Worst and best looking bike you’ve ever built/had

I have some very old pictures on Pinkbike that allow me to see how truly awful my builds used to look, and hence how much better I got over the years at making something look nice

So, here’s my best and worst, from what pics I can find — kind of like a before and after from those scam weight loss ads

Guess which is which

And as a bonus, before I learnt how to shorten hydraulic hoses (and before I cared; I didn’t notice this until someone on here pointed it out)

EDIT: to balance this out/not leave a sour taste, here’s another recent one

Best looking is still my Mk1 Soul.

Worst probably my old Moda track bike.

I think my steel Jones with it’s truss fork, 10+ year old patchy black powdercoat and external routed dropper might be both. It’s not pretty at all but it’s so good looking in a functional, purposeful way.

My old Scott Genius with the stupidly high pressure proprietary pull shock, in retrospect was pretty gopping, but I loved her at the time.

My last YT Jeffsy in black and white with a coil shock still looks pretty cool.

I love my current Stumpjumper Evo, but in satin black with olive/green hightlights it looks a bit plain I’m afraid.

Its difficult to go wrong when starting with a well sorted steel frame. I still love how this looks even though its ancient and now relegated to pub bike/commuter duties.

This is not the exact one I owned but its an identical model. Apollo FS26 purchased new from Halfords in 2006 for the princely sum of £120. Disc brake front, V brake rear. “Coil” fork and shock, no-name gears, riser stem welded from parts taken from a scuttled Soviet aircraft carrier.

Current bike is a ‘slight’ improvement in the looks and performance department…

@devash and expenditure!

Worst was GT Agreesor I bought cheap from Paul’s Cycles back in 2012, think it was a 2009 model. Angles were all over the place and looked like it had been squashed! Bought it on a whim as the parts were worth more than I paid for the whole bike so could swap the frame if I wanted to. Ride really well though strangely. No pictures of it sadly.

Best is my current Cotic Rocket, just looks aggressive and purposeful. Always makes me happy just looking at it, let alone riding it. Massively more capable than I am but I don’t care!

My Canyon Neuron isn’t far behind it though, just the bland grey colour holds it back but that suits it strangely.

Worst? I mean I liked the heavy engineering look, but prob this

Best? Well…

https://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/readers-rides-toms-ra-410/

I think my Shand is beautiful 

Its difficult to go wrong when starting with a well sorted steel frame

If I could find some of my older pics, I think I did succeed in making some look truly awful 🙂 Bash guards, over sized stems, mismatched rims, often one with a rim brake surface. They all worked though, mostly.

But I agree with you — it would def be hard to make my Soma look bad. I think what I’ve realised over the years is that, at least to my eye, simple, subtle, and symmetric is what gets me. Little things like the stem and bars aligning with the top tube.

Yep, that Shand, and the Fargo and 410, all work very well for me

My Banshee’s have always turned out pretty well. The final incarnation of my Yeti SB66, probably a good thing it’s lost to photobucket.

Bonus DBR Axis TT

I had a 26/24″ mulleted San Andreas with Shivers and BMX cranks.

I think that firmly slots into the ‘Both category.

Worst? All my bikes have been pretty handsome, but I have got an ebike, so it must be that.
It looks ok compared to a lot of em though

Throttle was lovely.

But most of the bits moved to this, which I think is loverly. And purple.

the trouble i have with with old bikes that look lovely (like my solaris), they just look odd these day with the geometry that has proven to be completely wrong.

Let’s just say that I’ve owned several Ellsworths…so no one is going to have a more beautiful bike

Joint Ugliest – GT Ruckus I-Drive Freeride (or something) and Mongoose Black Diamond Triple.

Prettiest – Charge Blender, simple skinny steel tubes, single speed, and black with red decals. Simple and beautiful.

Having no cables, 1 brake hose and no rear mech certainly helps

I had a 24Seven Dark Angel. At the time it was the best looking thing ever.
Now? 🤮

Worst, probably a Pro Flex from the late 90s

Best, a Greg Fuquay externally butted steel framed rigid again from the 90s.

I always loved my Kobe

Worst was definitely a Mongoose Teocali from about 2005ish. Unsurprisingly I don’t have any pictures of it but it looked a bit like this. It actually rode quite well until it snapped in half at Delamere Forest.

Best (IMO) is my Ritchey Road Logic. A bit neglected currently but I love the way it looks and rides.

I nearly bought one of those Toecali’s but then got the almost as ugly Black Diamond Triple so I could ‘freeride’ (turns out I couldn’t).

I also nearly bought one of those 24Seven Dark Angels as they were so cheap and got decent reviews. But then I tried to lift one up and decided that I couldn’t afford a telehandler to lift it onto my roof ever ride.

I’ve always struggled to love this one. Not sure if my inner snob or the terrible yellow accents and name – it’s a Bish Bosh Bash.

Still have it as it’s a really good do it all/winter bike, really should get it resprayed.

That Mongoose is pretty bad.

Tbr there’s not much you could do to make that look better. The On One 45650b that I ruined can actually be build to look really nice (this from Pedal Room):

I’ve managed to find a picture of my first mountain bike, it’s definitely not a looker 🙈

I’ve not had that many bikes but I think my current Aether looks pretty good 🙂

I’m in love with this one, best looking bike I’ve ever built, mainly because I kept it simple. In fact the only way it could be improved is if I replaced my only ‘creative’ touches (green anodised bottle cage bolts) with plain silver. Even had someone on the train taking photos of it (the frosted/matt paint looks better in the flesh).

Worst looking was probably my Orange Patriot, because it was built on a teenage shoe-string budget and I had accessorised with about 5 different shades of red, had dirt jump cranks, orange bombers, a bent saddle with a ‘hump’ and just generally a mish-mash of other parts including one of those padded neoprene Lizard skins top-tube pads 😬

Worst, although to be fair it rode okay, loved the tech. Check that bullet bros chain tensioner doing sterling duties before clutch mechs came along.

Best, IMO you can’t beat a good looking DJ or 4x bike, the lines just look right.

My Pronghorn PR6 XC-SW Carbon has that shitting dog aesthetic but it’s an absolute XC weapon. Can’t bear to sell it even though it’s just sat in the garage for about 5 years.

Filthy after that crappy Sunday at Ard Rock this year but very much ion love with the Canfield Tilt

Agree with a nice steel just looking right. My old P20 and Bonty always got favourable comments. I think my Carbon 456 is probably worst build, though it’s tainted with memories of how dead the ride was. The Raven (retro project reliving my original Raven) is definitely a marmite bike, I’ll let you decide.

My old Chameleon had a very simple, purposeful look about it. I bloody loved that bike. It was like riding an oversized BMX…

My biffer of a second-hand prophet, complete with leaky Avids, and my Stanton.

There is a lot of consistency with what a bad bike looks like but not much for a good one.

Shitting Dog.
2007_0819nomad0061 by StuartBrettle[/url], on Flickr

To German Engineering.
Geometron G1 by StuartBrettle[/url], on Flickr

Nothing ruins the look of a bike the way white rins do. just taken a white rinmed wheelset off an old SIR9 and the bike is transformed, actually want to eise it now.

Worst.. probably the old Bullit I bought to do a Whistler season on. Looks terrible and would probably ride awful even by standards at the time (2011) but I had a lot of fun on it!

Best.. probably this version of my Charge Blender

I did have a soft spot for the old Trailstars too

Best; My KSL. I just love the way it looks.

Worst (that I’ve actually owned); Club Roost VCV, just a horrible mess of tubes.

Luckily the photobucket watermark hides some of the horrible.