Originally Published In The May 2015 Issue Of Cycle Source Magazine
Over the past few weeks The Cycle Source office has been receiving a rash of desperate phone calls from builders looking to resource their chrome plating needs. Two major sources of Chrome Plating service providers: Browns of Paducah, KY and Chrome Masters have gone out of business since the beginning of the year. With the rumor on the street being that heightened EPA restrictions caused the owners of these facilities to pull out of the industry, we made a quick phone call to Ronnie Brown to find out first hand.
Unfortunately for so many of us Brown’s has gone out of business but Ronnie assured me it had nothing to do with the EPA and was a family decision to close this second generation business that has spanned 46 years of service to the custom industry. Don, Ronnie’s father and his twin brother Donnie started the business together and Ronnie told me that at 60 years of age now they are just too old to stay with it. The EPA has always been tough but Brown’s had consistently been a model shop that was even used as an example to teach other operations how to stay in compliance. It’s a sad day for the bike guys who will remember that Brown’s was doing chrome on bikes even before it was cool to chrome parts for them. Ronnie said that in the end he feels that people are about over the flat and dull phase and chrome is coming back. It will be interesting for this writer to see just where they all end up… to get their shine on.
