Are Bergs powdercoated from factory?

Powdercoated, sorry!

It doesn't appear that they are powdercoated. You can take a rag with lacquer thinner, wipe it and the color will come off. If it were powdercoated the solvent would have no effect on the paint. The factory paint seems to be a non clear coated (singe stage) enamel (type unknown) with a little fine metallic or pearl tossed into the mix.

Regular sandblasting with fine grit sand should remove the factory finish quite easily which is the normal way to prep for powdercoat. Chemical stripping should not be required. Nowadays they have clear coating available in powder coat but the mil thickness may be excessive.

Be sure to place sacrificial bolts and screws in the frames welded on nuts to keep the coating from making a mess of them. You may want to pick up some "thread chasers" to clean up the threads and a sharpe file to remove the excess material from places such as the swingarm pivot area, footpeg area etc. I would mask off the inside of the steering stem and consider not refinishing the inside of the frame backbone (air intake) as it may be hard to properly coat all the nooks and crannies which will start rusting.

If the condition of the paint is not too bad consider just sanding it with 400 grit wet or dry sandpaper, feather/smooth out all the chips then take it to a Autobody shop where they can apply one coat of a non sanding expoxy
primer and two coats of a close match solid blue with a little pearl tossed in to duplicate the factory look (if that is what you are going for). A true urethane paint such as PPG Durethane may prove to be more durable, have less film/mil thickness, cost effective and provide a glossier finish.

I was told once that there are types of powdercoating, that come off by blasting and those that don't. This is also the expirience I have had with several items that I wanted to have done in another color. Usually a blasting company is willing to try a small piece in order to see if it will come off and how long it takes(which is important for the calculator)

I don't know about the newer bikes but...........

When I got my 94 & 1/2 501 ready to sell to my friend I took it down to have it powder coated thinking that it wasn't b/c the color came off with contact cleaner. Well, turns out it was powder coated and they had to send it out to be stripped. A bit of pain, but the end result was well worth it.

Judging by the abuse on certain area's of my 2001 501e, it looks as though they are still powder coated. The color has only chipped off of area's like the down tubes right behind the front tire, and on the sub frame tubes where I have fallen over in the rocks.

For what its worth the blue they use is the Suzuki 1984-1990 Blue, was on the old DR's, if you can get the PJ1 replica paint the code is 17SBO I got the tip from one of the Berg people over here, repainted the underside of the frame rails and you can't tell where it meets with the original, they call it an epoxy paint, might help for future reference.

You can strip it yourself if you know what your doing. I do powder in a friends shop in my spare time and using something like the aircraft stripper available at NAPA works well on 90% of the factory finishes out there. Just make sure to clean the surface with a good solvent like Simple Green when your done.

It is a bit messy and might take a while, but it can be done. Or use a torch and burn it off (loose flame with wide strokes), but you have to be sure your not heating the metal past about 600 degrees or you can effect the heat treating of the metal.

I might be pulling mine apart this winter, re-shoot the frame in Cardinal "Saftey Yellow" (way thicker and tougher than factory) with a nickel metal flake clear coat to give it sunlight bling for kicks. I wish I could get a Candy Yellow to match the Candy Blue I have. THat would be sick.

how much would it cost to get a frame powdercoated?

This is an informative site:
http://my.execpc.com/~davewrit/Powder.html

-Tim