To be honest, I would love to have a crack at a Rothmans NSR. If you've got the money (probably a good $300 worth of quality vinyl) and the patience (painters work at their own pace), I'd give it a go.Originally Posted by MrPeanut
Brilliant, can you do my bike next?
Of course, you're a long long way away from us, so there would be much tooing and frooing replacing stickers you've messed up when you've put them on etc (no offence intended, if you knew how many stickers we did 3 times over you'd laugh your arse off).
Of course, the finished products are flat, so easy to mail to youMight take a while though... I'm guessing OAB wants to ride his bike a bit now, not spend more time hovering over a machine that more often than not appears to be possessed by the devil (seriously, the plotter has 'personality').
In the end though, it's not rocket science, I would fully encourage anyone who has a hero (Mr Schwantz in the case of OAB) they'd like to pay homage to, to give it a go. Any signwriter can knockup the vinyls, and painter can paint the bike.
Raid brandsoftheworld.com for your EPS files.
- Plotters don't work with pictures, they work with straight lines and geometric shapes and stuff, also known as vector images. You can convert pictures into vector files (EPS is just one of many (the most common) vector graphics file formats), but it takes a bit of time to fine tune them. Adobe Illustrator is the best program for the job, it has a live trace feature that is the shizzle. It's $200 with a student discount, I wish we had have had a copy.
Other tips we can give (hell, learn from out mistakes, it was tough going and unmotivating at times... especially spending 3-4 hours and making zero stickers worth keeping on the bike, for whatever reason (size, alignment, just don't like it))
1 - Photograph your bike, from a few different angles. Remember, 2D photos are deceptive, what looks right on the photo so does not look right in real like. In other words, it's just a way to see how the stickers will fit together. Don't worry too much about it though, you'll notice that the shape of a GSXR1000 is waaaay different (curves etc) to the fairly straight lined RGV500
2 - Print out the stickers 1:1 scale, and tape them to the bike.
3 - Walk around, reposition the stickers
4 - Repeat step 3 for hours until you're happy
5 - Get a second opinion from a mate you trust, repeat 3 and 4 with them over a few bears
6 - Get the fairing painted the base colour
7 - Go through 2 to 5 again. It's way cheaper to muck about with print outs. You'll notice that the Michelin man on the side fairing looks a little small... yeah, he looked 100% fine before we assembled the bike
8 - Mark up any secondary colours to get painted with masking tape
9 - Reposition those secondary colour lines till you're happy. Seriously, spend a lot of time here... do it with the bike all assembled. Do it with the bike on a pit stand, do it with the bike on the side stand. Try everything. We tried all sorts of lines that we initially thought we wouldn't like. It's amazing how your perception changes when you see it. Don't worry too much about having them in exactly the same position as the bike you're copying, chances are that bike has a different shape fairint... concentrate on making it look good, not a 100% copy.
10 - Have the secondary colours painted
11 - Make your stickers and stick them on
12 - Change anything you don't like, last chance!!
13 - Clear coat
14 - Ride!!
Heaps of repitition is involved, and you'll be back to the painters a few times. It seems a lot of work at the time, but it is worth it in the end
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