Attempt at restyling

[Don C]

I never liked the classic white stripes. My attempt to solve the problem is shown here, M-series three color vinyl tape stripes from eBay. They look awful in person, but a little better in the pictures, because you can't see most of the mistakes in the pictures. I made a paper pattern, then traced the shape onto the tape with a felt pen, then cut out the shape with scissors and stuck them on. Lots of bubbles remain. Upon trying to wipe away the residual felt pen marks, the color started wiping right off of the tape. Cheap stuff. And the left side doesn't match the right very well. Oh well. I'll probably leave this in place for the rest of the summer anyway.

[Woland]

What can I say?

We all have different tastes

[AncientMariner]

It would not be for me... but, I think it looks cool.

[Newportcycle]

Very unique, I wish I was artistic. You could see one of those custom vinyl car wrap folks, could probably set you up cheap, no bubbles, and no wipe off color.

[Don C]

The color scheme is growing on me, it looks good from above. Meanwhile the tape is already peeling off. I may try again with a smaller piece.

[zackvis]

Hi i need a favour,
I like your seat.What model is your bike?What model did the seat come from,and do you have the part no.of your seat?
I have the 09 and want to fit a seat like yours but do not know if it will fit.
Your help will be much appreciated
thanks

[Woland]

Hi i need a favour,
I like your seat.What model is your bike?What model did the seat come from,and do you have the part no.of your seat?
I have the 09 and want to fit a seat like yours but do not know if it will fit.
Your help will be much appreciated
thanks

Not my bike but that is a BMW comfort seat.

[Don C]

Hi i need a favour,
I like your seat.What model is your bike?What model did the seat come from,and do you have the part no.of your seat?
I have the 09 and want to fit a seat like yours but do not know if it will fit.
Your help will be much appreciated
thanks

This is the low comfort seat with no passenger strap, as is standard on 2011 and newer bikes. I'll paste in some of the part numbers:

52537719485 low comfort seat with no passenger strap (Like Mine)
52537721957 low comfort seat with passenger strap

52537719484 high comfort seat with no passenger strap
52537721958 high comfort seat with passenger strap.

[celticus]

Don, I think you did a great job! I'd put that on my bike in a heartbeat. I'm not artistic.
I don't care for the white stripes either. They don't capture the look of the old style white stripe borders at all for me.

[Don C]

I'm wondering if I could create this pattern with vinyl tape. It's Rockster-ish, intentionally, but the color is selected to match my hi-vis helmet.

[celticus]

I like it.

[Don C]

The M-series tape reminded me of a hot air balloon after a while, it had to go.
So here is my second attempt at restyling the bike. This is 3M Scotchprint 1080 styling film. It seems to be the same stuff that license plate registration stickers are made from. The first step was to cover the white stripes. I tried cutting out large sheets and covering the whole side of the tank, but it's impossible to avoid wrinkles, it doesn't work. So I went with narrow strips instead. This works OK. I cut long strips with a razor blade and straight edge, and applied the strips over the stripes. It looks like electrical tape. Hopefully it lasts better. It's pretty obvious when looking closely, but is invisible from a few feet away.
Then I started cutting out patterns in cardboard, little diamond shapes, and testing them out on the tank. When I had a shape I liked I'd cut out a matching section of blue scotchprint and stick it on. It doesn't sound like much, but it took three hours to get this result. Not too bad though. I'm debating covering the R1200R logo with black and then starting over.

[Don C]

Since these are just stickers, if you don't like the result, peel it off and start over. Here I decided that the front sticker needed to be the biggest one. 15 minutes later, it's looking better.

[celticus]

That's really nice. I like that. Good job.

[badbs101]

I like it better than the rainbow you had before. Personally I wouldn't even attempt something like that as I would botch it up. I have no artistic talent.

[Mark_1]

Don,
Very nice. Much better than the M3 stripes.
Mark

[celticus]

I have liked ALL of the efforts so far.

[Don C]

Sometimes, knowing when to stop before I have overdone it is a problem.

[Don C]

A few more changes. Feel free to share your opinions or ideas.

[Jed]

Don,

I really like the look of your recent efforts. Nice homage to the Rockster styling. It seems to bring out an aggressive attitude to the styling of the R12R. Very nice!! I glad you didn't stop at your first effort.

cheers,

Jed