Why You Should Think Twice Before Vinyl Wrapping Your Motorcycle
If you aren't happy with your motorcycle's color you have two options: get a new paint job or have it vinyl wrapped. Wrapping is certainly the cheaper route. Wwhether it's a full or partial job, the cost can be a couple hundred or a few thousand dollars, though that can be drastically reduced if you wrap the bike yourself. Similar to how long a car wrap lasts, vinyl wrapping on a motorcycle can give you several years of protection, so it seems like a no-brainer decision, right?
Not necessarily. While there could be benefits, vinyl wrapping a motorcycle is a painstaking process, one some bike enthusiasts wouldn't recommend. Car wraps work by adhering vinyl sheets to the exterior, carefully detailing it so that no bubbles or wrinkles are left behind. Vinyl wrapping a motorcycle works the same as a car, technically, but it doesn't take an expert to recognize how the process could skyrocket in difficulty. Car exteriors are large and smooth, giving you a relatively easy canvas to work with. However, motorcycles are made of many small parts, and if you want a full job, each one will have to be removed and wrapped individually. It's incredibly time-consuming and the margin for error is much greater.
Vinyl wrapping a motorcycle yourself can increase that margin even further, even if you use an easy DIY method for wrapping your car. On the other hand, a professional job will increase the cost. So, you may want to think twice before vinyl wrapping your motorcycle altogether.
What do others have to say about vinyl wrapping a motorcycle?
There might be a reason why you don't hear about vinyl wrapping motorcycles as often as you do cars. Based on what people who have performed these custom jobs have to say, the consensus is that it isn't worth the time or effort.
On Reddit, u/Adept_Handle-_1999 asked members of the motorcycle community whether they would paint or wrap their new bike to cover up a bad paint job, and the consensus was to do anything but vinyl wrap it. One poster, U/wolf_in_sheeps_wool, wrote, "I tried wrapping. I don't recommend wrapping. A good wrap takes as long as a good paint job and wraps are a pain in the butt with odd shaped fairings," stating that vinyl wrappings won't hide the lumps underneath. U/Tacos_always_corny also suggested painting, saying vinyl wrapping isn't as easy as people may think because of the many different shapes of bike parts. If you make one mistake, you'll have to start all over.
On another Reddit post, a now-deleted account explained the annoyance of vinyl wrapping a motorcycle. "[You] gotta remove all of the fairings and the tank, and then it's very time consuming to wrap around every single angle on each fairing," they wrote, saying the time it takes to complete the process could make it cost more than wrapping a car. After completing a job, u/BroJ_Simpson22 recommended that people don't vinyl wrap their motorcycles, stating it took them over 50 hours to complete, cost them more than expected, and brought too much frustration.