Vibrant bike colours

[overmind]

I bought my BTwin Triban 3 about 5 years ago. It was an end of line bike as they were phasing out that model. It has an aluminium alloy frame and carbon front forks. I think I paid £250 for it (reduced from £300) which I thought was a bargain.

When you look at the current range of Decathlon road-bikes they are all really bland colours. Even the ones that are blue or red are a darkish hue or only a red or blue streak on a predominantly black or darkish colour. Maybe it is just me but I like vibrant colours. I put a white charge spoon saddle on the bike and it looks absolutely fantastic (fantastic enough for the bloke who nicked it; Lucky for me the white seat was enough for me to spot the guy riding it and I wrestled it back off him).

Presumably, Decathlon have some kind of marketing data to back up their choice of colours, but I personally do not understand why the colours are so dull. Every time I see a bike with nice colours it seems to be very popular. I'm thinking of brands like Bianchi who have that turquoise bike with the black lettering; Absolutely gorgeous!

Perhaps it's just me. Do you agree or disagree?

 

[PaulSB]

I can appreciate brightly coloured bikes and why people like them. I even like to look at them. To date it's not been for me to ride though. Ideally I want black with some subtle colour highlights. Grey works as well again with highlights. My Cervelo is grey with subtle red/maroon flashes and a touch of white. Love it.

Think I'm going to have to bite the bullet in August, the opposite to you, it strikes me so many new bikes are too bright for my taste!!

 

[Drago]

Decalthlon bikes must be made by Volvo - their cars are all silvers, greys, blacks with the odd white. My passion red brick is a real novelty.

 

[PaulSB]

Though saying a like black I LOVE this:

https://www.cervelo.com/en/

 

[Cycleops]

To be fair their MTB bikes are a lot better with flashes of colour, maybe to appeal to a younger buyer.


Perhaps the road bike designers in France or wherever are just dull unadventurous people, who knows.

 

[brucers]

I find lots of bikes dullish nowadays. The industry seems to favour dark with some artistic colour splashes. If it is bright/garish colours you want, 90's mtb's are great for it and pound for pound better value for the less serious rider.

 

[Mo1959]

I actually quite like white, and it makes it easier to see the dirt when you are cleaning it. Lol

 

[vickster]

Anything other than black Matt even less so than gloss!

On the decathlon front, a few years back, I got stopped in London when wheeling my Genesis past the Rapha place near Piccadilly - by one of the French marketing chaps from Decathlon who wanted a photo of the bike as he loved the colour so much...as do I!

 

[taximan]

I have often wondered why bike manufacturers moved away from the flamboyant colours of years gone by, my first bike was a gorgeous flamboyant tangerine colour with contrasting panels and mudguards etc, much more attractive than boring black, silver or grey.

 

[RegG]

This has to be the best colour.....

 

[Mo1959]

Quite like my Cube colour.

 

[betty swollocks]

 

[Vantage]

Agreed. Bikes for the last couple of years have been bloody dull as hell.
Black frames. Black forks. Black bars, stems, seatposts, saddles, wheels, drive trains, the lot. Its soooooooooo bloody boooooooriiiiiiiiiiing.
One of the reasons I built my own was to do the exact opposite of the industry standard and go bling. I've done everything I can to avoid black on my bike - I even replaced the stock black bolts on the disc brake calipers.
Only thing left to do really is get it repainted at some point. Currently it's a nice metallic blue but it's really dark.
I'm thinking some sort of red atm but it's not a final choice.

 

[Drago]

This has to be the best colour.....
View attachment 506811

The best colour for an early 70's bathroom suite

 

[Mo1959]

The current "best bike" is a bit too black but does have flashes of colour to break it up.