike with a powder coated frame and swing arm. Looked sweet!

Once it began wearing off and he decided to clean it up back to OG, there were numerous welds made to conceal chain gouging, massive shroud/plastics rub, etc. Powder coat obviously done to cover up the damage. That is why I'd never buy a powder coated bike.