Stock Appearance

[golfr470]

There seems to be a significant number of us that are interested in improving our night visibility but would prefer to keep our bike looking stock whether for aesthetic reasons or potential resale value. As a representative of the over 50 crowd or simply those who would prefer not to customize their bikes but do want to improve visibility I would ask StreetGlo to consider developing a kit that could be applied on areas of black plastic or metal surfaces rather than the painted finish. One of the weakest areas of night visiblility is from the side and there is certainly plenty of space to apply die cut super black reflective material that would fit the plastic contours without looking like someone gone crazy with black electrician tape. In the day time the bike would still look totally stock but at night it would glow bright white...Food for thought, just my suggestion but I would be interested if any other people feel the same....Nothing against flames or rockets or custom pin striping but they are just not my thing....I would prefer a stealth mode, different strokes for different folks...

[BeachBuzz]

There seems to be a significant number of us that are interested in improving our night visibility but would prefer to keep our bike looking stock whether for aesthetic reasons or potential resale value. As a representative of the over 50 crowd or simply those who would prefer not to customize their bikes but do want to improve visibility I would ask StreetGlo to consider developing a kit that could be applied on areas of black plastic or metal surfaces rather than the painted finish. One of the weakest areas of night visiblility is from the side and there is certainly plenty of space to apply die cut super black reflective material that would fit the plastic contours without looking like someone gone crazy with black electrician tape. In the day time the bike would still look totally stock but at night it would glow bright white...Food for thought, just my suggestion but I would be interested if any other people feel the same....Nothing against flames or rockets or custom pin striping but they are just not my thing....I would prefer a stealth mode, different strokes for different folks...

+1

[TravelinMan]

+2 Here here, great suggestion.

[jenkins]

++ thrice!!!! Jim

[Louie Burgman]

I'm all for it!

[polyian]

I'm with you...great idea

[Daboo]

Like this, or something different, more subtle?


Chris

[grhouse]

Did you achieve this effect with the reflective tape that you can buy on E-Bay or some other method? I plan on doing a lot of night driving soon and need more viability also.

[Daboo]

Did you achieve this effect with the reflective tape that you can buy on E-Bay or some other method? I plan on doing a lot of night driving soon and need more viability also.

Like everyone else who posted on the thread so far, I didn't want the effect of the Pontiac Firebird "Screaming Eagle" on my Burgman. I wanted something that worked, but wasn't loud.

I bought the pin-stripe width tape from Streetglo (and used the BurgmanUSA member discount!). The tape is black in the daytime, and on the dark blue 07 Burgman, it hardly shows in the daylight. If you catch it in the light just right, it does show in the daytime, but I've had to point it out usually to people I'm showing the bike to. They have all thought it was factory pin-striping.

The larger reflective tape you see was purchased on eBay. The last time I looked, it appeared like there was two styles of "black". One showed up as gray at night, the other showed up as white at night. The latter is what I bought.

There are several pictures on the Gallery that will show you various views of the bike. Here's the link...
http://burgmanusa.com/gallery/Daboo/Reflective+Tape/

Here are two daytime pictures.
This one is just taken with the normal sunlight.


This one is taken with the flash which makes the reflective tape show up.


I thought it was kind of fun to see the effect of the flash in the daylight.

BTW, while it is time consuming to take off, you can get the tape off later with a hair dryer.

Chris

[sharing_s_caring]

And the pinstrip width was?
Want to put it along outer outline for greater visability. Superblack on grey/silver Burgman 400 '06.
Thanks

[Daboo]

Here's the text from the order confirmation...

Product : Quantity : Price
1/4 x 37.5 ft Reflective Tape/Pinstripe, Reflective Black : 2 : 9.59
Invisible reflective tape strips kit
SuperBright Black reflective tape strips kit : 1 : 9.95

Discount : -4.37
Subtotal : 24.76
Shipping : 3.88
TOTAL : 28.64

I didn't do anything artistic or special on this. I simply followed lines on the bike that would best reflect light back to the headlights of another vehicle.

Chris

[larry]

chris
i used the same stuff and did kinda the same design. i also took the tape and went around the edge of my windsheild. it lights up real good...........larry

[CalvinFold]

Or another variant...they don't make a reflective color that matches the 2007 Executive , so I used black...TapeWorks RimStealth (this was before I discovered StreetGlo, sorry dude!) and the larger patches are commercial-grade reflective graphics material. The front forks use 3M Solex, the rear fender uses Reflexite...these don't blend well, but that wasn't the point...Solex and Reflexite are ultra-relfective.

Front 3/4 View
Rear 3/4 View
Side View
Daytime View of Solex on Forks
Rear Fender Reflexite (you can also see the black relective pinstripe on fender)
Daytime View of Hump Reflectives

Now that I've discovered this 3M commercial grade stuff, and realized the little black pinstripes are not as visible as the camera would have you think, I'd remove the pinstripes and just stick to large patches if I were to do it all over again.

