My Pugsley will be three years old this year and the original paint job was in rough shape. In fact, it came from the factory with a lousy paint job. I doubt there was even a clear coat on it. Within days of owning it, I had scratches all the way down to bare metal. Some fingernail polish that didn’t really match the paint job covered those up. Then there was pretty excessive rubbing from my frame bag. So Bullet and I decided to strip our bikes and have them painted. We did everything ourselves except for removing the headset and bottom bracket. Bullet has a friend from the high school mountain bike league that owns a powder coating business called Specialty Finishes, in Lindon, Utah. They turned out pretty nice. We both went with matte finishes. Less bling for me the better. I went with a dark forest green and Bullet went with a sage green. It kind of feels like I’m riding a new bike.

The “new” Puglsey

About a year ago I also installed a Jones H-bar handlebar, which I really like. I had regular grips, which were okay, but decided to try the extra long extra chunky ESI grips. I really like them. I’ll really put them through their paces in an upcoming bikepacking trip.

Jones H-bar with extra long, extra chunky ESI grips

Bullet’s “new” Trek Farley