You Think Your Bike Is Worthy Of Bike Of The Day? 10

Some Bike Of The Day highlights, as well as some tips to get your bike featured on Vital MX’s Bike Of The Day.

Klinger
4/21/2020 9:23pm
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If you’ve poked around our homepage or any amount of time, you’ve probably come across our Bike Check section. If you haven’t click Bike Check to see what we are talking about. There is seemingly an endless amount of bikes posted in our Bike Check section, all with the hopes of ending up as Bike Of The Day. But how does a bike get selected? Are there bribes involved, or maybe some OEM bias on the editors’ parts? Is it only two strokes? Is it only race bikes? 

Well, the secret is that we select the bikes using a variety of criteria, and even then sometimes we can’t explain why we like a bike, we just do. But there are some sure-fire ways to get your sweet ride highlighted on our home page and social media, and they are as follows:

Have A Cool Bike

Sorry my dudes, a stock bike in the Bike Check section is not going to be Bike Of The Day, unless it is something exceedingly rare or completely restored from a heap of rubble. What constitutes as cool? Bling is always good, but a thought-out bike build is better. Colored frames, polished frames, painted swingarms, coated engine cases… These are all really good starts. Having different suspension than what comes stock on your machine is also eye-catching. Fraken-bikes are some of the best with different OEM motors and frames. And while it is sort of the cheater way to get Bike Of The Day, a really killer plastic and graphics set up is hard to resist.

Lastly, if there are any privateer’s out there who are racing (when we actually get back to it) supercross or motocross, or any pro series for that matter, if you put your bike in our Bike Check section, we’re sure it would stand out from the crowd with ease. 

Take A Good Photo(s)

One good photo is worth a million crappy ones, and the phone you have in your pocket probably shoots pretty good photos. Now that we all have a pretty legit camera, it is way more about where and how you shoot your bike, not if it is in focus or not. Here are the steps to take good photos of your bike even with your phone. 

1. Location/Background - Get out of the garage! You can have the coolest bike in the world, but it won’t be Bike Of The Day if we are distracted by boxes of Christmas decorations, empty bottles of oil, or a pile of dirty laundry and the washer/dryer. The best place to shoot a bike is at the track or trail head. As professionals, this is what we do. At bike intros, we grab a stand and head off to some empty-ish corner of the parking lot and shoot the bike without porta-poties or trucks in the background. Or if you are deadset on shooting your bike at home, do it in front of a plain wall, the side of the house, the garage door, or the fence. The point is, don’t have a distracting, busy background. 

2. Level It Out - First, the bike should be on a stand. Second, it would be best if you shoot both sides perpendicular to the bike. And thirdly and most importantly, shoot level with the bike. That means, 99% of the time (unless your bike is on a hill) you need to kneel down and shoot with your phone or camera straight at your bike. The opposite of this, which creates the worst bike photos ever, is to stand way too close to your bike and shoot a photo down at it. If you want to get fancy, you can then get some three-quarter shots by staying in the same spot and rotating the bike. 

3. Extras - If you have a good, plain background and a good angle, you’re pretty much good to go. But if you want to take it to the next level, there are a few things that are super easy to do. One is think about time of day. Early in the morning or right before sunset are both better times to shoot because of better, softer light. High noon will produce harsh shadows and not show off all the bling on the inside of the bike. Next, if you have the latest iPhones, shoot in portrait mode which blurs out the background. This actually allows you to shoot your bike in a messy garage a little easier. Finally, detail shots. If you put a bunch of rad parts on your bike, get in there and show each one. 

Fill Out The Parts List 

If you have a cool bike and quality photos, this is less important. But if your build is borderline boring or your shots are just OK, if you have detailed parts list that people can really dig into, then Bike Of The Day might be yours. 

And that’s about all it takes. Basically, there are cooler bikes out in the wild than we can even imagine. We want you to show off these labors of love that you’ve spent so much time and money on in the best possible way. We geek out on custom-built gas tanks, cone pipes, aluminum frame 500s, modded-out 125s, and all the rest as much as the next moto fan. So keep the Bike Checks coming. Hopefully, with these few hints, we’ll see even more rad machines. 

Good Examples

The bike isn't mind blowing but the photo is nice. The snowy, foggy background creates contrast with the bike.

Cool build, nice lighting, and even though the background is busy, it is unique and not distracting.

In this example the background is a bit messy, but the shooter is level with the bike and it is nicely framed.

This definitely checks all the boxes. Super rad build, uniform background, good camera angle.

Again, the build isn't full factory, but cool to see a coated fram and the photo is well thought out.

This is pro level. Retro factory replica with snow for full contrast.

This shows that you don't need a ton of space to get a good shot. The camera could have been a little lower, but not bad. Using the fence is a good neutral background.

This IS pro level. Someone busted out the strobes and set this bike up perfectly.

This one shows a good natural background and some early morning light that is a little softer than mid-day.

Urban shoots are cool too.

Cool unique colorway on the bike and all green background makes it pop.

Sick bike and nice use of the golden hour (the softer light right before sunset).

One of the cleanest builds ever. This photo shows that you can shoot in shadow, without direct light, as long as everything is in shadow.

This one just shows how some crazy colors can work.

The side of the house works pretty well.

The low shooting angle is nice. Could use a little less saturation but a nice photo.

This looks to be a real camera to blow out the background, but if you have portrait mode on your iPhone, you can get a similar effect.

Bad Examples

Might be a cool bike, but at that angle, can't really tell.

Super cool KX125, but with the angle and the messy background, just not working.

Another really cool bike, but this is the "Just stand next to the bike and shoot a photo" style.

Out of the garage!

Nice frame polishing, but pick either out in the light or stay in the dark.

Too close, too high, too angled..

At least clean your bike before shooting.

Cool bike, but get it away from all the others.

Related:
Bike of the Day
10 comments

View replies to: You Think Your Bike Is Worthy Of Bike Of The Day?

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Slosh 112
4 years ago
Happy to see my husky get another run in the limelight. Good photos are what makes the difference I think, get down level with the bike, set it up square on a stand, pick a nice area with good light blah blah blah the list goes on but when you get it right its worth it
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sandman768
4 years ago
So.... the more cheesy aftermarket glitter the better..... as long as the photo is good? A proper restore to original is much more time consuming that a new bike with a bunch of aftermarket fluff on it....
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BToz
4 years ago
Yes. And yes. It’s like car shows I guess. I’ve built cars (for customers) that have won car shows that were ridiculous (not in a good way) in my opinion. Me personally: I love the 96 & 05-07 cr250’s and 06-08 rm250’s bone stock like showroom floor clean. Anyone who can do that kind of work is bike of the day in my opinion!