Match made in paint heaven

UK-based RS Bike Paint can find the perfect paint for your Harley-Davidson^® motorcycle

Words by Jeremy Pick

With almost 50 years of paint supply under its belt, there isn’t much RS Paint doesn’t know about its product, and thanks to this expertise, it’s now an official supplier to Harley-Davidson. With that level of confidence in the company, it might be assumed that RS Paint is a multinational corporation with hundreds of employees. In fact, it has seven staff members and has grown organically from humble origins in the north of England.

Founded in Barnsley in 1978 by Arthur and Renate Bancroft, it initially formulated and sold paint for cars in the South Yorkshire region. Because Arthur was a trained paint colourist with the skills and technique necessary to match colours by eye, and Renate was a sound businesswoman, the company flourished. Then in the mid-1980s, South Yorkshire became the epicentre of the miners’ strike.

“The economy in that part of the country was decimated,” recalls Arthur’s son-in-law, Philip. “Within 18 months all the hot hatch-owning lads had lost their jobs and no one had any money to refurbish and restore cars. What saved the company was motorcycles. A customer walked in and asked Arthur to mix up some paint for his bike, which he did happily, having been a biker himself in the’50s and ’60s. Word quickly spread in the motorcycle community that Arthur could match paint by eye. That led to him building up a card database for motorcycles – a move that became the basis of our future success.”

By the early ’90s, Arthur’s teenage daughter Heidi – now Philip’s wife and business partner – had joined the company. She came across the card listings in a drawer and began compiling them into a spreadsheet. Fast-forward to today and the business now has a database of some 60,000 colours covering more than 150 manufacturers, going back in some cases to the early 1900s.

Now based in Hertfordshire, RS Bike Paint has leveraged its expertise in motorcycle paintwork to become the official paint provider for multiple major bike manufacturers, including Kawasaki, Triumph, BSA, Bimota and now Harley-Davidson, supplying to body shops, dealerships and directly to customers.

“In layman’s terms, suppose you own a Harley-Davidson and you need to repair some damage or match up accessories for your specific bike model and year,” says Philip. “All authorised dealers now have a colour book supplied by us with QR codes for every colour listed for every year. So all you have to do is pitch up at your local dealer, and if you know the name of the colour, go straight to the year listed in the book – it’s as simple as that. If you’re not sure, your dealer can find the name of the colour from your VIN number. Point your phone at the colour book QR code and you’ll be taken straight to that colour on our website, where you can order the paint and get it delivered to you.”

That original card database started with by Arthur and grown by Heidi has become a key competitive advantage for RS Bike Paint, thanks to the unique nature of motorcycle paint when compared with the automotive equivalent.

“Motorcycle paints are rarely coded like car paints, so it’s much more complicated to get a match,” says Philip. “Motorcycle paints often have multi-layer colours, sparkle finishes and other effects because paint is a more important aesthetic with bikes than with cars. Some pretty fancy paint finishes tend to be used, especially in the case of Harley-Davidson! So if a body shop or an individual customer needs to repair a bike, it’s highly likely they won’t be able to get a code to match the paint, and a spectrophotometer won’t help with specialist finishes. That’s where we come in.

“For many of the specialist finishes, for example a gold sparkle finish, we use our expertise and industry knowledge to match the effect precisely, which may mean going to specialist suppliers worldwide, but we love a challenge!”

To ensure a seamless path to achieving the perfect match, RS Bike Paint has launched a number of initiatives. The display project, now in every dealer in the Europe and the Asia Pacific regions, was conceived to replicate the Wall of Fame in Milwaukee. Every dealer has a display showing all paint finishes for the current year, plus, of course, timeless classics such as Vivid Black and Black Denim. Other initiatives include a website in eight languages, certification to ship paints worldwide by courier and plans to open a satellite facility in France to provide an even faster service to European customers.

“We are incredibly proud to have been chosen by Harley-Davidson as it’s such an iconic brand, and we look forward to demonstrating our expertise and commitment to the highest quality as well as first-class customer service.”

RS Paints will be at the 2025 European H.O.G. Rally in Croatia in June and European Bike Week in Faaker See in September, so if you’re there, they’d love to chat to you about all things paint! Alternatively, visit their website.