I've discovered that you don't get much conspicuity in the tape until you get to at least 1/2" wide stripes (i.e. "double pinstripe width). 1/4" just isn't enough to draw attention to itself. The reason is that our reflectives don't function in a vacuum...it's not enough to be reflective, it's got to be reflective enough in a crowd of cars, street objects, and other visual clutter.

[joe67]

I would have to agree.I did'nt buy the burgman to be the coolest guy in town. I bought it for fuel economy, all the neat asseccories, and the most comfortable ride in town.
joe

[majfrizz]

has anyone tried these reflective tapes that go on the wheels.

http://www.streetglo.net/rim.shot.refle ... .tape.html

bob

[Daboo]

You might want to check with them first before ordering them. I get the feeling that they are made for larger wheels.

I cut 1-1.5 inch strips of white reflective tape and put them on the rim. When stopped, they look like individual strips. Once you get moving just a few mph, the eye/mind fills in the gap and they look like a full circle.

Streetglo has a BurgmanUSA discount. The details are in the "Burgman USA Coupons and Discounts" section of the forum. I just ordered some new reflective tape on Friday afternoon and it shipped today...for free. Their prices also are the same as they were about 3 years ago.

Chris

[eztravler]

I used the street glo red reflective to change the appearance of my bland 05 650 so it would not look like the others, it came out looking a little more like a sport bike then i wanted but it does bring atttention to t day and night. I was asked if i got a new bike by one person.

[mjustice5898]

Your 650 looks great! I just purchased a 400 that is about the same color. What size stripes did you purchase? Is it just standard red or some other color description? Thanks!

[Scotty1981]

Your 650 looks great! I just purchased a 400 that is about the same color. What size stripes did you purchase? Is it just standard red or some other color description? Thanks!

+1 on wanting to know the size. I am thinking of doing the same, torn between blue and super black. I like the blue look better during the day but I like the white reflectivity of the super black at night. I emailed streetglow about getting some samples to see how they look in person. Have not heard back yet.

[Scotty1981]

Does anyone know if the Rim Tape kit will fit the smalelr scooter wheels on the burgman

Also looking for ideas with the streetglo tape. If you have it on your ride please send me some pics to 1981sdp@gmail.com

[CalvinFold]

URLs from my post have changed:

Front 3/4 View
Rear 3/4 View
Side View
Daytime View of Solex on Forks
Rear Fender Reflexite (you can also see the black relective pinstripe on fender)
Daytime View of Hump Reflectives

I've since upgrade my reflective setup. Removed the pinstriping after realizing it was worthless and made my own custom-cut. Which was tricky because I wanted to follow the curves of the scooter. Also hard to see in the photos is I bought 3M white reflective inserts for the Givi lenses, which makes them show-up alot better than the standard chrome-ish inserts.

3 materials are used:

3M Reflexite: near as I can tell the highest reflectivity of DOT truck/trailer marking tape. Not very useful for tight curves, but great on mostly flat surfaces (used on rear fender).
Solex: High reflectivity and more bendable (used on front forks)
3M Commercial Grade reflectives: Some material I acquired that is thicker than relfective pinstriping, but more durable and higher reflectivity. Used by such companies as Gillig for striping buses.


REAR FENDER, FRONT FORKS:
Rear fender, daytime (Reflexite)
Rear fender, night (Reflexite)--black/gold reflective has been removed.
Front fender, daytime (Solex)

GIVI SIDE CASES:
Back of Givi E41 and E21, night (3M commercial grade reflective material)--the idea was I could take the backs off as road markers in an emergency
Sides of Givi E41 and E21, night (3M commercial grade reflective material)
Back of Givi E41 and E21, daytime (3M commercial grade reflective material)
Givi E21, left rear, daytime (3M commercial grade reflective material). 3M sells a kit for the E21, and it sucks. Couldn't get it on straight or bubble-free. Mine is much better. ;-p

SCOOTER:
Front fender and forks, daytime (yellow: 3M; white: Solex)
Gas door, daytime (3M)--wasn't 100% happy with results as the door bulges more than I compensated for, but could have been worse
Front fairing, daytime (3M)
Right side, daytime (3M)
Right side, transition to hump, daytime (3M)
Windscreen "fang gap," daytime (3M)

HELMET:
Graphics for helmet match scooter size and style. Another tough exercise in compound curves because the wider, heavier material doesn't stretch much so these are cut from a flat sheet and design to match all the curvatures.

Arai Profile, side, daytime (3M commercial grade reflective material)
Arai PRofile, back, daytime (3M commercial grade reflective material)
Arai Profile, front, daytime (3M commercial grade reflective material)

I need more night shots. If you've seen the blue reflective stripes on TechArtGuy's white project 650, the yellow on mine is the same material.