I know it’s your bike, and you can do what you like, but I know I have a bit of previous with colour co-ordination – often reminded when I look at old photographs of the kids when the missus had left me to get them up & dressed 🙂

I’m taking about, silver headsets with black stems & bars, or black cranks & silver seat posts or a black headset and a silver seat post collar – you know what I mean.

What do you consider a faux pas when you see a bike?

Worst aspect? It was all me.

What do you consider a faux pas when you see a bike?

The fact I have a red front and yellow rear wheel?

i had a Commencal Meta AM back in 2013. I changed to white Fox forks, which i tied in with a white bar and stem.

So the front end was all white, but combined with the fluro yellow paint work…. looking back, it was a bit naff.

Since then… frame can be any colour you like, but all components need to be black (or as near to).

Each to their own, but anodised stuff does nowt for me.

I unintentionally had a little ‘ugly cluster’ on the front my otherwise plain Solaris.

Duck Egg blue solaris, black headset, white headset spacers, silvery stem, topped off with an oil slick stem cap.

Materials rather than components, never mix painted, anodized, plastic and rubber/silicone components of the same color.

And that Orange monstrosity could have been avoided if they’d stuck by the rule of thumb to only have every other part the same color. Swap to black cranks, headset and either hubs or rotors and it wouldn’t look half as bad.  That and modern bikes look visually unbalanced, we need to go back to anodizing the big cassette sprockets to balance out the handlebar bling.

It was only temporary, but it still pains me 15 years later…

EDIT: Explanation – I had a blue frame which snapped, the warranty replacement was bright red.  As for the chainring, my only excuse is that it was cheaper than a black one…

Those grips. 😨

Since then… frame can be any colour you like, but all components need to be black (or as near to).

I’ve got a thing for silver hubs – can look very smart combined with silver spokes and rotors, on the correct coloured frame. Or evenb better, on a raw alu or ti frame. Breaks up the monotony of black components.

Have at it.

 frame can be any colour you like, but all components need to be black (or as near to).

fully subscribe to this.

even removed my rim decals as DT swiss red clashes with my “rasberry” frame.

Frame can be any colour you like, but all components need to be black (or as near to).

Each to their own, but anodised stuff does nowt for me.

This, though my navy Solaris (bought second hand) has a silver headset and seat clamp, everything else black.

I don’t mind loads of colours or even really bold choices, but that Cotic f’instnce looks terrible because the complimentary colour for green is red – not purple, or if you’re matching/ contrasting to purple you need yellows. And blokes (as a rule) tend to not think about that shizzle.

But really, whatever you want, go for it.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10160625399910709&set=a.10151342901235709

Anything anodized that’s been near mucoff. Belongs straight in the bin.

Having been a complete coloured component whore in the past… I’m now loving silver bits (or black bits if silver not available). I’d swap any of my old but still in use coloured bits for their silver counterparts given the chance.

I’ve got a thing for silver hubs – can look very smart combined with silver spokes and rotors,

I love silver hubs. I don’t mind anodized bits as long as you don’t go mental. Like that Orange up there.

I HATE white rims! don;t like any rims that aren;t black, but white **** OFF!

I actually think cranks (+ chainring), headsets and seat posts (+ collar) look much classier in silver. In fact I wish more dropper posts were offered in silver. And yet I think handlebars should always be black (unless they’re Ti).

This isn’t something I usually care about. Last bike was an orange Orange with one red rim, one black, various blue, black and silver parts. Just built up it’s replacement and it’s mostly CRC bargain parts in stealth black and it does look much nicer.

My biggest faux pas was probably my first full suss. It’s was matchy matchy but not necessarily for the better.

No pictures are none online but I’ve an Orange bird with blacks forks…and during the pandemic I needed a new drivetrain and the only bits I could fine were blue garbaruk cassette and chainring plus a black with blue pin chain – no other stock in Europe unless I went above 500 quid!
Anyway, it look not bad and I don’t see it riding.
I’ve had to change my jockey wheels and went alloy so went blue – and it really doesn’t match! Looks awful but again, I don’t see it as I ride the bike…the kids however, they point it out frequently!

