Hey all new guy here

[Wakey]

Hey all joe here from UK, I’m wanting to step into unfamiliar grounds as I’m wanting to go from repairing motorbikes to making graphic kits and wraps for them instead like in the picture attached , I have sourced someone to print them off for me untill I find a printer of my own but I’m not 100% sure on where to get templates form if anyone knows it would be much appreciated thanks

 

[damonCA21]

Nobody makes templates for road bikes, you would need to make your own from the bodywork for each individual bike, which is how the company who made the kit in the pic did it.
Also wraps don't really work on road bikes as the bodywork is such complex shapes with so many contours, they are more suited for large flatter panels on cars and vans etc...
The other issue is if you made wraps to sell, then customers wouldn't be able to fit them.
Graphics kits are ok to make, but you will need to be able to create vector graphics to print from if you want to get anything decent looking, and also to be able to create the cut parts rather than printed

 

[damonCA21]

Also, what price is the person printing them charging you, and are they going to print them in high enough quality to keep the customers happy? You may find there is very little profit left in it for you compared to people who produce them in house so have much lower production costs

 

[Wakey]

Also, what price is the person printing them charging you, and are they going to print them in high enough quality to keep the customers happy? You may find there is very little profit left in it for you compared to people who produce them in house so have much lower production costs

He will charge me £100 per kit and he normally does MX kits at a good quality (he runs 3 Roland printers) but he doesn’t do road or race bikes so he said he could help me start untill I get my own printer as long as I don’t want MX bikes printing) I know a few lads on tracks through repairing bikes plus the occasional track day so I know I can get the custom and the product made it’s just the middle bit of design I have AI and PS just the template but I was struggling with as there is loads of MX ones but not a lot of race fairing road bikes I have seen a few on google but the selection isn’t great and it’s like you have to get 2 templates to make 1 bike due to bits missing like the tank or wrong nose cone

 

[damonCA21]

I bet he said he can help you start at £100 a kit !

Yep, the only way to get templates that fit properly is make them yourself from the bikes bodywork. Road bikes have very few flat panels on them, so you can't really make them from 2D photos and get the fit correct as the printed shape will end up wrong.

Doing a full wrap on a tank or nose cone is a very skilled job and not something most customers could do themselves, and if they mess it up they will then blame you.

 

[Wakey]

I bet he said he can help you start at £100 a kit !

Yep, the only way to get templates that fit properly is make them yourself from the bikes bodywork. Road bikes have very few flat panels on them, so you can't really make them from 2D photos and get the fit correct as the printed shape will end up wrong.

Doing a full wrap on a tank or nose cone is a very skilled job and not something most customers could do themselves, and if they mess it up they will then blame you.

Thanks for that so basically I need the bike and then use card to make a template?

 

[gnubler]

There's been a lot of discussion around the forum on wraps lately.
I had a customer recently who asked if I do race bike wraps. I said NO. He said he tried installing graphics on his bike once and it sucked so bad he said he never wants to do it again.

Installing on anything rounded (convex or concave) is harder than it looks.

 

[The Big Squeegee]

TO from Califoria

 

[Boudica]

No experience with this outfit, but I just found them on the interweb... Looks like they offer Motorcycle templates.

MOTORCYCLE SERIES

Wrap Wizards is a unique marketplace providing a full range of exclusive object mockups and ready to print deigns for various creative solutions.

wrap-wizards.com

 

[damonCA21]

Those are just image templates for mock ups, they don't actually make templates that fit the bodywork

 

[damonCA21]

Thanks for that so basically I need the bike and then use card to make a template?

Yes, thats the only way to do it to get the shaping and fit correct. The good thing is once you have done it once, then you have the templates for future use, but making up a full template set for a race bike is typically a good full days work, then you need to scan them into the PC, tidy up, double check the scale etc...

You need to factor all this into your cost to the customer