Bikepower/Bikeforce redesign

My oldest project in my porfolio is my motorcycle-site, which started out as sortof a weblog for myself, then staerted to get reactions/comments. I installed a forum and woosh! It became one of Holland's most popular biker-websites. I think I started "overdoing" it when I migrated forumsoftware a few times, and later installing Joomla with SMF as a component.

Anyway, to keep it short:
I have Bikepower.nl, Bikeforce.net and Autofreaks.nl, which i want to give the same look and feel. I want them all to be separate forums, and nothing more (that was when Bikepower was at it's best). So I need 1 design for 3 sites, just wit a different logo/header.
Now, cars and bikes. Which colors should I go for, should I try to make the template myself (which I heard is a b*tch in SMF), should I try migrating to a system like vBulletin for better teplating?
I just need some advice and new inspiration..

you should have them all linked to one. More members that way.

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The Net is Dying | Vanilla Source - Vanilla Help, and mods

To add. Try I.p and vb demos first

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The Net is Dying | Vanilla Source - Vanilla Help, and mods

sihaven't been on those sites but when I think of bike sites or bike racing I think of bright yellow, greens, black and red.

Maybe try a white background, with black and lime green? White with black and red?

Just my thoughts.

I was thinking that too, but since bikeforce will be an english forum, bikepower a dutch one and autofreaks a car-based forum, I thought it would be best to seperate them.

Ok i did not know that.

If you are looking for a new forum you could try VB ( this site runs it) Or I.p Boards. Try both the demos before buying them.

Or Pm and a can give you a copy to run on your pc.

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The Net is Dying | Vanilla Source - Vanilla Help, and mods

Can I import my SMF database into vb?

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/impex

Yes this is the official system released and developed by Jelsoft.

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The Net is Dying | Vanilla Source - Vanilla Help, and mods