There is always a source for these decals - YOU. You can and should MAKE UP THESE DECALS YOURSELF !
start by taking several digital photographs of the decals. take them from far away with a zoom lens, to minimize parallax error. Use a tripod and center the camera on the decal.
then, paste the photographs together in your favorite desktop publishing program - such as visio, adobe illustrator, corel draw, or even the free "openoffice.org" graphics program! Eventually you will have a very good .jpg image of the decal, suitable for tracing.
Now, trace the decals using the draw program. It helps to find the right feature in the draw program that lets you "join" two polygons. This would allow you to make an "o" by joining two concentric circles, for example. For an "e", you join a semicircle and a semicircle with a "tail".
Then, print the decals on clear transparency (overhead slide) paper. Most draw programs will allow you to set the "transparency" of a polygon. Make all polygons 25% transparent, print them, and take the see-through decal to the bike and overlay it to check registration. Mark up the mistakes with a marker and take it back to your computer to make corrections.
When you get done with the art, you will need an output file. Deluxe programs (adobe illustrator, corel draw, visio DELUXE) may output AI (illustrator) files naturally. Low Cost programs (Visio Standard, Open Office) don't, but don't fear, all you need is a postscript printer (hopefully you have one at work) to do the following dance :
1. select the postscript printer 2. print to that printer, but click "print to file". 3. after storing in a file use freeware such as ghostview to convert to EPS 4. [ optional ] preview in ghostview / ghostscript (also free)
Now take your graphics file to a graphics bureau and have them print you a set of decals. Here are two bureaus :
"Chris Brown - CE graphics" <Chris@CEgraphics.com> "AJ - Victory Circle Graphics" <AJ@vcgraphix.com>
Although AJ is not taking on small jobs any more, he might give you a reference to another bureau, or he might change his mind sometime in the future.
When precise accuracy is REALLY important, you can always print 2x or 3x different versions of the decals, and use the closest ones you get.
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA