I’ve purchase replacement Rock Shox for decals direct from SRAM.

The are comparable with a wide range of forks and therefore aren’t exact replacements of those I’m removing. If they were I would place masking or electrical tape too outline the current positioning of the decals and just just do a straight swap.

Because they are a different shape I can’t do the above, so I’m looking for tips to apply the new decals.

For a bit of context they are not three ply decals so they can’t mark the front and then peal that layer off. They are only vinyl with backing paper (so two ply).

There are center line markings on the clear vinyl around the outside of the decals (outside the perforation), but the moment I remove the vinyl from the backing I’ll lose that, obviously.

So I’m after any tips on how to apply the decals nice and neat, perfectly equal and measured on either side.

Thanks, Jon

I’ve thought about drawing a line with chalk or crayon on the clean fork legs to mark the centre line. The. Using electrical tape to mark along that line to the point where the decals are to start and finish I could then clean off the chalk or crayon between the two points.

Then drawing the same center line down the decal guided my the markers already on the outside of the perforation I could neatly line the sticker up.

After I just remove all the tape and clean off the crayon on the forks and the decals — which hopefully won’t have marked them?!

Any tips or alternatives on that?

Cheers!

I always line up with a reference point. To help with this in the past the past I have created a paper template aligned to those reference points and taped that to the fork and lined the new decals up.

I would either just do it by eye or, if it really had to be perfect or that was tricky for some reason, just do a couple of reference lines on the fork & decal using a chinagraph pencil. You can spray the adhesive with water with a few drops of fairy liquid in (or use an alcohol spray if you have one). This will stop the glue adhering right away and let you remove the vinyl to reposition it if necessary.

Thanks zilog6128. I don’t have any reference points on the decal itself though. Pencil is a great shout on the fork lowers though as that would rub right off and is quite fine.

What could I mark a guide line on the vinyl itself with though?

Thanks to both suggestions!

Ah, sorry zilog6128 you said about the decal too — didn’t realise a chinagraph was a fancy crayon!

Graphite pencil would be fine on the fork legs/lowers though too — and perhaps more accurate?!

I use a chinagraph that’s the same size as a normal pencil so you can sharpen it & put a fine point on it if you want (won’t last long though!)

If the vinyl isn’t laminated or you don’t want to risk drawing directly on it maybe a strategic piece of lo-tack masking tape?

Thanks for all the help, the suggestions (especially the low tack masking tape worked a treat. Not the easiest job to get them perfect but it only really took about an hour tops. Cheers!

I’ve always used an eyeliner pencil to mark up reference points on the fork lower. Wipes right off afterwards.

I just took my old ones off, applied the new ones with a soapy liquid solution, aligned each side so they looked about right, wiped them off and walked away.

They probably aren’t 100% accurate to the originals, I’m not even sure one side is 100% accurate to the other – but I’d challenge anyone to notice.

Don’t stress too much about getting them perfect, they’ll look fine