I would. If you don’t clearcoat it, and you drop something on the tank you’ll be able to see the damage to the paint. If you clearcoat it it’s possible the damage to the clearcoat won’t be visible.
My first street bike was a Seca II. I wanted a beater, as I hadn’t ridden in years and expected to drop it. The Seca I found had been dropped on both sides, so it was just what I wanted. That was a fun bike. My wife learned to ride using that bike, too.
Fortunately, I don’t have to paint the tank. I got a NOS replacement tank a couple of years ago. I also found a Reddish Yellow Cocktail right-side fairing to match the tank. So I’ll need to paint the left-side fairing, the tail fairing, the front fender, and the front fairing.
I haven’t done anything like this before. I bought some Reddish Yellow Cocktail paint in spray cans. My plan is to sand the fairings that need painting, and get the decals off. (The blue bike had decals on the side fairings and the front fairings, plus the YAMAHA sticker on the back.) Then prime them and sand them with very fine sandpaper. The RYC paint is a two-stage thing, so I’ll apply that and sand it, then apply the second part and sand that.
I’m assuming that final sanding will ensure that it doesn’t look like a spray-can paint job. I also assume that if I apply a clear-coat, sand that, and polish it, everything will look even and shiny.
There’s a video from the company that sold me the paint (I had to buy it directly because of environmental restrictions, rather than through Amazon) that shows them painting a front fairing – though not in RYC. I’ll have to see if I can find it.
The guy in Temecula, CA who has the '96 XJ600S engine also has a RYC frame for $50. I’d consider both, but I’d have to drive down to get them as they’re local pickup only. Also, I want to ride my existing bike because it was a birthday present, rather than use a different frame even if I don’t have to paint it.
Any paint without a clearcoat will have a tendency to fade. I’d coat it.
So … Did you (or she) drop it?
And the plastic and metal (but you’re not painting the tank, I know) will fade at different rates. I’ve got an RZ with varying shades of white in different places.
By the way, the RYC is a far better color that that bland-ass ‘chalk-line’ blue alternative. In the sunlight, the stock tank should look awesome. Too bad you don’t get any of that up where you live! 
She did. It just got new scratches where it was already scratched.
Due to my greater skill, I never dropped the beater. Then I bought a new bike and dropped it. $$$.
Ain’t that the way it always goes?
Isn’t that the way they say it goes?
But let’s forget all that…
Yeah–at least when you buy a dirt bike you know it’s inevitable. Might as well drag it 20’ behind the truck and get it over with. When my buddy and I did our huge trip in '88 (me:GPZ750, him:K75s) we had a 5 or 600 mile day to get to Mobile. We pulled up to the first stop light in at least an hour, and he just… forgot to put his feet down?!? Funniest crash ever.
When I bought the R1 in 2003, someone at the shop told me about a guy who bought a brand-new Honda Gold Winnebago from another dealership. As I recall, the customer had more dollars than sense. He stopped at the driveway of the dealership before proceeding on his merry way… and forgot to put his feet down.
If I was him I’d have cried. Great bike.
Those things always looked like they were big enough to be trikes; hardly surprising somebody fooled themselves into thinking it was self-balancing.
Still and all, ouch! At least he did it at a place where there were people around who knew how to get a 1000# behemoth upright.
He might have cried. But it had hard bags and the fairing just scratched–didn’t crack. So about as good as you could hope for.
Lots of stories from that trip–a couple days before we were on the Blue Ridge Parkway (can I get an AMEN?) and hooked up with 4 other guys. One was on an R65, another a Harley, a Venture Tourer and I can’t remember the 4th. We were young and full of piss and vinegar, and we were on proper SPORT bikes and had just done Keith Code’s Superbike School… They smoked us! The R65 guy flipped his cylinder head covers that night because he had ground them down. The Venture dude would head into a corner dragging his floorboards while adjusting the volume on his radio. Good times–we were suitably humbled.
I was just thinking about the press at the time I got my '94 XJ600 Seca II. All of the magazines talked about how great it was, how Yamaha hit the ball out of the park and all that. Then a couple of years later, Suzuki GSF600 Bandit. It bore a startling resemblance to the Seca, which isn’t surprising because it was built for the same purpose. But immediately, all of the motorcycle magazines started writing about how great the Bandit was, and how much the Seca II sucked. The turn-around was so abrupt I couldn’t help but think there was (still is?) a payola scheme.
“Newest is best” has pretty much been the perpetual mantra for Cycle, Road and Track, Car and Driver, etc., since I was a kid.
Funny, I just realized I don’t actually know the title of any current motorcycle mags. Not so surprising since I haven’t ridden for ~30 years, but it was an odd realization just now. Sure I could Google them up, but that’s not the point.
I don’t know how much is actual payola. It could just be “here’s an article we wrote for you, all you need to do is publish it.”
It could also be “Write a good article about us and we’ll buy some advertising for your magazine, hint hint.”
I don’t like newer Harleys, so magazines can sing their praise all they want. I’m not “upgrading”. I like my old Harley.
I used to subscribe to Cycle World. I did a little quick and dirty accounting and for 3 issues straight, they devoted 6 times more print space to Nicotine Delivery systems than to off-road motorcycles. Nothing but overpriced cruisers, overpowered hypersports and oversized ‘Adventure’ bikes.
That is not a Cycle World I was interested in and shit-canned them.
Well, not all that long ago I had to head into work very very early, can’t remember why. I rode my Triumph into my usual space in the Pacific Place garage and just… slowly… toppled over. I was too tired to remember what to do when stopping. Feet on the pegs all the way over.
Fortunately, the Tiger 800 of that day had hard plastic luggage that could easily absorb a low speed tip over. There was a small scuff mark that literally just buffed right out.
All in all, riding so tired that I was confused by parking was probably a really bad idea. It was one of those situations where I remember leaving home, then arriving at the garage, but nothing inbetween.
I think it’s as straightforward as the desire to generate pages. No one wants to read an article about how the Svartpilen 401 is marginally slower than the Duke 390, so the slightly faster one “blows away” the other - when they’re essentially the same bike.
Nor do they want to read that the 1998 model is the same as the 1997 model except they changed the shape of the taillight. “New for '98” has to offer a compelling reason to go get one. Despite the fact '97s are still in the showroom on end-of-season clearance pricing.
The 70s-90s were indeed a time of great progress over an, e.g., 5-year period. I’ve lost touch since then and it may still be true that 5 years’ progress buys a greatly improved machine. But the incremental year to year change really wasn’t all that tremendous in most line-ups.
I used to call it BNG: Bold New Graphics.