Kawasaki’s high-quality original paint has a highly reflective, glasslike metal appearance. Its debut on the 2015 Ninja H2 and Ninja H2R marked its first use on a mass-production vehicle in either the automotive or motorcycle industries.
In the shade the paint has the appearance of its base coat colour, but once in the sunlight its highly reflective surface takes on the appearance of the surrounding scenery. The stark difference in the way the paint appears in the light and the shade emphasises the sculpted shape of the bodywork on which it is applied.
The highly reflective surface is created by inducing a silver mirror reaction (a chemical reaction between a solution of silver ions and a reducing agent) that forms a layer of pure silver (Ag). This Ag layer is what creates the paint’s glasslike metal appearance. Compared to candy paints, which use aluminium flakes to generate a sparkling effect, the Ag layer appears as a uniform metallic surface.
In the shade the Ag layer is translucent, allowing the base coat colour to show through. This gives the paint a deep, three-dimensional quality.
While the multiple layers of paint on typical mass-production models are done by robot painters, for this silver-mirror paint each layer – from primer to clear coat – is carefully finished by the hands of Kawasaki craftsmen to ensure a flawless, lustrous surface.