Your graphics template,measured to the millimetre.

A graphics kit starts with a template: the exact outline of every bodywork panel, at 1:1 scale, which the cutting plotter follows to the millimetre. The design is then laid out inside those outlines. If the template is 5 mm off, the kit runs over a bolt, stops short of a crease or leaves bare plastic showing. The good news: with masking tape, a marker, a phone and free software, this is well within your reach.

Why you won't find drawings of your bike

Manufacturers (Yamaha, Honda, BMW and the rest) don't publish drawings of their fairings. So graphics kit makers take their own patterns, bike by bike, and keep them to themselves: that's the core of their work and the reason a kit fits.

Online, you'll mostly find side views (motorcycle "templates" seen from the side), free or paid. They're for sketching a design or making a mock-up. But a side view is a flattened picture: it doesn't show panels that turn towards the front or the top, and a curve looks shorter than it really is. It's no good for cutting. To cut, you need the real shape of each panel, laid flat.

What you need to take a pattern

• Masking tape (decorator's tape), 25 to 50 mm wide, low tack. Get several rolls: a single panel eats a lot of it.
• A fine-tip marker, ideally in two colours: one for outlines, one for reference marks.
• Scissors and a craft knife with a fresh blade.
• Flat cardboard or large sheets of kraft paper, to stick the patterns down flat.
• A soft tape measure and a ruler of at least 30 cm, or a calibration target (a printed checkerboard or grid whose dimensions you've checked).
• Degreaser (isopropyl alcohol) and microfibre cloths.
• Optional: cling film, to protect fragile paint under the tape.

Step 1: prepare the panel

Wash and dry the panel, then wipe it with isopropyl alcohol: the tape has to hold across the whole surface without sliding. Work in the shade, on a cold panel. If the fairing comes off without forcing the clips, take it off: you'll see the edges better. Otherwise, work on the bike.

Step 2: cover the panel with tape

Lay strips of tape that overlap by about half their width, running slightly past the edges of the panel. Then add a second layer at right angles to the first. These two crossed layers form a stiff shell that keeps its shape when you lift it. Smooth each strip with your finger so it follows the hollows, without stretching it like a rubber band: stretched tape shrinks back once lifted and throws the pattern off.

Step 3: draw the outlines and reference marks

With the fine marker, draw everything on the tape that matters for cutting:

• The edges of the panel: run your finger along the edge and draw just above it.
• Creases and changes of shape: where the bodywork changes direction, the design will often have to stop or change.
• Bolts, clips, holes, air intakes and raised logos, circled.
• Areas to avoid: joints with another panel, rubbing areas, hot spots near the exhaust.
• Alignment marks: a few crosses or lines running onto the next panel, so you can join the patterns together later.

Before lifting anything, write straight on the tape: the name of the panel, the side (left or right, as seen sitting on the bike), an arrow pointing up and an arrow pointing forward.

Step 4: trim, lift, flatten

Trim the excess tape with the knife along the edges of the panel without pressing: you're cutting tape, not paint. Then lift the shell slowly, starting from a corner, supporting it with your other hand so it doesn't fold onto itself.

Lay the shell on the cardboard or kraft paper and flatten it. On a nearly flat panel, it lies down without trouble. On a domed panel (tank, mudguard, tail unit), it refuses to go flat: make small relief cuts from the edge inwards until it lies without creases, then stick it down. Those cuts that open up are valuable information: they show you where the vinyl will have to stretch, or where the design will need to be split into two pieces.

Step 5: digitise at the right scale

With a photo

Lay the cardboard perfectly flat, in even light, with no glare. Put a ruler or calibration target in the frame, at the same level as the pattern. Shoot straight down, the camera parallel to the cardboard and centred on the pattern. A photo taken at an angle gives you a trapezium, and a wrong template.

If the image isn't perfectly square, straighten it with the perspective tool of free image software such as GIMP, using the corners of the target as a guide.

With a scanner

An A3 scanner (297 × 420 mm) gives you an image with no perspective, at 1:1 scale if you scan at 100%. For a bigger panel, scan in several passes with a generous overlap between images, and join them using your alignment marks.

Step 6: trace in Inkscape

A cutting plotter can't read a photo: it follows vector paths. Inkscape is free, open-source software that does this job very well.

