Posts
72
Joined
3/8/2016
Location
LT
Fantasy
4167th
Edited Date/Time
5/13/2016 12:14pm
Hello, i bought a set of new plastics and graphics for my bike and the question is,how do i protect it properly? And maybe there are some transparent thick stickers that i could stick on the places that i touch a lot?like side number plates,gas tank and frond fender (when i crash). I'd like to keep my graphics looking neat as long as possible.
As far as protection, I like to use the clear SOFT grip not the skateboard sand paper griptape, which will eat up your gear in a heartbeat! Also expensive. The rubberized stuff works much better but you will need to replace it after a few weeks. Not a problem just break out your heat gun again. I think the last stuff I got was from factory effex.
Here's a pic for reference. Good luck.
The Shop
You get what you pay for.
If you want your bike to always look nice, hang it on your living room wall.
Now 99% of custom graphics companies out there laminate because, well, I have no idea why but that's just the way they choose to do it.
If you have the desire to do the research, and you want custom graphics, find a company that A) sub-surface prints, and uses printers with ribbon cartridges rather than inkjet. IMPO the thermal ribbon makes a significantly crisper design, especially if the company is using spot colors. Inkjet printers mostly use a CMYK process in order to make a blend that looks like the color you want, similar to the newspaper.
Additionally, thermal ribbon printing will allow you to use effects such as pearl, sparkle, chrome, etc. Jet printers afaik will not.
But regarding durability, I say again, find a place that does sub-surface printing. If you don't know what I mean, they basically take a thick (16ish mil) piece of vinyl, print directly onto the backside of it, and then apply an adhesive. Laminating involves printing normally onto a very Thin piece of white vinyl, and then they take the thick clear vinyl and heat press it all together. The problem here is that they can come apart, especially if you are a heavy gripping rider.
now i do it the old school way which as TFP describes is sub-surfaced printed and backed with high strength adhesive. i agree with alot of points made on here but it also comes down to how some of the bikes are designed these days. most modern 4 strokes your legs/boots are in constant contact with the side panel area and is constantly rubbing, through in the mega heat coming from the mid pipe section and well its not long before stuff starts to go pear shaped. i have seen rider actually wear through the plastics so no mater what, any graphics over time aren't really going to stand a chance.
if you check out pics of most of the pros bikes now days you will see, mechanics just trim that section straight off the bottom area of the side plate to avoid this problem even starting and they get to use fresh everything every single weekend aswell.
is sub surfaced printing night and day over laminating process, not really its just a different process that takes longer and is harder to perfect. business using laminate are just popping up all over as it is easy to purchase now and away you go. although you can get some really cheap laminate product so i would say theres a big difference to those guys and the rest of us and i would steer clear of those guys and stick to your main players as they are the ones spending the money on the good quality stuff.
probably the 3 main things to help out and avoid this if you are running on a budget and cant afford new kit every other weekend is, remove plastics - shrouds and side plates as they are the common areas and really its only 6-8 bolts and run old/stock ones to practice in during the week so you can keep the bike fresh for race weekends.
apply extra layer of clear over problem areas, wrapping it over the edges to avoid being picked up at the corners edges of the actual graphics and last, once you wear the clear layer, peel and re apply another layer and this should get you through most of the year.
prep. get them plastics as clean as possible, clean your hands before applying and dont ride with them straight away, give the plastic and glue time to bond, at least 24-48 hrs.
sorry for the rant and i hope that helps anyone reading.
Pit Row
My biggest pet peeve about graphics companies is, when someone comes on here and asks about one specific company, everyone replies with the recomendation of a DIFFERENT company.
So many shit design companies out there, so few good.
I do agree with micmac and think a lot has to do with the way the bikes are built these days and it's going to be tough to keep any graphics looking brand new with how much your boots/knees are rubbing against the plastic.
Also, I saw someone above post that they print on 16mil vinyl. That is not true. From doing research, I don't think they even make vinyl that is that thick because no matter how thick the vinyl is, if you rub through the laminate, the print is going to see wear and tear. In my design proof from FAMmx Design, the materials listed was 6mil vinyl and 15 mil laminate.
I don't have any experience with the clear protective grip tape but that is very interesting and I'm going to be doing some research on how that works. I'll be interested to learn if they make these in cutouts that fit specific bike brands and models or if you have to cut them out on your own.
Sc1 is a spray wax that keeps things slippery and looking good. Invest in a bottle.
Start with new plastic
Make sure all areas are stuck down
Push back down all areas that pop up for the next few hours
Bake in the sun for 12 hours before riding (inside a hot car works excellent)
If you forget any of the above all bets are off on longevity.
I'm sure you could use some other high quality graphic company, but why bother - support those that support the sport.
After mastering the graphic application technique, I usually just have DeCal Works mount mine.
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