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Paint options

Which color?

  • All black

    Votes: 4 15.4%
  • Black and Arctic white

    Votes: 1 3.8%
  • Black and Dover white

    Votes: 2 7.7%
  • other

    Votes: 19 73.1%

  • Total voters
    26
  • Poll closed .
J

James.A

Guest
I am doing some work on a 1988 R100RS. I got a good deal on it last February, and it had been dropped and the fairing cracked and scraped. The bike is originally pearl white and it came with a very nice replacement fairing that was black. After putting it together initially and fixing some other issues, I am now considering paint. The question to me is do I paint it all black or affect a two tone paint scheme?
 

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Since my first interest in motorcycles in the 60s, I thought BMWs and Harleys should be black. I still think so.
 
It's all about what makes you happy, isnt it?

Yes, but I thought we could have some fun with this anyway. Today I am putting on new fork seals and preparing to start pulling the skins to go to the painter.
 
I'd paint it to match the tank and everything else. Almost every repaint to a non-stock color simply looks cheap, especially black. Always good to have collision coverage on bikes with fairings.
 
Paint colour is a personal thing!

You know what they say: "Loud Paint Saves Lives!"

Peronally I like red!
 

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Since the bike is an '88 and white, I'd do the fairing in white as well.

However, if the white paint job is not so good, then go all black with white pinstripes.

My first choice is all white, though. My mechanic friend had an '88 or '89 that was all white that I thought looked fantastic.

Whichever way you go on this, be sure to share pics of the final product. You doing the paint yourself or farming it out?
 
2 tone

James,
Once the original paint is gone, it's gone. No point repainting in the original white. So I would use that as an excese to do whatever pleases you. Two tone sounds good to me, but not pearl white and black.
Welcome to the latest age of the airheads. How have you found it compared to the /5s?
Theo Marks
'74 R75/6
'88 R100RS
 
James,
Once the original paint is gone, it's gone. No point repainting in the original white. So I would use that as an excese to do whatever pleases you. Two tone sounds good to me, but not pearl white and black.
Welcome to the latest age of the airheads. How have you found it compared to the /5s?
Theo Marks
'74 R75/6
'88 R100RS

Well Theo, the "88" RS is a whole different animal. More capable in every respect, but does that make it better?
 
88 vs 74

James
I also added an 88 RS to the garage after bonding for years with the /6. I agree with you about the competence of the RS. The extra horses I could do without, but I don't complain. The stiffer frame is a big plus. But the brakes are what truely make me appreciate the RS. I like the smooth shifting trany as well. And the fairing and the heated grips are nice in the cold and wet. Not so happy with all of the plastic bits (and pollution control stuff-gone now), but I guess they save weight. Overall, it is much more modern feeling than the simpler and more agricultural /6. But I still prefer the /6 for most of my solo riding. For two-up, definately the RS.
As for color, I am lucky (and significantly poorer, I supose) to have nice original pearl white paint. If I didn't and it needed paint I would probably do a two-tone blue.
Regards
Theo Marks
 
Another fan of Red here:

BMWFickle.jpg
 
Bermuda Blue was my favorite ever Airhead color and I had an earlier ('84) RT painted in that color by Holt BMW ... which cost more than the value of the bike. I had to have silver side cover decals custom made, as BMW never did them in silver.
 
just had my 91 R100 mono re-painted...went from the stock black (actually more like a graphite) to white...used BMW "pepper white" ... similar to "Dover white"... real classy...picts coming soon....
 
I like the white vs the black.Mine is the black/mettalic grey 1995,2 tone with some pinstriping.Still,if youare going to paint everything;my pal painted his with the very expensive green/pink/purple,changed colour according to light and perspective,Mustang paint,looked great.
 
My 81 started life as a smoked green which I dont think I would have liked.

The second owner repainted it with some type of Cadillac dark metallic blue which is still on the bike and it gives it a classy look when shined up.

If your going to go thru the process of repainting make it unique! John Deere green with yellow wheels or a Moto Sport white and orange, use your imagination. What about the newer R bike with the wide white stripe on top of the black tank. Continue the stripe down the front like the Moto Sport.

The paint is holding up pretty well considering the 164K on the odometer.
1t-day11-2.jpg
 
Well, Jim, when I got my /6 with the Hannigan fairing, it was looking a bit worse for wear, with the tank in original black with white stripes, but it was also "touched up" by somebody. The touch-up, and the fairing were in various shades and textures of black, some of it appearing to have been done by broom. So I decided to strip it all down to nothing, pulled the dents out of the tank, lots of body work and minimal bondo, then shot it in a Mercedes color. My bike, my choice. I suggest you let your imagination loose.
 
Solid or Two-Tone?

As the owner/rider of two '78 Motorsports. . .there was a time when I would have said "definitely take it back to Pearl White. . ." or even, "do a fake Motorsport". . . but --

After a friend recently acquired a pristine factory-painted '78 RS, with Metallic Red on "upper" everything. . .fairing, tank, fenders, and a dark metallic grey on the fairing lowers and side-covers. . .that might be a way to go with a two-tone combination in your choice of colors. Sorry I can't post pix, but -- trust me, it looks great, and if you'll PM me, I'll send you a shot.

Personally, what I would NOT do is paint the fairing a different color from the rest of the bike, but - as others have noted - this IS a very personal thing.

The other suggestion is to TAKE PLENTY OF TIME time before doing this. You've got all winter, and my experience has been that if I let a decision "marinate" for a few days/weeks, and after weighing various suggestions, the "answer" comes floating across the grid as if by magic, and it's usually the "right" one. . .

Also, I'm sure some of the (young?) techies out there can tell you how to do a "virtual" paint job on a picture of this bike, and get a pretty good idea of what you like without spending several thousand bucks on a real paint job, then finding out you didn't like it! If you know any interior designers (I live with one), you might explore colors with them. When a person has studied color theory, they know a lot about what looks good together -- not every color looks good with a randomly-chosen other color, and there ARE "principles" that govern this, believe it or not.

Thanks for letting us in on this decision process.

Walking Eagle
 
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