bike wraps

[Huckleberry]

Looking at these www.trackwraps.com Anyone have any experience with these or know someone who does? Just wondering how they hold up and how good they stick.

[WNY ROGO]

I seen that shit on the archives, was wondering about it, looks cool, and they say it hods together fairings that have cracks. Cool stuff...

[thatkid]

Haven't seen that one but a recent super streetbike did an article on the www.thinairconcepts.com I believe they are a bit more though.

[megaloxana]

Could also try your local vinyl shop too.

[shift]

i have a few friends who have them and seem to like them a lot. much easier than a custom paint job for sure. no word on durability yet...

[Luke-a-Tron]

They should be every bit as durable, if not more so than paint. I used to work at sign shop and have a lot of experience with vinyl applications. There are different grades and oddly, the thinner stuff is generally better (tougher, more UV resistant, shinier, more intense color). 3M makes the best stuff but it's also the most expensive. They're actually using this material on commercial jets because it's more durable and surprisingly, lighter than paint. Apparently it takes thousands of pounds of paint to cover a plane and every pound of paint is a pound of paying customer you can't carry.

If you're just looking for a solid color, you might be able to better price-wise by going to a local sign shop. The stuff comes in 13" and 28" rolls IIRC (it's been a while). I'd recommend the 13" wide stuff as it's a bit unwieldy to work with (it's a huge piece of tape essentially). I don't know how much you'll need but I think you could buy a full 100 ft roll for less than what they're selling 4 2'x4' panels at. Maybe you can get a couple people to go in together on it?

[Huckleberry]

thnx luke ill definately try that. yeah prob just one color

[megaloxana]

Installation seems like it would be hard. I can be a perfectionist and my track record with tape isn't great.

On a side note..Luke-a-tron, where have you been?!?

[Luke-a-Tron]

Working and generally tending to adulthood. I wish there was a more interesting reason but no.

Installation will likely be fairly bitchy. Normally the way it's done is a very wide piece of something similar to masking tape is applied to the top of the vinyl graphics while they're still attached to the backing paper. you position everything just right and make sort of a tape hinge along one side (this keeps everything in place while allowing you to mess with the backing paper). You then flip the whole thing up and start peeling back the paper from the "hinged" side first. You move along gradually pushing any air bubbles out from underneath until all the vinyl and masking tape is stuck to your application surface. You then peel off the masking tape leaving the vinyl behind.

Now this method would be pretty pointless here because it's just a solid piece. The whole reason you do it when making signs is to keep all the separate pieces in line with each other. The stuff is very staticy and will try pretty hard to stick to itself. If you touch sticky side to sticky side, forget about it, you're not getting them apart without totally ruining the vinyl. Furthermore, you're going to have to custom cut the stuff as you apply it so it doesn't wrinkle as you work around the compound curves of the body. If you're a perfectionist, you're probably not going to be satisfied with the results. If you're some one who beats on their bike hard (track days, stunting), this might be worthwhile. You'll get an acceptable finish that's easy to fix quickly.

3M makes a product called Clear Bra which is just clear vinyl. I assume you can get just square pieces or whatever but I've always seen it sold precut for specific vehicles. The idea is that you apply it areas that take a lot of abuse (front bumper, leading edge of the hood, side mirrors) to protect from rock chips and the like. When it's applied correctly you can barely see it. Something like this might be good for the lower part of the fairing right behind the front tire.

If perfection is your target, stick with paint though.

[Jrdn223]

Vehicle Wraps are one part of what my company specializes in. The vinyl 3M is putting out now, as well as the protective overlaminate is some real good stuff. Wrapped bikes look amazing when designed and installed properly. By no means is it a simple install if you don't have any prior vinyl experience.

[loki32687]

I'd love to do this on my bike but I'd definitely need help applying it

[biff10]

I would do that on my bike. I had it on a truck and it held up real good. Dodge trucks were known for the paint fading out.

[Section_59]

I've used vinyl on 2 bikes now



Sold that bike before actually putting the camel logo on

And the camo on this bike


Nice and cheap alternative, not all that hard to do, its just frustrating, getting air bubbles, having to pull it back off a bit, lay it back down, get another air bubble and so on so on 3 steps forward 1 step backwards, the Yellow CBR 600 F3 i got for free and the FZR Camo cost me about £18 for materials