RS Bike Paint Ltd partners with Harley-Davidson
Hertfordshire company RS Bike Paint Ltd has been approved by Harley-Davidson to be a preferred provider of paint for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America. That’s an impressive feat for a company which started in a disused air raid shelter in Barnsley more than 40 years ago!
RS Paint was started by Arthur and Renate Bancroft in 1978 but the roots of the company go back much further than that with Arthur beginning to match colours back in the 1960s. As both a keen motorcyclist and an ICItrained colourist, he realised that, as colours became obsolete, they would become part of history. So he began, one panel at a time, creating colour matches and recording them (driving Renate potty with all the rusty old tanks on her kitchen table!). Over time, he built up a collection of colours which formed the basis of the information stored today. That information now forms a database of more than 50,000 paint records and formulations, covering more than 160 motorcycle manufacturers. Just as
Arthur did, all colours are matched precisely by eye (although the introduction of scientific aids and spectrophotometers enables more rapid development of new formulations). Every year sees new colours introduced by every manufacturer, meaning a raft of new matches and formulations needing to be honed to keep up with customer need. Very few motorcycle manufacturers use paint codes and the big automotive paint brands such as PPG and Standox provide very few motorcycle colours, which is where RS Bike Paint has filled a missing part of the market.
Over the years, the company has moved from a small business dealing mostly with telephone sales to a global concern which supplies paints to riders, dealers and manufacturers across the world and that has led to its preferred provider status to Harley-Davidson Motorcycles for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America.
However, RS Paint remains a family company, now run by Arthur’s daughter and son-in-law, Heidi and Phil Allen. Phil told us: “Our approach reflects HarleyDavidson’s own mission, to enhance its position as the most desirable motorcycle brand in the world. Of all the motorcycle manufacturers, Harley-Davidson has the most complex and sophisticated colour range on offer, so to be awarded a preferred provider status with an organisation like this tells me how far we have come since the early days.”
In addition to Harley, RS Bike Paint is, thanks to its unrivalled database of colours, able to provide colour matches from Adler to Zundapp, from 1902 to today. Its records include ancillary colours such as engine and frame paints as well as main tank and panel colours. Whether you need a small touch-up bottle for the chip on your beloved Bonneville, an aerosol for your Aermacchi or a pint for your Piaggio, RS Bike Paint can help. The company also supplies all the preparation and refinishing products you will need to complete your motorcycle repair and takes pride in providing full advice and technical information as standard.
In this throwaway, disposable society it’s reassuring to know there are still companies like RS Bike Paint out there, determined to honour the memories of these great classics. I’m sure Arthur and Renate would be pleased as Puch. RS Bike Paint Ltd can be contacted at www.rsbikepaint.com or by telephone on 01707 273219.