1. Set the document to millimetres (File › Document Properties, unit "mm").
2. Import your photo or scan (File › Import).
3. Scale the image: draw a line over a known length on your ruler (say 300 mm), read its length in the toolbar, then resize the image proportionally (lock closed) until that line measures exactly 300 mm.
4. Trace the outline. Two options: automatic tracing (Path › Trace Bitmap, brightness cutoff or edge detection mode), which works well if your marker line is crisp on a light background; or tracing by hand with the Bézier (Pen) tool (B key): click for a corner point, click and drag for a curve, right-click to finish. For a cutting template, hand tracing usually gives cleaner curves with far fewer nodes.
5. Clean up with the Node tool (N key): delete unnecessary nodes, smooth the curves, make sure every outline is closed.
6. Add holes and no-go areas as separate shapes, and keep the image on its own layer so you can hide it afterwards.

Export for cutting

Save a copy as SVG (Inkscape SVG or plain SVG) and, if your plotter software asks for it, as DXF (the "Desktop Cutting Plotter, AutoCAD DXF R14" format, base unit "mm"). The file must be at 1:1 scale, in millimetres. DXF export has had scaling problems depending on the version and settings: draw a 100 × 100 mm control square in the file, and check its size in the cutting software before you cut anything.

Other methods: 3D scanning and photogrammetry

You can also digitise the panel in 3D, with a 3D scanner or through photogrammetry (dozens of photos taken all around the panel, stitched into a 3D model by software). You then still have to unroll the surface to get a flat shape.

A surface curved in one direction only, like a cylinder or a cone, unrolls flat with no distortion: think of a sheet of paper being rolled up. A surface curved in two directions at once (a shell, a tank, a dome) can't be laid flat without being stretched or squeezed somewhere: try flattening an orange peel. CAD software says so plainly: it unrolls the first kind exactly and only gives an approximation for the second. So a 3D scan doesn't remove the need for test fits, and it takes equipment and know-how.

Vinyl limits you need to know

• Overlap: where the vinyl wraps or tucks under a neighbouring panel, allow a few millimetres beyond the outline. Along a joint or a bolt it can't cover, cut slightly short instead.
• Wrapped edges: for an edge to survive wind and washing, the vinyl often needs to wrap behind the edge of the panel. Add that length to the outline wherever you can.
• Relief cuts: in tight curves and around holes, small V-shaped cuts let the vinyl follow the shape without creasing.
• Stretching: over-stretched vinyl has a memory and eventually shrinks back, and a printed design distorts. Better to cut a piece in two than to force it.
• A test cut is a must: cut the template out of paper first, or out of cheap vinyl, and offer it up to the bike. It's the only way to check the scale, holes and edges before cutting the real kit.
• Left/right symmetry: the two sides of a bike look alike but aren't always true mirror images (oil tank, exhaust, ignition, number plate…). If you pattern one side and flip it, check the other side with your paper test.

Common mistakes

1. Cutting from a side view found online: the shape is wrong as soon as the panel turns.
2. Stretching the tape while taking the pattern: it shrinks back and the template comes out too small.
3. Forgetting the name, side and top on each pattern.
4. Shooting at an angle or with no ruler in the frame: no way to scale it correctly.
5. Exporting without checking the scale: a DXF at the wrong size wastes a roll of vinyl.
6. Leaving open outlines or hundreds of nodes: the plotter hesitates and the blade snags.
7. Skipping the test cut: a 3 mm error only shows once the piece is on the bike.
8. Copying the left side to the right without checking.

Do it yourself or hand over the pattern work?

For a simple project, a stripe, a number, a logo on a fairly flat panel, a home-made pattern is entirely doable. For a full kit with exact shapes on a bike full of curves, expect many hours of patterning, tracing and test fits, and accept that you'll spoil a few pieces at first.

If you'd rather get it right first time, the MOTOKITDECO workshop takes the pattern on your bike, in Fès, or remotely from your photos, then draws the design for it: you approve the render before anything is cut. A custom project costs 1,500 to 15,000 DH depending on its scope, with 5 to 10 working days of production. To prepare your brief and photos, read how to get your custom kit project right. And once the kit is in your hands, follow our guide to fit your graphics kit like a pro.

A question about your pattern? Send a photo on WhatsApp to +212 6 61 14 02 85.

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