All posts by: Martin Lee

Not unless you ask for it.

Royal Mail second class service comes free with all UK orders and we have a range of postage options with prices for every destination in the UK and internationally. If you want a tracked delivery, please select it at check out.

Well, it’s simple once explained but you need to order the right one according to the requirements of your project.

A positive stencil is a stencil of your brand that you apply to your bike and then spray the frame – the stencil masks your base colour underneath. Once dry, very carefully remove the stencil and your brand is shown in the base colour against your newly resprayed frame colour.

A negative stencil is the opposite and is more like what we think of as a ‘traditional’ stencil (think painting a shipping crate with the word “FRAGILE” using a paint brush).

Apply your negative stencil to the bike frame and then mask off the rest of the bike too. Once done, spray onto the frame through the stencil with the desired colour. When fully dry, very carefully remove the masking tape and stencil to expose the bike brand you have just sprayed.

Both positive and negative stencils are made from the same Meta-mark M7 stencil material and supplied and shipped by us. Negative stencils, however, are a bit more expensive as they use more material, take slightly longer to produce and as the package weight is heavier, cost more to ship.

Whichever you choose, you end up with your bike brand on the frame in the colour you want, but the approach is different.

Here is a graphic of the 2 stencils versions as a quick aide memoire.

Should you require more info or still be confused by stencils, please drop us a message at hello@decalzove.co.uk and we will be delighted to assist

Yep, if it’s smooth. The majority of our decals are applied to bike frames, but many of our customers have used them for other applications too.

The best rule to follow is the surface must be smooth and unbroken. Curves are OK, but we wouldn’t recommend applying around sharp corners or edges or onto any kind of textured surface. Our decals have excellent adhesion, hence their 5+ years life-expectancy, but they must be completely flat to the application surface.

So, glass, smooth metal and painted surfaces (wood, plastic, metal, carbon fibre etc) are great and provide a perfect surface.

Rough, sawn timber (i.e sheds and fences), textured surfaces, clothing or anything that is not smooth or has sharp corners, we recommend you avoid.

Please feel free to drop us a line at hello@decalzone.co.uk if you have any questions or require help, we are always keen to hear from you.

Please below some examples where our decals have been applied to other surfaces.

Simply put, a decal (sometimes referred to as a sticker or label) is applied to your bike frame and that’s it… job done. They are cut from very high quality vinyl material designed to withstand up to 5 years outside in one of our 15 colours. They are permanent and don’t come off easily!

A stencil allows you to spray the bike frame using the stencil as a mask to form the brand in your chosen spray colour (see our ‘Positive or negative stencils’ post. Stencils are made from a different lower tack material, designed to adhere firmly and then remove easily after spraying… not for long-term endurance on the bike frame. Our stencils are made from the best quality Meta-mark M7 stencil material (made in the UK) and very high quality paper-based low-tack transfer tape.

Stencils are sometimes chosen where a bike is being resprayed and/or a very specific brand colour is required.

Ok very emotive…

In our world (the world of Decal Zone) they are all the same thing!

But we do not supply stickers or labels in the traditional sense, this is the cheaper end of the market “generally” where they are made from cheap materials with low quality glues for short term applications. We are not knocking this, its simply fitness for purpose.

At Decalzone we provide very high quality decals for long term exterior applications, with all the bits to apply them. (i.e. backing paper to protect the glues/adhesive until ready to use), the transfer tape already applied making sure the letters stay in the right position while you apply to the bike and instructions on how to do it.

Our vinyl’s are the best with 5+ years colour fade resistant and manufactured using the very best tangential vinyl cutters with computer controlled blade directional software for perfect cutting.

We are vinyl cutters and not printers, so our decals are a profile cut of the design.

We hope this helps explain the differences, but of you require any additional information for need any assistance please drop us an email at hello@decalzone.co.uk we are always happy to assist

No, no, no, no, no…

Well, you can tell how we feel about that one, can’t you. We strongly suggest you don’t do it.

It’s not about the application… there’s nothing to stop you applying one of our decals over the one already on your frame. The problem is, there is hardly any uniform size for most bike bike brands, even from the manufacturers who may distort their brand to fit a specific area or create new versions for specific releases. Other issues include:

1. Letter spacing may be different to what is already on your frame.
2. The height or length (or both) could be different to your bike
3. Models, years and even frame sizes can have a different size decal set, especially on the downtube
4. There are a plethora of sizes and cuts out there and it would be very lucky if ours fitted over the existing one perfectly – and let’s face it, there’s nothing worse than having a sliver of the old logo showing below the new one.

Decals in our range are not created for any specific size, model or brand of bike! We offer a range of sizes that will accommodate most bike sizes (plus a bespoke service of large decals which are ideal for road bikes with huge down tubes) but they must be applied to a clean, unimpeded surface.

However that all said, many of our customers have applied decals over existing ones with 100% success, CANYON bikes usually have a 400mm down tube decal on most the Aeroad and Speedmax road bikes for example however we have found that some of the larger frames have 405mm

In addition to this Trek bikes for example do alter the aspect ratio also and this is a challenge if you are keen to over label, simply getting the length correct is not always enough we would also need the height too, then we can create a decal to your exact size, but wait, there is still some risk they could be slightly off….

This is why we do not recommend placing over existing. But if you are determined to do a special size, use our simple how to measure guide below, and reach out and we will help as best we can.