Colour of a bike - would you ride a feminine colour?

[gavgav]

This is the 21st century. “Feminine” colour?

 

[Once a Wheeler]

…it looks a bit more lilac than the images suggest.

How's your cycling history? In the 1960s lilac was almost a trademark of Witcomb frames:

I do not think people thought it was particularly feminine: more a trendy partner for psychedelia and similarly coloured roll-collar shirts. In France, the great Poulidor-Anquetil rivalry was being fought out with Anquetil on rather unimaginatively green Helyetts or mid-blue Gitanes; but Poulidor rode purple Merciers:

Well, they called it purple but it was a very lilacky shade of purple and, if anything, Anquetil was the refined socialite and Poulidor was the man's man.
Colour certainly counts. It is part of the rider's psychology. Lavish sponsorship justifies any shade but Poulidor is no bad advertisement for purple and lilac; and Witcombs certainly looked good on the road.

 

[Shadow]

How's your cycling history? In the 1960s lilac was almost a trademark of Witcomb frames:

I don't care what era that is from, it is a gorgeous, gorgeous colour.

 

[Venod]

This belongs to a male rider, I like it.

 

[Moon bunny]

I could not ride a red bike, it would clash with my hair.

 

[Twilkes]

Define ‘feminine’ colours.

I’ve worn pink shirts for years and when an opinion has been offered, my partner and many female friends and colleagues like blokes in the colour. But most men would prefer back to school white, or blue at a push rather than risk being caught in a ‘girls’ colour.

Twenty years ago pink shirts were kind of borderline but now they're fine from what I've seen (and from who I've seen wearing them).

If you go into any sports shop you'll see the female section is awash with this odd lilac not-purple not-pink colour, from some tops and leggings that are 100% that colour down to flashes of it on the edges of bags or the backs of trainers. It's an odd thing to behold, and it matches the colour of an Angel Delight-alike dessert that used to be around in the 80s that I'm sure was called "Whop" although I can't find any trace of it on the interweb.

 

[a.twiddler]

What's wrong with Lilac? Back in 1982 I had my old Viscount Aerospace do everything go everywhere bike refurbished from faded metallic red to a metallic Ford lilac with all the braze ons it should have had from new, and it looked gorgeous. The frame builder did a really good job, and the paint was tough and did not fade in the sunlight like the original. I had that bike until the late 90s, and foolishly sold it to raise the money to buy Mrs Twiddler a generic ATB which ultimately ended up rusting away in the shed. I had a lot of good memories of that bike, and lots of regrets later when I thought about the history which it represented. So to me, lilac was my choice, and means more than a "feminine" colour, whatever that actually means. Would I ride a pink bike? Maybe, if I liked it. I am well beyond worrying about what other people think now. After all, I did recently buy a recumbent!

 

[CanucksTraveller]

I had a lilac Claud Butler roadster for ten years in the 1990s, I loved it, I've also owned a pink racer that I rescued from a skip and did up before finally selling it (to a woman, for what it's worth).
No such thing as girls' colours, boys' colours etc really, especially not in 2020 (the EF mens racing team look amazing in pink and purple), though my daughter begs to differ and thinks her Trek is both feminine and cool.

I'd ride a pink bike. But I wouldn't buy that Specialized, I'm just not keen on that colour, it's a bit non committed, a bit "hearing aid beige".
If you like it, you go for it... that's the only important factor.

 

[itboffin]

most importantly whatever colour you choose make sure ALL your bikes are the same colour, you know so the other half never really knows how many bikes you have

 

[Reynard]

I don't know really, I suppose nothing is wrong with a red bike in reality. It's just that red is not yellow. When I was a kid I had a yellow Sun bike and ever since I've decided bikes should be yellow, and yellow is my favourite colour and I don't like red.

I'm not going to argue with that. Nostalgia and all that...

Blue is actually my favourite colour, and it's accident rather design that all my bikes are, well, mostly red. But i like red bikes.

 

[Aravis]

Black, brown, grey..

Black and grey I find it hard to imagine preferring over something else, but that's a different issue.

Brown - one of the services Mercian offer (at least they did in 1989) was the use of a contrasting colour, typically for the head tube and all or part of the seat tube. So I'm thinking chocolate and cream - that could really work.

But too much choice really can be a curse, though it's all in the eye of the beholder:

My size too.

 

[Reynard]

Twenty years ago pink shirts were kind of borderline but now they're fine from what I've seen (and from who I've seen wearing them).

If you go into any sports shop you'll see the female section is awash with this odd lilac not-purple not-pink colour, from some tops and leggings that are 100% that colour down to flashes of it on the edges of bags or the backs of trainers. It's an odd thing to behold, and it matches the colour of an Angel Delight-alike dessert that used to be around in the 80s that I'm sure was called "Whop" although I can't find any trace of it on the interweb.

Instant Whip?

As a member of the fairer sex, I don't mind the odd bit of pink or lilac when it comes to clothes, but some of it, really, is just a bit TOO much. I just tend to keep it to things like socks, underwear and the occasional t-shirt.

I'm not sure I could ride an all-pink bike, but I did see an ad (here on CC incidentally) for customized bike colours, though can't for the life of me remember which make of bike it was for. One of the bikes was pink at the front and black at the back, and the colours merged into each other somewhere in the middle. That was really rather nice - it reminded me very much of one of the 2002 RML Chevrolet Monte Carlos...

 

[fossyant]

I've never been a fan of green, but 1 bike is half british racing green, red and white as that was the only frame I could get quick, when one got written off. The MTB has bright green highlights, but I've changed all the Rock Shox stickers to bright green, and the grips.

The only colours Id not want is pink. Not keen.

 

[recumbentpanda]

A ‘feminine’ colour?!! What century is this?

 

[Chromatic]

I'm not going to argue with that. Nostalgia and all that...

Blue is actually my favourite colour, and it's accident rather design that all my bikes are, well, mostly red. But i like red bikes.

If I was younger and faster I'd go and get this: https://www.bianchi.com/tavolozza/oltre-xr4/?code=090O01G

It says that configuration is not available now but it didn't say that when I first looked on that site a few months ago.