I like a bit of colour coordination but too much looks a bit tacky. Don’t really like brightly coloured anodised parts though. I have a black frame with silver seatclamp, hubs and bars, cranks are SLX with the silver stripe on the arms, the rest is all black. Not sure I’d want any more silver bits. Actually my back rim is a dark matte grey colour because that’s the wheel that turned up 2nd hand with the spec I wanted at the time.

Wouldn’t mind some Raceface Kashmoney stuff but I’d have to remove the silver bits I think!

In an ideal world I’d just have a nice raw frame with black parts or maybe a bit of Kashmoney coloured stuff thrown in there.

I remember in about 1998 I matched my red ART stem with some red Panaracer tyres that I got from the Bike show – that was pretty shocking looking back.

Never been one for anodised parts so that helps.

Since then… frame can be any colour you like, but all components need to be black (or as near to).

This, but pedals can be silver as that is the final colour of all MTB pedals anyway.

I remember in about 1998 I matched my red ART stem with some red Panaracer tyres

I had a blue ART stem that matched nothing. Also had Panaracer Fire XC’s with the red sidewalls, that almost matched some of the red bits on the same bike

frame can be any colour you like, but all components need to be black (or as near to).

Not in my book.  Polished looks so much better especially once used a fair bit – no scratches thru the colour into the bare alloy.  thats why I had my shand built with everything polished bar the frame.  looks classic as well.  The only thing that annopys is the black forks – I really wanted the lowers colour matched

My bike colour creations are works of art.  Always tastefully done, not too much, not too little.

After you’ve been on RetroBike for a couple of decades, you know the abominations that going overboard can bring.

I think when it comes to colour coordinated components the secret to success is less is more.

once upon a time my bike included the following, simultaneously, like a cross county tribute to Noddy’s car…

Klein Pulse Comp: lovely vibrant blue

Marzocchi Z4: gloss yellow

Michelin Hot S tyres: bright red

DMR V8s: powder coat yellow

Raleigh catalogue grips: red

RaceFace flat bars: anodised blue

Selle Italia Flite: yellow with multicoloured embroidery

I loved this bike, my commuter for years

Trying to do a patriot colour scheme on my Kona A.

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The only thing that annopys is the black forks – I really wanted the lowers colour matched

Try Slik Graphics and see if you can get some fork decals to match the colour of your frame

Nice idea but you cannot really see in the pics that its a 2 part metallic so a sticker would never match – it changes colour depending on the ambient light and has a slight sparkle

Or if you meant decals like logos I removed the ones it came with – hate logos

I loved this bike, my commuter for years

I think your bars are on upside down…

If I want to flirt with a pop of colour I’ll do it with the little bits such as top cap, Valves or brake caliper adapters etc. I actually like a mix of Black an Silver for everything else.  I don’t like everything to match too much – not when the whole bike is built up. I do like to match up Bottom Bracket, Headset and Seatclamp. And once it’s all carefully figured out I then like to dwell on what I could have been done differently!

Raw frame, orange hope bits on mine. Set off against red dt logos on the rims/hubs and red sunrace cassette 😕

I bought a white Selle SMP saddle for ~£37 a few years ago (normally ~£75+), to see if their unique shape would help make 60min+ turbo rides less agony. Ended up keeping it on the grey road bike for outdoors, despite slow buildup of muck on it looking horrendous! 😮

I had a dark grey Kona, put red ano Hope seat clamps, qrs, bar ends, etc on it, and then finished it all off with some Panarace Fire XC Pros with red treads. Was **** awful, I spent a bunch of cash on all of it and regretted it as soon as i finished it.

all components need to be black

On my raw titanium fixed wheel, all components are shiny except stem bars, and seatpost (all carbon). Dura Ace 9000 is black and shiny in equal measure. This is their most attractive ever “black” groupset offering. The latest kit looks miserable.

And I fitted a stem with white middle just to match the white middle of the saddle. Worst matching is a non-tanwall tyre when the front was binned.