The reason it is red underneath is thats the secret to a fast Honda. ...the honda winning red paint on it. Hrc's have plenty Of this on show which is why they are so quick. For repsol owners here's a handy link Honda R258 Winning Red
Thanks for the response guys. The bike wasn't pre reg as he ordered it and had to wait till dealer had it delivered. Si's pic certainly seems to point to it being a primer but odd that not all panels are the same. I also thought that the colour was actually a gel coat locked in by the fibreglass layers during manufacture, and not a paint. My 05 blade has plenty of battle scars but none show thru as a different colour. My m8 has asked the question of the dealer so will wait and see but interestingly another odd coincidence occurred. He was round at a pals and a neighbour came over. He'd just sold a black blade (11 or 12 plate) on recently. That blade as it turns out was a replacement given by Honda when he complained about the very same problem on his! Red panels with black paint. Not sure why they would replace the bike and not just the panels myself tho.
colour chart available for Black Blades http://www.crownpaint.co.uk/~/media/Crown/Crown/Files/Pdf/FINAL HOMEBASE INCCOVER.pdf?download=yes
The red primer must be a fairly new thing as my 2008 black blade never had any red showing through when I got knocked off in 2008!
In april 2008 lots of dealers moved to water based paints So the undercoats were different. Thats why I had my Dukes seat unit recalled twice as the paint was so thin It chipped easy but the previous year there were no paint Issues. ......either that or the bit of red does make it go faster
Not sure if I missed something but looking at si's bike it does look like Honda have used a red primer under the black but is the op not saying the actual plastics are red abs with black paint coated over top? There could be a shortage of black plastics at Honda, but orders for black bikes that need to be fulfilled so any panels they had available were painted black to fulfill the orders! Did the nose cone get its inside painted black or can the red be viewed behind the clocks?
Not sure about the nose cone but he's sure it's red also. I've seen the inside of the side panel thru the cut outs and its def red on the right hand side and looking in behind the left panel its black. I'll update once he's been to the dealer to get it checked out but their reaction when called was " that doesn't sound right".
My black panels are def. black on both sides, the white ones were white on both sides.. 2008 white, and 2008 - 2011 (year unknown) black panels
I've got a spanking new set of 2012 black panels here and the tank shelter has a tiny storage nick about 2 mm long, guess what, bright red in there too!
Was out with my mate last night and he tells me that the dealer is replacing the plastics on his blade. Dealer also told him that if he brought the bike in and the panels looked like that he would think it had been down the road!
