MC Tested: Bliss-Star Sportbike Bodywork

Despite the showroom success of limited-edition, racer-replica sportbikes, manufacturers haven't quenched the public's thirst for motorcycles that look like the Pros' rides. A solution can be found at the Internet auction house eBay, where Hong Kong-based Bliss-Star offers a truly dizzying array of aftermarket bodywork kits.

I shudder to think what the world's copyright lawyers think of Bliss-Star's work, but the riding public sure digs having the ability to cloak their bikes in factory livery. Ready-made kits abound to make your Kawasaki ZX-6R a Kevin Schwantz-era Lucky Strike Grand Prix replica or turn an ordinary Honda CBR into Troy Bayliss' Infostrada SBK winner. Like most products manufactured by off-shore Internet suppliers, the bodywork is amazingly affordable, with graphics so detailed and well-executed the kits seem too good to be true.

To see whether Mr. Keung could live up to his word, I threw him a curveball by ordering a custom set of bodywork for my 2000 Ducati 996, decorated in the oddball green-on-green-on-red livery of the Stobart Motorsports British Superbike team. Well, call me Michael Rutter, but the bodywork arrived looking superb, and mounted to the 996 using the stock hardware after drilling just a few holes.

Granted, the plastic resin is not as tough as stock bodywork, and some minor modification was required to get a proper fit (mounting lugs for the taillight were absent, requiring a bracket to be fabricated). But at $369 for a full fairing and painted seat unit, you can't complain.

Bliss-Star Bodywork
Price: $369
Contact: Bliss-Star
www.stores.ebay.com/bliss-star

Verdict An inexpensive way to look like Hayden or Rossi-even if you only ride to the local Hooters.