Kinesis and Motul G2

Sep 10, 2024

After being approached by iconic French brand Motul to produce a one-off Kinesis bike with a bespoke paint scheme, our lead designer Matt Gray and Mathieu Davy of Pocket Rocket Works set to work. The end result is a custom-painted Kinesis G2 in the Motul colours of red, white, and black. Look out for this bike at shows, Motul events, and at the brand new Motul showroom in Bath when it opens in a few weeks.

Andy Wait, Sales Manager for Motul in the UK & Ireland explains more: "The reason why this came about, was for two reasons. One, we want to have a bike for our new office in Bath and the gravel bike seems the best-suited bike for the area. After looking at the Kinesis range the G2 felt like the natural fit. The second reason was to showcase that we trust our products and will maintain the bike using the Motul Bike care range, and we thought a custom paint job would give it a unique ID."
So far the bike has been showcased at the Isle of Man TT on Motul's show booth, while it was also used to take some trips around the town of Douglas. Here's how it came together.

Caven O'Hara

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Decals

Custom frame and fork

Decal Placement

The Paintjob

Mathieu describes the start of the process; "Despite my initial excitement with playing with candy colours on different bases, however, I quickly agreed with Matt that the Motul solid red was the best one. And combining that with a pearl black for the rear of the bike created the story of marrying two distinct companies, with contrasting colours, but complementary effects."
"Like with anything, preparation is where most of the work is. So before the first white base-coat could be laid, the frame was stripped of its factory Kinesis green, back to bare metal, before primer and a final sand to a smooth surface."
"Then for the colour: red usually covers well, but I didn’t want to take any chances, so I added a white base underneath to make sure the red was bright enough."

The Devil is in the Detail

Mathieu continues; "The black fade being a pearl colour, it brought a bit of glitter to the frame – not very sparkly without the clear-coat – but it’s really when the large white Kinesis and Motul logos were added that the whole scheme started to come alive with some contrast. Matt was already jumping up and down in excitement at this early paint stage!"
"Other than the very small K of the forks, there is no vinyl sticker or transfers under the clear coat on this bike, so all logos were done with an airbrush and lots of masking. Given that the final paint scheme incorporates all the standard G2 design features, but also the added Motul and Kinesis X Motul elements, with three colours on some features, that meant four or five overlapping masks in places to get to the final result."

The Finish

"After placing the very small K waterslide transfers on the frames and seat stays, it was time to tackle the most difficult part of the process: the clear-coat."
"That’s where all the hard work gets sealed, but also where the effects are fully revealed. Follow that with a nerve-wracking last fine sand plus two rounds of polishing, and the result is a high-gloss finish with all the pop required for a custom paint job."
"Matt Gray will tell you that I was sceptical of the colour scheme at first. But in the sunshine, I’m more than happy to say I was wrong: it’s a thing of beauty. The contrast of colours, the sparkle of the black pearl, and the muted perfection of the Motul solid red, is undisturbed, simple, efficient." – Mathieu