Aesthetics are an important quality in the automotive industry, especially when it comes to high-performance vehicles. Motorcyclists, particularly sportbike riders, often seek eye-catching graphics and color schemes for their bike's fairings that might improve their visibility to other road users, give themselves a unique identity, or simply look cool. The word "livery" describes these, with roots in equestrian pursuits and military apparel.
Still, nowadays, you are just as likely to hear it referring to vehicle decoration and motorsport sponsorship. Liveries play a crucial role in motorcycle racing, especially in high-profile events like MotoGP and World SBK championships. Of course, sponsors use them to adorn their chosen teams with decals and colors depicting their logos and advertising their products.
Yet, sometimes, these are one-off stylings to draw attention to a specific charitable cause, movie release, or sporting event, and sometimes, they are just for fun. Here are our picks of the most undeniably cool liveries to be seen on sport bikes and production motorcycles throughout history. Valentino Rossi is one of the most celebrated motorcycle racers of this century.
Now retired, he has seven MotoGP championship titles to his name, with success in 250cc and 125cc classes and endurance racing. He started his MotoGP career with the Honda team, and it was in the last race of his last season with the Japanese giant that they decided to do something special before Rossi tran.