Beans Best

I live and work in Chicago, and riding public transit in the summer is akin to huffing a paper bag full of grandpa’s damp underbriefs. Luckily, it’s a pretty bikeable city, so I prefer to ride when the weather’s appropriate. With so many young, hip, affluent folks riding brand new fixies and whatnot, I felt a little ashamed of my crusty old Schwinn. Enter Bean’s Best and Julian’s powdercoating prowess.
I called Julian and talked about what I wanted, he made a few suggestions and I setup a weekend to drop off the bike. At this point, you’re probably wondering why someone would drive from Chicago to Ann Arbor just to get a bicycle powdercoated. It’s not called ‘Bean’s ‘Just Okay.” It’s Bean’s Best, and that’s precisely what I got. He ordered the exact colors I asked for, some extras that I didn’t even know existed and even threw in a shiny, glittery coat that pretty much blinds anyone dumb enough to stare directly into it. And he did it all for an incredibly reasonable price. Ridiculously reasonable. And he’s just a cool dude.
Still reading? Fantastic. You know those Harley dads who only got into motorcycles after they sent their last kid to college? Sometimes they have ponytails and they’re always decked head to toe in Harley gear from a town they’ve never been to? You do? Of course you do.
One of these dudes came to the shop while I was there. If I ran a shop like this, I’d tell Harley dad to go home and do some landscaping or whatever other lame shit Harley dads do on the weekends. But Julian is super chill and welded the guy’s tank back together real quick with a side of solid advice.
TL;DR: Julian can and will do just about any restoration project and do a real good-​ass job of it. He will play rad tunes. And he will help you fit in with the cool bikes (even the one that has a huge JAKE THE SNAKE sticker I see every day).