What Colour?

[Threewheelbonnie]

A bit of help from the collective if you wouldn't mind

My project: BMW K100 plus cargo/dog pod sidecar.

The bike: Currently hand brushed matt black.
The sidecar body: Will be plain aluminium with some sort of anti-glare paint on the nose only. I'll all look a bit Mad Max to be honest.

What's required:

1. I want the best colours to stand out on European motorways, in bad weather such as snow and maybe in other enviroments such as if broken down in Morocco or a forest road in Norway.

2. I don't want to look "official" even though with the chair this is not a huge factor. The matt black at times looks dark green. Should I get the chance to get out and about at bit further I want men with guns on borders to think "Wallace and Gromit" not "Inglorious Barstewards". No Ural style camo.

3. I'm hopeless at cleaning so something along the lines of Hammerite might suit best, but as I'm looking at aluminium and plastic I think I might need two sorts of paint.

Ideas so far:

Keep the matt black but paint the new front mudguard, sidecar mudguard, chair nose and side panels day-glo orange, yellow or pink.

KTM/VW Orange the lot (just to wind up the blue vs orange argument)

Red and Green to offend my wifes dress sense but could also act as a magnet for local football lunatics if done the wrong way/shades.

Tartan: We'll send the apprentice at work to get the paint (She can pick up a new bubble for the spirit level and ask about a long stand while she's at it).

A large murial of Ewan and Charlie

Any other ideas are appreciated

Many Thanks

Andy

[JonStobbs]

Dayglo "Dynorod" orange...Yoshi Adams's LDT trials outfit stands out a million miles away in this colour scheme!

[brianrossy]

Hoy mate,
I'm looking at buying a black dr650 and the only thing i was worried about is it being really hot to touch during the day, but clothes should deal with that anyway.

I'd say pick your personal colours and if you wanted to stand out to vehicles get stick on reflective tape and put on some obvious places. And prob avoid night driving anyway?

Maybe i'll change my black dr into a black and orange dr...seeing my family nickname is hornet. best of luck mate!

[Caminando]

Yes avoid the military look but use a colour which lets you do your wild camping easily. No DayGlo paint to attract unwelcome people.

Some kind of non military plain green, or a maroon colour.

If you want to be seen on the road for safety, use a reflective panel which you can remove or cover when stealth camping.

[*Touring Ted*]

I think white and yellow would be good !

High visibility, will make other tin box drivers give you a second look and maybe a wide berth !

Get one of those rotating yellow 12v lamps that you see on work vans etc !! Would look funny on the back of the side car !!

I don't think you're going to be able to hide/camo your outfit if you're wild camping anyway no matter what colour it is so why bother ?? A large camo tarp cover might be better for that.

[Dodger]

If you want to be seen and you don't want any dayglo,choose white [works well at the front ]and use red or blue in certain areas of the bodywork to break up the monotony of an all white bike,but still retaining the conspicuity of the white.
Matt or flat black tends to give the wrong message to those in "authority" ,it also looks dirty even with a slight covering of road grime.