Tomm Willians

I’m having my favorite bike repainted to reflect my military service but simply do not have any design ideas. The bike is a 2006 Wilier Imperiale (my favorite bike) and all I can figure out is the obvious colors of Army Gold, Black and White and I’d prefer something more to the abstract style.
I’ve used various search terms hoping to find custom painted bike ideas but finding very little. My painter is a very talented artist but I hate to just tell him “figure it out” I think he’d appreciate at least a bit of direction.

Help

smashndash

fatcreations, prova, field, mosaic, baum, velocolor, tunedbytyler and blackmagicpaint are all good sources of inspiration. Maybe look at their Instagram pages.

You can also look up various bike shows like the chris king open house, enve open house/builder roundup, NAHBS. People tend to bring out the big guns there.

Broctoon

Maybe you could do a background of flat olive green or desert tan, with some red, white, and blue accents. (If it were a lugged frame, the lugs could be glossy accent colors, with flat camo colors on the tubes. But this wouldn't work on your frame.) You could do a black fork and head tube, olive main triangle, and tan seat stays/chain stays. The way Willier frames have thick, smooth transitions would lend itself to a gradual fade between colors. Maybe a flag motif on one of the main tubes... white star, big enough to wrap around the tube, inside a blue field, and long red and white stripes extending back from there. Don't make the stripes too thin... put only two or maybe four of them (has to be an even number) so they can be wide.

I think you could make cool graphics on the main frame tubes with some number figures that are significant to you... maybe the dates of your service? Large figures in an elegant script style could be cool--like how Willier does their name.

Maybe you can have your dates of promotion for each grade, something like:

E1.20010515
E2.20011201
E3.20021201
E4.20050301
etc.

A talented pinstripe artist could paint these down the top tube or down tube. Frame the list with one small star above and one below it. Just an idea. Pick something that's meaningful to YOU.

Another possibility: something like what Cinelli does with their Vigorelli frames. The model (mostly a track frame but later offered in road bike config, which is what I ride) is named after the Vigorelli Velodrome in Milan, Italy. To tie into that heritage, they put 397.27 down the seat tube, in oversized block figures so it almost looks like curved and diagonal stripes. You have to look closely to see the actual numbers. In most European countries, decimals are used the way we in the U.S. use commas in numbers (and vice-versa), so the Vigorelli numbers would be 397,27 to Americans. What do these mean? The track is 397 meters long, with a 27 degree bank in the turns.

Your MOS could work for this, as three digits is enough to allow big, thick characters without running out of space length-wise. It might be significant to you, while too obscure to be understood by most passers-by, which prompts questions from the curious.

Maybe the US Army motto "This we'll defend."

MidTNBrad

Check out this YouTube channel. He goes into a lot of details on how to paint a bike and it might give you some ideas.

MyNameIsEarl

Digital camo would look nice

imakecircles

Well, you've identified a color palette, which is a great choice, of those colors, the black and gold together would make a really classy combination, and the first thing that popped up in my mind for that palette is the John Player Special race car livery. Perhaps you could use this for inspiration and get something really classy and pinstripey. Addtionally, the frame looks curvy and sculpted, and you could accentuate that nicely. Please let us know the results.

RNAV

Some questions:

Is black/gold/white your first choice . . . or did you pick that because it was most obvious to you? I'm simply trying to ascertain if that's the only color palette acceptable, if it's preferred, or if you really don't care but just thought of that first.
Are you wanting the military service design piece to be blatantly obvious, or more subtle?

In my mind, blatantly obvious would be something like this:



While subtle would be something like this:

Tomm Willians

I wanted gold/black/white as those colors appeal to me aside from them being the same as the Army logo. I definitely do not want a “straight forward” paint job for this project, I want it to be abstract but not confusing in its message. I’ve seen photos of a few Red/white/blue bikes like you’ve shown and most look (to me) like a 4th of July decoration.
I guess this is why I’m struggling figuring this out and I don’t want to make my painter struggle trying to read my mind.
I do want to incorporate sections of Stars and Stripes but again subtle/abstract.

seypat

I'll be honest. I did not serve in any of the military branches. I could not tell you the official colors of the Army or Navy. I could the other two. If you're thinking of Black/Gold/White, non military people will not recognize it unless it has Army on it. Then they'll think , "why isn't that bike green?" So, if you're wanting maximum recognition, I'd go with something envisioned from green/black Eagle logo. Just my opinion. In my area, I am seeing lots of Jeeps/pickups painted in schemes trying to emulate military vehicles. It's usually green/tan with some stars on them and some Overlanding gear added for effect. There's a young man in the same business park I'm in that's a few years out of his time with the Marines. He has a Mercedes sedan that was a nice silver metallic color. Now it's the drab olive color with a big white star on the hood. Whatever floats your boat. There is a Nissan 350Z in my area that is 2 color schemes split right down the middle of the car. Green/tan camo on one side and black on the other. All 4 rims are black.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army

RNAV

Any chance you could post a picture of your bike?

All City had a Cosmic Stallion paint scheme in the color way you want:



Speedvagen did something similar (minus the white):


I've always been a fan of Speedvagen's "Horizon" design, which they do in a plethora of color combinations:


You could do something similar to one of these, and incorporate the Army Star as the head badge, or perhaps on the top of the top tube behind the stem. Then, on the inside of the fork legs, you could do either ghosted Stars and Stripes, or straight up red/white/blue stars on stripes. Since it'd be in the inside of the fork, you'd see it, but it wouldn't be in-your-face.

Do you intend to keep any of the stock branding (i.e. Wilier name somewhere, Imperiale somewhere else, etc.)?

Tomm Willians

This is the bike for the project. Yes I do intend to have a limited number of Wilier graphics placed on the new paint job. Probably just the head badge and lower tube as it is now.

thehammerdog

go for a sweet camo paint sceme.....

robbyville

RVnavv already mentioned Speedvagen. I have the horizon scheme which I love but they did this back in 2015 as well that I think is incredible. If you Google it you can find additional images of the detail.

robbyville

RVnavv already mentioned Speedvagen. I have the horizon scheme which I love but they did this back in 2015 as well that I think is incredible. If you Google it you can find additional images of the detail.