Painting my frame black, is it a cool idea?

I'm considering painting my motorcycle frame black. My bike gets extremely hot and I live in a hot country and I'm concerned about heat dissipation. I've done some research and opinon seems to go both ways. The fourth generation bike does get very hot and I'm worried about making any impact on the functionality of my bike.
Does anyone have any insights?

 

dumb move but its your bike so ruin it any way u want.

note that most stolen bikes are painted black.

 

Anyone with a more technical opinion?

 

"Cool" is subjective. It can look pretty good to me if the rest of the bike accents it...

AND IT IS DONE PROPERLY.

Are you taking the bike completely apart? Or just masking off while still assembled.

Prepping the anodized frame so the paint actually sticks is key.

So, yes, it can be cool. Or it can look like a tool did it one afternoon. And even worse after some use and exposure.

And a black frame is not going to appreciably affect the running temp of the bike. If we are talking about a 1994 - 97, a well sorted example is probably one of the coolest running.

 

OK, to put this in perspective, I am living in Cambodia, I have a very competent mechanic and the bike will be stripped and professionally painted and it won't run to more than a few hundred bucks. It will definitely look cool and it will give me the opportunity to grease all the bearings, which she likely needs and inspect for any other signs of wear and tear. My concern is the temperature because it's hot as hell here and the bike runs very hot (by nature). I know that some V-twin radiate through the frame and the VFR does seem to get close to those kinds of temperatures. From what I can tell, painting the frame might actually help to diffuse the heat but the difference is going to be tiny, which is fine by me. I'm just wondering if this is a dangerous idea.

 

How will you handle scratches?

 

Honestly no idea how they do it. I've had bikes painted with this guy before and they don't scratch. it's as good as a factory finish, it's tough and resilient. I had a mate who had his ZX9 painted gold and it looked decent, it wasn't metal flake, it looked like a smooth golden finish and lasted for years without a mark. So the quality doesn't worry me, they do a good job.
He has told me he's got an alloy-formulated paint and I guess it's true.

 

Sounds like you have a vision with a good plan and a great opportunity to service the chassis.

Your idea is not dangerous in my opinion. Honda did a black frame on the 2007 Anniversary Edition VFR.



Go for it.

 

I agree that it would look just fine. How about the swingarm and fork outers?

I'm not one to spend money on aesthetics, but would go for suspension, braking, and smoothing out power delivery.

 

Not a VFR, but...

 

I concur with the Capt's comments post # 4. Also not sure of any 'appreciable' heat sink advantage.

That said......I would like to see before and after photos of your bike please...... provided you proceed with the project - thank you and good luck, Jack!

PS - My '75 Honda XL 175 w/black frame:


My '06 500R Ninja - also with a black frame:


I have some others but none are Interceptors, so can't help there......

 

It's the danger of making her worse at radiating heat that bothers me. I bought her as a non-runner and she's had a few issues. One of them has been over-heating and I had a lot of parts replaced. That fixed it until last weekend when she over-heated again. Luckily it turned out to simply be a bad fuse. it hadn't blown but it wasn't always working and it meant the fan wasn't running. I swapped it for the horn fuse and then everything was fine. But, it brought home just how hot this thing runs. At the weekend I took a run round the block and the frame was hotter than the (titanium) exhaust can. That's at normal running temperature too, after only a short run. I certainly don't want to do anything to impede the normal function of the bike.

Bmart, I agree but this is part of a project. I'm building her into a steetfighter of sorts and really want to end up with something unrecognisable. Power delivery is already really good, she has had a sports-exhaust and a dynojet kit, she pulls like a 1000cc bike, other people have ridden her and commented just how fast and smooth she is. This is mostly going to be an aesthetic project. I'm hoping to build a new subframe with a solo seat and tuck the exhaust somewhere so it's less obvious. Maybe under the saddle or maybe under the belly, if i can work that out.

 

I had one of these, in yellow. I ended up selling it to a mate. It rekindled my interest in performance bikes again, after I tried to force myself to grow out of it. Nice bikes. I had one of the ER6s too. I liked that as well.

 

well, its aesthetically dangerous cuz it spoils hondas design and makes it look cheap and ordinary like average common steel-framed black-painted bikes.

an alloy frame needs respect, only honda would mass-produce them.

try hot hot wiring the fan so its always on. to keep any bike runnin cooler u need to keep forward motion.

 

Aesthetically, I don't agree. As you said, she's my bike. You're going to love what I'm doing to her, underseat exhaust, new, angular bodywork, long aggressive, jutting nose, huge airscoops... You'll love it...

 

ok so u have extra money to spend on glits and bling unnecessarily. gofur it bubba.

 

Are you drunk? I mean, I will. I'm moderately obsessed with a sci-fi motorcycle from a book and I want to build it, own it, ride it and have it. The only way that's going to happen is to build it myself. And, I've always wanted to build a really nice streetfighter myself. I've built a few but they're all gone now. I once built a BMW for a RTW trip, built a 250cc Kawasaki for a friend, Built a Honda Sonic 125cc (turned into Sonic the Hedgehog colours) and some other stuff. I love playing with bikes almost as much as riding them.
Here's my old Sonic (dead now). The guy who created Sonic the Hedgehog saw a picture and said it was cool.

 

Well, Jack...you're talking to a lot of purists. I appreciate what you're trying to do, and hope that you enjoy it, but in my head, you're ruining something perfectly lovely. This doesn't mean that you are...but Honda and Yamaha get a lot of stuff right from the crate. Esthetics isn't important to me, but I do really hate the angular stylings of recent years.

I'm with the squirrel...if you're going to do something, make it magnificent. And...why would you ask if he were drunk?

 

I would never ask the opinion of the internet on anything, it's like cats trying to bury their shit in the fast lane of the freeway. Do whatever you think is best, just do it the best you possibly can.