For the gurus out there - are european colors the same as USA?

I am looking to replace fairing parts and I found a new red fairing in the UK but the part number, last 3 numbers, are slightly different. Is the 1998 R157 red in the USA the same red in Europe? hoping the answer is yes.

 

Your reds are not going to match anyway.. Reds fade.

Paint numbers and names are not standardized anywhere that I am familiar with. VFRs are made in Japan. Who knows what they are thinking. All the US imports of the 90-93s were red. How they came up with that is a mystery. Lots of red paint maybe?

 

The website link below might provide a theoretical answer. Like most manufacturers, Honda used its own paint codes and colour names for all their motorbikes. When they first started out. Honda motorbikes supplied with exactly the same paint code should look the same regardless of what market they were destined for around the world. On my 2006 VFR the paint code is on a label on the tank which is only visible when you remove the seat. The Honda paint codes were basically to help their parts department supply colour matched replacement parts/accessories, and should not be confused with the sort of digital paint codes often used in modern spray booths.

http://www.vsource.org/VFR-RVF_files/BHondaPaintCodes.htm

BUT as BB has mentioned colours tend to fade over time and light exposure so depending on where the replacement parts you are buying have been kept/stored/used, they may end up looking very different even if they have exactly the same Honda paint code. Reds seem to be particularly prone to fading.

For a 1998 motorbike - the chances of finding replacement parts which look exactly the same as the rest of your bike is not great, but even so they may still offer the closest colour match you will get without spending out to re-spray the whole bike to achieve a consistent colour.





SkiMad

 

Fade to black.

 

How does Honda get those tiny stars in there?

 

Honda uses a shitload of tiny people who can paint stars.

 

I bought a brand new R157 Italian Red solo seat cover this year for my 1997 VTR1000; it looks just fine sitting next to the original tail.

Not sure about that reference to tiny stars; maybe this is something that just the US market gets to complement the tiny stripes?

 

The stripes on bikes other than Harleys are metric.

The manufacturer of your seat cover paid close attention to the color of the bikes they are selling covers for. The eye and brain adjust for minor differences in color. Over time the red cover will fade too.

Although not strictly empirical, Dig oot some old family photos (prints) taken with a film camera. It is very likely a few indoor pix will have a brown caste. If the negatives or transparencies are available there are codes on them that will show the film was rated for daylight use. Incandescent lamps/bulbs illuminate via a glowing wire. To the person taking the photo, the lighting looked quite normal. The film ain't that smart and did what it does.

Light has temperature measured in degrees Kelvin. Candlelight is on this scale "cool" and daylight is "hot" the rest fall in between. Digital cameras for the most part have the ability to compensate for this effect through "white balance" either in auto mode or measured and entered as data as part of the overall camera setting. Further, in digital photography, software programs are able to repair and change these "settings"

Another example of what the eye and brain see and what a machine sees.

Another factor in paint color is that from year to year what is called say "Barn Red" from 25-30 years ago and the Barn Red of today is going to be different for two major reasons. Technology and raw materials. The chemistry of paint and coatings is on the molecular level and when some third world dictator goes fucking bonkers and starts eradicating the poor sods who may be shoveling oot a pigment, collecting the petrochemical fraction, the paint is gonna change.

Barn Red in the early days was much darker. The paint was mixed on site, the color was from Fe02 (rust) the rest was linseed oil (boiled or not) Lime and water. Great stuff. Easy to mix up, long lasting killed bugs and cheap to make. Now Barn Red is a formula so complex that only a paint chemist begins to understand it.

Both fade too.. Ain't that the shits?