Has anyone had their bike wrapped and how well has the wrap stood up to mud, rocks, stones and water?
I'm thinking of having just the front fork done.
I can find a few links regarding people having the frame wrapped but no one really goes into any detail on how well they have lasted in day to day trail use.
It would depend on the material used, printed wrap I wouldn't've though would be thick enough.
You can get thicker carbon effect wraps (search 3m di-noc) but again I don't think they're as thick as such things as heli tape etc. so wouldn't stand up to hard abuse.
For the price I could get them done I'd probably be happy it lasting a year and replacing... just not sure it would even last a year.
Front end of cars (even more so rally cars) seem to take plenty of hammering and are OK so maybe it will be good.
I suppose it's going to be one of those just go and try it jobs.
CAn you report back if you do?
Been looking at several ways to tart an old bike up and this is one of them (along with water transfer prints - which are a lot tougher as they are lacquer coated after).
Yeah I'll let you know if I try it out.
Maybe best to give it a go on the old Kona first, don't want to ruin the brand new fox floats.
Pete from Orange has:
http://wideopenmag.co.uk/news/16121/industry-bikes-pete-scullions-number-of-the-beast-orange-five
It seems to be standing up well.
Front end of cars (even more so rally cars) seem to take plenty of hammering and are OK so maybe it will be good.
Not compared to mountain bikes (well rally cars would) as I've said the printed vinyl is very thin & IMHO wouldn't last long with rock smashes & constant grindy mud.
A digital print on conformable vinyl(wrap) should have a layer of transparent conformable overlay film applied before application. Without this it won't last two seconds. You'd be able to scratch the print off with your finger nails.
There is a company that does bike wraps - they were at Bespoked Bristol last year. Looked great, apart from the over-£100 price ticket.
I thought it looked cheap myself
The wrap will last fine tbh, aslong as it has a decent laminate over the top. The only thing is you will have to have joins everywhere. So on every tube there will be an overlap/join, so it depends how perfect you want it. The joins will be the weak part where you are likely to get water/dirt ingress. Jetwashing(even just on the frame) is a no-no as if you catch the join hard enough it will lift.
Give the lads at 01racefx a shout they do a mean job
Plus they like a challenge
Very creative there not hard to pay either
Got 3M Dinoc on my nudie carbon Mojo for rock protection, lasting pretty well 1 year in...
If you look carefully..
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waldo1 and tbark22 have it right - your corporate or promo wrapped cars / trucks are probably a digitally printed vinyl with a protective overlaminate. That's helitape to you and me and stops abrasion as well as thickening the material to help with some of the impact strikes.
Laminates are available in different thicknesses and finishes (gloss, matte or satin, for example) but the thicker the material, the harder to conform to curves, creases and indents it'll be.
The simple coloured stuff, or chromed or carbon effect is a slightly different type of vinyl, but that again can be overlaminated as above.
Motocross decals are big business and some of the moto boys are doing bike wraps.
The stuff is seriously tough, takes a pasting from mud, roost, rocks and then serious jetwashing and still looks fine if applied well. Application usually involved cleaning and keying the plastics though, so a painted bike might need some prep.
The decals on my Nukeproof Mega are very similar, have held up fine.