Well, that explains a lot

I've been trying to get colour-matched paint for my TLR, with a
notable lack of success.

Last Saturday I sent the battery cover off to BikeColours, who sent
the spray cans I'd originally ordered.

Today I got a call from them, and basically the TL has been resprayed,
probably by Dream Machine. Apparently the decals are of a different
quality to standard and the inside of the panel has been sprayed and
has various numbers marked on it, which apparently are a giveaway.

This also explains why the handbook has both yellow and red as the
vehicle colours - where the tank got scratched, there's red
underneath. I'd simply assumed that it was a base coat.

It does sort of beg the question, was it crashed? It's HPI clear and
seems more-or-less straight.

It seems odd that someone would go to the expense of respraying and
decalling a bike in very nearly its original colour scheme without a
damn good reason.

 

I think you've answered your own question there. For some reason, the
panel was probably damaged or replaced, and then resprayed to (nearly)
match the bike.

On the downside, you'll have the nagging, unprovable thought that it's
probably had a short trip down the road and been repaired.

On the upside, you're trying to get it resprayed before you punt it
onto a mug who doesn't know any better. This seems to be a recurring
event for the bike.

 

Well, the entire bike was resprayed, not just the very small battery
access hatch.

Minor slides don't bother me; frame-bending stuff does.

I don't thing it was resprayed to sell originally - I reckon it was
done a while ago because there was stone-chip damage on the fairing
lowers and touch-up paint on the fairing nose when I bought it. The
bike has only had two previous owners, and one of those only had it
for a week or two. He bought it from the dealer I bought it from, but
within a week or so part-exchanged it for something else.

Of course, he could've discovered something I haven't discovered all
these years...

 

Nah Cat C botch up, isn't it. Probably been ringed through Norn Iron.

 

One reason why someone would do that is because most bike paints are allied
to the chassis/frame number and not a lot of dealers hold paint or can be
arsed to get it. That includes a lot of bike paint suppliers too, so they
"advise" owners to go with a colour that's close to the original, but is
available over the conter just about anywhere.

Bike colours are notoriously difficult to match perfectly too, particularly
the metalic pearl mica's (some of which are a two stage system) so for an
amateur jobber to effect an invisible repair, the "easy" way is to go with a
close to original colour, but paint the whole panel after any repairs.

As for decals, well they're a law unto themselves if bought from the bike
manufacturer. 56 quid for two CBR 1000 and two Honda wing stickers from
Honda. 10 quid from a vinyl cutter up the road.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

Heh, nice try.

The work was done during the first owner's, er, ownership. So he'd
have had to have been sold a ringer as brand new. The paint job is
quite old.

The bike has been "customised" in thet the wheels are yellow, not grey
as standard.

I suspect that it was simply a custom paint job, TBH. The bike was
probably red originally.

 

Actually, my post was a bit confusing, which accurately reflects my
mind!

I thought that it was yellow originally, but there is also evidence
that it could have been red: scratches reveal red under the yellow.

The user manual has both red and yellow as the vehicle colour. The
yellow is handwritten in the vehicle details, but there's also a
_printed_ sticker that gives the colour as "Marble Italian Red".

This, along with the wheels being painted yellow too (originally grey)
makes me think, on reflection, that it was simply someone having a
custom paint job done. The decals appear quite expensive, in that they
have carbon-effect borders; they're not just plain laser-cut vinyl.

It's odd, really. The original owner had fitted sensible stuff like
alarm, datatag, Motrax oiler complete with the optional controller
box, and a hugger. He had also fitted this litre superbike with race
cans, microscopic number plate, and... Michelin Macadams.

 

Deffo been down the road then.

 

And that red won't be any part of multy stage paint job. Not if yellow is
on top. The reverse could hapen, but not red under yellow.

He obviously had an idea of what he wanted then (apart from a swift kick in
the spuds, that is).

Oooh, nice. Obviously wanted more mileage than grip.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

On the subject of tyres.... the ones on me new cage have red, green and
yellow stripes interwoven in the tread. Does this actually *mean* anything?


Ali

 

You have Rasta tyres. Jah love, sistah.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, platypus

I'n'I is wit you on dis maaaan.

'Ave a lickle toke, naaaah...

(Is this OK, porl? Only I don't want to cause any offence)

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer As featured in
Performance Bikes

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer

 

There's this giant black Texan guy who works here. He's about as
preposterously yank as you could be, a true living stereotype. A female
co worker found out she knew a mutual friend of this guy, a friend that
was working on an oil rig. When this oil worker realised they had a
common aquaintance he told her to go and say "How you doing Oil Coon?"
So she did. He exploded, I mean went mental. Luckily this girl is the
most inoffensive (and naive- had no idea about the connotations of
"coon") person imaginable and flusteringly apologised her way out of
it. She couldn't understand what had gone wrong. I pointed out that
what was considered appropriate on an oil rig probably wasn't in an
animated feature film environment. She probably could have been fired,
even in Australia one of the most racist extant countries.

Anyway, no offence to me Nige. I'm not black.

 

Bit of a twat for being so touchy IMHO, as you would expect <ducks>

 

Well, quite. The equivalent would have been calling someone in the film
environment a Nerd, when they're obviously all Geeks.

 

O, I missed that. Made Oi larf, that did. And slightly concerned about
having spaced out tyres,, given the sort of stuff I did in the 60s.

Ali