Holi 2019 - 5 Motorcycle Liveries That Made Us Go Wow!

We often get the news of bikemakers launching a ‘special’ (read as new colour) editions for their existing bikes. A few such editions do a great job of going the extra mile in making the standard bike look good. So in order to celebrate this year’s festival of colours, we chose to enlist what we think are the five best colour editions/liveries that we have seen on road-legal motorcycles so far.

2011 Yamaha R1 Kenny Roberts Edition
Probably one of the most iconic MotoGP liveries, Yamaha introduced the R1 in 2011 with Kenny Roberts’ 1980 championship winning yellow colour scheme. In 2005, Yamaha was celebrating their 50th anniversary in road racing events by introducing the same livery on their MotoGP bikes for the United States Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. By introducing it on the R1 in 2011, R1 owners now got a chance to own a special piece of Yamaha history.

PS - Indian enthusiasts were not disappointed as we got the same theme on the first generation R15.

MV Agusta F4 1000 Ago
MV Agusta and Giacomo Agostini are two sides of the same coin. The Italian rider still remains the most successful Grand Prix racer in history with 15 titles to his name. Of the 15, he won 13 on Count Agusta’s beauties. Hence when MV Agusta changed the cubic capacity of their iconic F4 from 750 to 1000, the first 300 bikes were the ‘Ago’ editions. It wore Agostini’s classic red and silver two-tone colour scheme with the number ‘1’ sticker in a yellow oval sticker adorning the side panels. This might look simple but this holds a special place in the hearts of racing enthusiasts.

Kawasaki Z900RS Cafe
It was a pleasant surprise for us when Kawasaki first introduced the neo-retro Z900RS at Intermot 2017. It mimicked the original Z1 in many ways with the OG orange colour scheme. But just a month later at EICMA, Kawasaki revealed the Z900RS Cafe in a stunning lime green and white shade. It definitely is one of the coolest colour schemes on a motorcycle currently on sale across the world. Sadly, Kawasaki India has only made the Z900RS available and that too at an exorbitant rate.

Indian Roadmaster
Think old school American cruisers, Indian Motorcycle’s maroon and cream dual-tone scheme with tan leather tassels comes to mind. Well the Indian Roadmaster is just that, barring the tassels obviously. The current motorcycle is a couch on wheels with a hi-def entertainment system in place. Plus, that Thunderstroke 111 V-twin has loads and loads of low-end drive that helps you chug along for miles on end.

Ducati 1299 Panigale R Final Edition
Italian tricolore on Bologna’s final big L-twin superbike is the stuff of wet dreams. The final hurrah for the 1299 Panigale came with this exquisite beauty that reminded you of what Ducati managed to achieve with just two cylinders when others had four. While the Panigale V4 has turned out to be a world beater, the Panigale 1299 ended Ducati’s supremacy of twin-cylinder in the WSBK with the final victory coming in the year 2017.