MotoGrafix have built a brilliant business around a tough tank pad
This garage-born British company reinvented the humble tank pad and now sell their wares all over the world
Sometimes it is the simplest ideas that grow into a fullyfledged success and in the case of Motografix Paint Protections Systems it all started with a tank pad. Or, more precisely, a fairly poor-quality piece of sticky vinyl used as one!
“I was working as a graphic designer in a T-shirt company, but had a huge passion for motorcycles,” remembers Motografix founder and owner, Mark Jarvis. “I even persuaded the company to start making team and rider fan clothing. I designed the Nori Haga ‘Dog’s Borrocks’ logo, which was very popular, and various others for the likes of Hodgson, Foggy, Edwards, Rizla, and more. I was riding a Yamaha FZR Genesis at the time and it had a terrible tank pad on it, a really tatty piece of crap, but we were working with a high-end yacht company and I noticed their logos were covered in a resin that was UVresistant, waterproof and protective yet still soft. The penny dropped that it would make a perfect tank pad.” Alongside business partner Shaun Kerrigan, Mark took the plunge and left the T-shirt firm to set up the fledgling business in his Yorkshire garage designing and making tank pads. Each was designed by Mark, printed in the garage on the firm’s sole printer, and the resin hand-injected using syringes. It really couldn’t have been a more archetypal cottage industry. “Nothing came easily,” remembers Mark. “We had one distributor and the growth came about from us travelling to shows and getting the product out there. We went all over Europe and even to America, but they didn’t get it! Our product was pricier than the basic laminated pad and the Americans couldn’t get their heads around the concept of a tank pad for life.”
With the product range increasing, the decision was taken to upscale. Mark sold his house to fund the expansion (and moved back in with his mum) and the company graduated from his garage to above a bike shop in Doncaster, before later settling into the present industrial unit in Rotherham. Nowadays Motografix (who also trade as Moto Demon) employ eight people and produce a staggering 200,000 pads and paint protection kits a year. With a range that extends to over 3000 designs distributed to 40 countries, this is a small company with a worldwide footprint.