Design by Shambolic isn't necessarily the most glowing praise you could heap on a product. Fortunately we're fans of irony here, and it would seem that Steve Jenks is as well. Steve is the founder, proprietor and driving force behind one of the UK's newest helmet and bike painters. He paints anything, of course, but as it says MotorbikesToday on the masthead we'll just concentrate on the bike stuff.

A short while ago we got hold of an new Arai RX7-GP to test. You can read all about it here if you haven't already. Now it's a fine helmet but I've always fancied having one painted but somehow never managed, even when I was racing. So a contact from Steve was serendipitous to say the least.

A few phone calls and the lid arrived at his Yorkshire painting emporium. I already had an idea for a design, so while we waited for Parcel Force to do their thing we exchanged some e-mails, had a chat and firmed up what we wanted. I like yellow, and had the idea of this design where the yellow helmet looks as though it's bursting out of a sort of black shrink-wrap. What we ended up with was the front in yellow and the back black with a sort of peeling back appearance between the two. At least that was the theory.

Painting a helmet isn't as easy as you might think. Well, I guess doing it all in one colour is simple enough, but there's still lots you have to do. The lining has to come out. The trim has to come off, and any external bits like air ducts on the Arai have to be removed. Then every single hole has to be plugged. Not just the visor aperture but everything - all the vent holes need to be bunged up because the paint will attack the foam liner and knacker the helmet. Probably.

So you've got a £500 helmet stripped down and covered in bits of sticky tape. What else would you do but attack it with fine grit wet and dry paper? The paint needs something to key on, you see. Then it's just a case of spray it with a primer, flat it down again, do your colour coats and lacquer it. Flatting down between each coat, of course. Then stick everything back on, refit the liner and you're done. Easy.

Yeah, right.

Because they're a funny shape, helmets need a little more thought about the way you paint them if you're using any patterns or designes. And let's face it, if you're getting a lid painted it's unlikely to be a single colour, is it? So there's a huge amount of detail to be dealt with. Areas need to be masked, painted, re-masked, painted differently and so on, and it all takes time and a considerable amount of skill.

And sometimes it still doesn't work.

Steve and I agreed on what he was going to do, we agreed it would look great and he did exactly what he said. Unfortunately, we were wrong about how it looked. It was, um, not what we'd hoped for. Steve's a reasonable guy, though, and some developments that had come up since we started, combined with our mutual disappointment, meant that a redesign was on the cards.

The big development that changed things was that Steve had found a UV stable flourescent yellow paint. Normally flourescent colours go off fairly quickly, fading and looking a bit naff. This one, at least according to the manufacturer, doesn't.

A very quick redesign and a lightning fast turnaround gave us something we were thrilled with. It gets lots of comment, it stands out and I think it looks great. The design is actually a Thunderbird - the native American icon, not the dodgy sixties puppet show. It made agreat impact on me when I saw the US Air Force display team when I was working in California, and I've been trying to work out how to use it ever since.

Steve is hugely professional, helpful, cheerful and very good at what he does. He also has an imagination and can usually turn what you're thinking of into reality. Most of the time that's a Good Thing. A helmet like this would cost around a hundred and fifty pounds including postage, and that's very competitive.

STOP PRESS:

Since this article originally appeared, Steve has had a rethink on the direction of his business. And the name. Rightly or wrongly, he felt that Shambolic didn't do him any favours, so he's changed to i eye design. It's still an interesting name, for sure. Anyhow, regardless of the name, the person is the same and the excellent service is the same. You can reach Steve through his website - http://www.ieyedesign.co.uk Go on. Treat yourself...