RETRO REBOOT
Race-rep paint jobs
Some stunning paint schemes have graced race bikes over the decades, from the golden era of GP racing’s fag-packet designs of Lucky Strike, Rothmans and Marlboro, to the one-offs like Rossi’s flower-power Valencia scheme of 2003 and Marco Melandri’s 2004 Spiderman in Portugal. It’s not just the prototype racers that make our legs go wobbly, either. Endurance bikes also deliver a healthy stream of designs that neatly bridge the gap between road-going and race machinery, but what is it that makes a design successful? As someone who has applied a few designs to bikes over the years, in my humble opinion, what makes a paint job win or a fail are: 1) A design which fits and enhances the lines of the body work it’ s painted on. Kawasaki’s ZX-7R endurance bikes of old are a perfect example of something that gels. Also, a successful design could be one that masks the worst features of a bike, too. 2) It keeps colour counts to a minimum. There are rare exceptions to this (see the endurance Yoshimura GSX-RS from 20052010, that we’ve re-created on the Contents page) but usually when you’re going to be covered in sponsor logos, the last thing you need for legibility is an overly complicated, busy splodge made up from 13 different colours, all battling for attention. Around two to three colours is a safe sweet spot. 3) It has a strong, confident identity which keeps it simple. Compare the purity of the early ’90s Marlboro YZRS and YZFSS to the recent dark and bland Movistar M1s. All tastes are subjective, of course, but one of my favourite race bike schemes is the 2005 Suzuki GSVR in red, white and blue (Google is your friend if you want to see it). I love how the organic, graceful design suits the lines of the GSVR so well, and the bike has the huge bodywork footprint to really make it work, with the different coloured wheels being a neat touch. A special mention to the speedblock Yamaha M1s from the same year, too, in both red/white and King Kenny yellow/black. The M1 never looked so good streaking across the apex.