I would like to paint my bike but if I do I would rather fork out the money and have it professionally done well. I've been looking at vinyl wraps as perhaps something to do I the mean time. Does anyone have any experience with them on their bike? Good stories, bad, trial and error, and how much was needed? Just like to do a little tinkering and want to do something about the currently shitty paint situation. Any advice would be much appreciated. Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk
Don't know what your prices are like there bit my graphics were worth about $1300.00 or so two hears ago. I didn't pay that as I had a corporate "in" with the graphics company. Also, mine are 3M reflective. I would wait, save your money and put it towards a paintjob on a year or two. Keep the savings secret from your bride to be. Guaranteed she will not see the need to paint. They just don't understand.
Holy crap! Pics needed, I'd be doing it myself so I don't know if labor is included in that cost but from the looks of it materials aren't too terribly much even for the 3m stuff. And I understand that, my wife doesn't understand the necessity of such things. Hell she got pissed when I bought my welder and that's something I can make money off. I can't imagine trying to justify this haha. Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk
My wife does not understand these things either. But we have a good understanding. My money is mine and hers is hers. That has worked very well for 28 years now. If I want something, I just go out and get it. I am now broke and she is rich. ANd she is not too good at sharing either. My graphics are pretty thick. It is commercial grade material same as what they put on big trucks and buses and the like, A lot of heat was used to put it on properly. The thinner stuff I don't know. I did not do the work.
I had the lower and rear cowl painted due to some by road rash caused by the PO. There were also some deep scratches on the rear cowl from straps for soft bags so I thought the paint job would be the better choice. The paint job for the lower cowls and rear cowl cost $500 and then I had a local sign shop wrap the upper and lower cowls on the front in 3M vinyl. The clear vinyl would have cost me $300 but I wound up trading some dent repairs for the owner of the shop that did the 3M wrap on the bike. All things considered I think that getting the bike painted might be the better choice as Randy suggested. Since the 5th gen bikes have fewer parts it is likely going to cost about the same I would think as getting the bike painted as would if you wrapped it in vinyl. The vinyl cost might be lower but it can be a bitch to get on without stretch marks. There were a few posts on the forum who have had some luck using plasti-dip on their bikes in place of paint, but not sure what the cost would be on the plasti-dip. Maybe search the site for the plasti-dip thread, or try googling it.
As fate would have it, I'm in the process of trying to wrap my bike now. It's incredibly frustrating and I'm sure that most of that is my lack of skill. So far I've tried to wrap the left side fairing twice, spent about 2 hours on it each time, and then peeled it all off and thrown it away. I've got a good random pattern so stretching doesn't show, but bubbles keep showing up. It might be because I'm doing it with the part horizontal on a workbench ('cause it's still freezing outside) but I also think part of it is that the curves of even a small piece on a bike are way more complex than something like the hood of a car. I've watched the videos on YouTube a couple times, but I don't think anything except more practice is going to help. If you really want to try it, I'd say get something relatively cheap (don't go carbon fiber or matte black) and see whether you have the skill and patience that I am so sorely missing. I ordered about twice as much as I thought I would need, and I'm still not sure whether I'm going to be able to make it work.
I think you would be well advised to apply a wrap on your panels while they are on your bike so as to maintain their shape. ANd apply them in warmer weather if doing do outside. You will need a heat gun or hair dryer to warm the wrap up well before applying it to a curved surface. Tack it on to the outside edges then focus on the center of the decal and work your way outward removing and repositioning the decal as needed. A plastic spatula should be used to adhere the decal to the fairing. I know the shop that did mine, had the bike in the shop a couple hours to climatize some before they applied the wrap. And out temperatures were above freezing by several degrees at the time. If you have a whole lot of bubbles in there, then you need to re-apply. The odd bubble can be taken care of with a pin prick and squeezing out the air. I have done that on several police car decals and it works fine. Of course, if the decal is a dark shiny surface, the pin prick might show.
3M has a shitload of info both technical and how-to on their website. They are out front and recommend having their vinyl wrap installed by a professional and include a listing of installers. Vinyl graphics have been around for many years. Sign shops are a good source. Some of the materials are clear and weeded so as to fashion stencils. Some shops provide scanning and plotter cutter equipment for designers. OEM type vinyl graphics are available from online sources.
After doing my fair share of research I think I am just going to stick with waiting for paint. from what I see as well as what thompsje said the reason you dont see more vinyl wrapped bikes like you do cars is just the complexitie of the lines in the panels. makes it a lot more of a hassle to do. I still might toy with it here or there but with a lack of experience with it i dont want to end up wasting the money on material and my time to either scrap it or have the bike look crappy because I screwed it up. I appreciate all the responses. still gonna pick me up some vinyl graphics, just not wrap.
Wise plan friend. But that does not excuse you from posting up before during and after pix when you do this.
