Can brown bikes work?

I love tan wall and Open bikes, but I’m not sure I’ve seen a brown bike that I like.

I’ve got a brown Cotic, but it’s darker than that and has less of a ‘bad-poo’ feel to it, it’s not my favourite ever bike colour I’ve had but its better than that!

Yes – that’s good. You’d have to think carefully about your riding clothes though. Muted, but not retro.

Not ‘bad poo’, more ‘strong tea.’

Not ‘bad poo’, more ‘strong tea.’

…with a turd floating in it.

Only if it’s a classic standard trail boss

I think the shade and amount of brown affects my opinion, I quite like the “Tea and Coffee” Kaffenback frame.

Even when you roll a brown bike in glitter, it still just makes it look like a polished turd…

I had a metallicy brown 456, I think it looked pretty smart.

However, my nephew did ask me if it was from the ‘olden days’

Chapeau 😉

That top bike is disgusting.Possibly the worst colour frame I have ever seen and can only be described as poo brown. I’m not a fan of brown anything though really.

A friend has a rootbeer chameleon. Not my cup of tea but it looks quite nice.
(pic isn’t of his)

I like mine well enough 😕

But then, I’ve had a succession of brown bikes and tend towards thinking that other bike colours are a bit err…. feminine

I always liked the colour of the old Genesis iO, matt rust metallic brown, but it was love/hate and certainly not the most popular colour

Chocolate or dark metallic brown like the older Coves can be good, esp with a bit of orange detail, but generally it’s hard to make it work. The Open and the Jones in brown look pretty unappealing to me despite both being great bikes. Root beer dark orangey browns can look really good though, I like the Chameleon there ^

behold! (not mine – a found pic, but I knew Genesis has a nice brown)

Maybe the top pic has too much brown. Black forks might sort it.

I have an old inbred which although not brown is more of a hearing aid beige.

I have a metallic brown Trek Portland. It looks alright-ish, which is better than it goes round corners TBH.

I had a rootbeer Niner, that was OK as it was more red.

I really like the Open in Brown, tan walls set it off nicely too.

Wouldn’t buy it though, I’d buy the Orange one.

On one did a nice brown & cream frame; think it was a 456.

Trek did the Fuel EX in ‘root beer’ that was like an orange/brown colour that I really liked. It looks better in the flesh than the pics…

I had an ano bronze Turner RFX that I really liked, will try and dig out a photo later

I had a brown Commencal Supreme 6 a year or so ago. It was a great bike but the colour was awful. Some 70s wallpaper yesterday-

Can brown bikes work?

This thread suggests not.

Why in the name of sweet baby jesus, holy mother mary and the orphans would you put yellow tyres on brown bike? With black deep section wheels an tyres that wouldnt look half as bad as it does. Still a bit gastroentiritis but not nearly bad as it is now.

I’m struggling with this at the moment. I want to pike up a Charge Plug on C2W, but really think I might downgrade to the blue one because I’m really not sure about this colour.

Ha! was looking at the same and came to the exact same conclusion. Looks like your grandads socks.

My dad owned a poo-brown Lancia HPE in the 1970s, his friends cruelly suggested that the colour would mask the inevitable ferrous march underneath the paintwork. He had it Ziebarted and eight years later, the bodywork was pristine. But still poo-brown.

My nice new brogues are brown. I like them a lot.

The 2005 Specialized SX trail was bronze/black and looked awesome, as was/did the 2009 Pitch Pro. Brown is okay in flat shades, but I find it challenging when confronted with gloss brown paintwork.

I suppose I’m agreeing that some of the frames in this thread are very, very nicely finished indeed.

The Trek 69er, the singlespeed with Maverick forks looked awesome in the flesh! That Open is just a nasty colour, if it was more chocolate/rootbeer than weak tea it’d be alright.

I always thought the spesh pitch and enduro’s look decent in brown.

I clean forgot about copper plated frames

I think some people are getting confused on the shit Brown and Bronze colour charts 🙂

Can you wear black shorts with a brown bike?

I always wanted a poo brown pitch

But instead I got a poo brown roadrat

Can you wear black shorts with a brown bike?

Only if the shoes match.

I think all the photos above answer the OP’s question without doubt, no brown bikes don’t work.

This is my commuter bike. It’s brown, and all I ever get are comments on how nice looking it is. Unless everyone is just lying to me.

2007 Poo brown Specialized Langster, it doesn’t work. Even the pirate skull graphics can’t save it. Nice to ride though. Lives with Teen 1 at Uni.

But I prefer my Paddy Wagon.

Beauty is in the eye etc… I quite like brown bikes. At least they look s bit different. I even almost like the one in the OP. Almost.

So only me that thinks the bike in the OP is lovely?

I’m sure there are many exceptions however as a rule brown bikes don’t look good IMO ..

I had a brown Santa Cruz Butcher, looked good in a sort of purposeful tool for the job way, I actually had a choice of colours and went for brown. Even my wife, who has an eye for style, liked it. When I told her how unpopular the colour was she asked why I expected cyclists to have any taste! I was told it would knock £50 off the resale value though, so I sold it to a mate. A great bike, one of the best I’ve had.