Throttlefolio

Framed motorbike prints

A framed print does one thing a poster can't: it arrives finished. For a gift that matters, because a rolled print quietly hands the person receiving it an errand and a bill they didn't ask for.

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The Cafe Racer, Study: an annotated side elevation in blueprint cyan, clip-ons, rearsets and humped seat drawn to plan

What arrives

The print, on the same 250 gsm uncoated off-white archival stock as the posters, in a wood frame with a plexiglass front. Plexiglass rather than glass, which is what the catalogue carries on every framed poster.

Two sizes, two frames

Framed prints come at A3 and A2. That's the whole list, and it's worth saying plainly because the poster range runs wider. A 50x70 cm print exists, but not as a framed one, which surprises people who've measured a gap and found that number. If 50x70 is what the wall needs, either buy the poster and frame it yourself, or take a canvas, which hangs at that size with no frame at all.

The frame comes in black or natural wood. Black for high-contrast work: the blueprint studies, the ink drawings, the race posters. Natural wood for the warm landscapes and anything with a soft, pale background, where a black frame draws a hard box around a soft picture. If you're buying blind, black is the safer guess.

Which artwork gains most from a frame

Fine line work, and there isn't much argument about it. The cafe racer ink series and the blueprint machine studies are drawings, and a frame treats them as drawings. Race-day posters frame well in black. The road landscapes are the ones where canvas is the genuine alternative rather than the cheaper one.

Is 50x70 cm A3 covers the size question that sends most people to this page, and the sizes and framing guide covers hanging heights and spacing for a set of three.

Written by Craig Fearn, Throttlefolio. Last updated .

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North Coast 500: a coastal cliff run through sea haze on Scotland's far edge, one rider on the long way round

Canvas prints →

Canvas solves one problem that a framed print cannot, and that's glare. There's no glass in front of it, so there's no window reflected back at you. That's the difference between a picture you can look at and one you have to stand to the side of.

Also in on the wall

All 8 in this stage →

Workshop notes

Questions, answered

What sizes do framed prints come in?

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A3 and A2. Larger sizes exist as unframed posters or as a canvas, which arrives ready to hang without a frame.

Is it glass or plexiglass?

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Plexiglass, on every framed poster in the range. If you want glass, buy the poster and frame it yourself.

Black frame or natural wood?

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Black for high-contrast work such as blueprints, ink drawings and the race posters. Natural wood for warm landscapes and anything with a soft, pale background. Black is the safer choice if you are buying for somebody else.