# Color scheme when building a bike



## Derek200 (Jun 16, 2015)

Alright - this may be too much for some of you. Haha. But I Am in the process of building a bike. 

Actually selling a custom 1911 to find the bike build. A nighthawk talon if anyone is interested. 

Am having the hardest time deciding on what color frame of a Canfield yelli screamy. I like the blue, black, red and green. Haha. 

Leaning towards getting the black and doing blue race face bars and flat pedals and blue hope pros. Maybe blue blunts. Although my son is trying to convince me to swap out the green instead of blue. Only problem is can't coordinate rims if I choose green. 

Other frame colors are much harder to coordinate colors and have it end up looking as sexy as a bike like this is supposed to look. 

Haha. Thoughts? Does anyone else obsess over how this will all look at the end? 

I actually was also thinking of the race face cranks as they could be matched to the color scheme. But not sure if they would be as good as the XT group set I am planning on.


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## richde (Jun 8, 2004)

Black, black, black, black, black, and black always works.

Use the seatpost collar, stem spacers and lock-on grip rings for an accent color...preferably matching the frame graphics.


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## Derek200 (Jun 16, 2015)

Haha. I knew all black would be suggested. Have a Stumpjumper HT carbon that is all blacked out. Want something with a little splash on this bike.


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## Ladmo (Jan 11, 2013)

My bike started out mostly black, and has gotten only blacker since 2012 when I bought it. I've got nothing against the different colors, so long as they aren't that neon look that is gaining traction in parts of the biking world. What I especially think looks bad is the bright, multi-colored look where even the hubs, pedals, cassette, spokes, and cabling is a bright shiny contrasting neon color. Doesn't work for me at all. I'm sure the bike rides really well, but I'll never know for sure since I wouldn't be caught dead on something that looked like that. But it's your money - build it like you want.


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## mtnbkrmike (Mar 26, 2015)

Completely murdered out black frame. And then whatever accent colour you want. But sparingly. And anodized if possible.


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## Varaxis (Mar 16, 2010)

See if there's any sign shops that would do vinyl. Peel it off when you get bored of it and dream up another. Get inspiration from whatever... could make it like a police car color scheme and roleplay if you wanted...

I've seen an Angry birds themed one out near Burbank, and a Nightmare before Christmas one somewhere online (which was airbrushed).


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## AndrwSwitch (Nov 8, 2007)

I think black looks like a midlife crisis. Especially matte black. My bikes are sports equipment, not WMDs.

I usually just buy complete. But sometimes my bikes start to evolve a color scheme or I'll bump into something that gives the perfect accent color. From where I'm sitting, I can see the yellow handlebar tape on my track bike. It's a navy blue frame and fork and my team colors are blue and yellow, so when I saw the handlebar tape, I had to have it.

My 'cross bike has developed a bit of a red/green thing. It has a red frame and black fork. I bought it a Chris King headset when I killed the OEM one and figured WTF and bought the Rasta one. Then when I was starting to think seriously about tossing the crappy triple crank it shipped with and putting on something racier, I saw some cheap green alloy crank arms in a clearance bin and grabbed them. So when I bought some new wheels for it more recently, of course I got them with green alloy spoke nipples.

At the end of the day, the only thing that really matters is performance. Red bikes are faster. So there you go.


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## voghan (Aug 18, 2014)

I had the option of green or black on my last bike and I ended up going black. In hind site I think I would have liked green. At the time I felt green was a bit too showy for my riding ability. Didn't want to call to much attention to my bike.


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## Fleas (Jan 19, 2006)

Somebody built a forest green Yelli with white rims, bars, fork, saddle... it looked fantastic!

-F


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## Derek200 (Jun 16, 2015)

Yeah. I was thinking about that with the blue frame. White stuff.


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## Jayem (Jul 16, 2005)

If you order nextie or light bicycle (although LB charges $60 for it) rims, you can have them paint them any color you want.


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## ColinL (Feb 9, 2012)

here's the trick about colors - it's difficult to find various components from different brands that are close to the same. identical is not likely, except for black or white. (not even silver is the same! - some chrome-ish and some shiny grey.)

I built a SC Juliana for my wife a few years ago. It's powder blue. I went for blue ano wheel skewers, blue stem, and thought about blue bars... None of it is exactly the same. For the drivetrain and wheels, I got silver rather than the usual black / grey.


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## Bradym77 (Nov 22, 2011)

Red has been proven to make you go faster.


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## tehllama (Jul 18, 2013)

Derek200 said:


> Actually selling a custom 1911 to find the bike build. A nighthawk talon if anyone is interested.
> 
> Am having the hardest time deciding on what color frame of a Canfield yelli screamy. I like the blue, black, red and green. Haha.


Hmm... still not sold on the relative ROI of that one (I wouldn't sell my NHC 10-8 for a bike, no matter how nice the bike), but I'll play along...

I'm a fan of all black, but I do have a weakness for black with selective anodize colors (black with glossy red anodize; black with glossy blue anodize; I'm sure you're aware that hydrodipping bike parts would also be pretty effective). Curiously, all my 1911's are black, but with varying grips (Coyote S&S G10's, VZ Recons, or Yam Signature VZ's), so the strategy holds that far.

I'd say stick with what you can easily match stuff to over time - I know I always have a soft spot for red over black - right now I have a bright red Rocky Mountain Instinct frame, with a mix of black parts bolted to it, and a black Diamondback Overdrive C6 that I'd removed all the non-red stickers from - I figure I won't deviate too far from that general regime anyway, and I know I can always find stuff in black, and probably find what I need in red should I desire. Random pops of silver are also just fine (I'm assuming you can get past the tiny silver glint on the Wilson47/ETM or Tripp magazines, same concept for the brake rotors and any cassette parts that are going to naturally be silver).


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## LyNx (Oct 26, 2004)

You really want to do something to get attention and be bright, Red Frame, with Blue Ano parts hung on it, maybe even blue cables and rims. You could also do the black frame and add the colour to the little stuff around the bike like bars, seatpost clamp, hubs, lockrings on grips, bolts, rims. 
I like to add colour, not a fan of stealth black unless you're trying to be on the low down to try and 
keep it from being stolen and even then, that's what lot of people are looking for.

Pic of my recently stripped RA Prime with colour added, would also look good if the frame were black


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## Derek200 (Jun 16, 2015)

Tehllama - the pistol is nice. No doubt about it. But I want a bike and haven't shot in a match in over a year. On top of that, have boucoup landscaping projects going at the house that are eating up cash. 

So I am having to sell some things to raise money for my bike project right now.


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## watermonkey (Jun 21, 2011)

Colored housing makes any bike look like a walmart bike. I would suggest not going with current Salsa (re:new beargrease vomit pink) or Santa Cruz's 80's teal/pink color schemes. Seriously, what are people thinking lately. There are a lot of butt ugly bikes on shop floors lately. Class, not flash is always the best way to go - think resale.


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## RS VR6 (Mar 29, 2007)

I like black, red, and white frames. They are usually the easiest to work with. Unfortunately you don't always have a choice of colors when it comes to the frame you want. There are lots of frames I like...but really turned off by the colors.


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## tehllama (Jul 18, 2013)

I agree with VR6 - nobody is going to stop making stuff in black, white, and red. 
Grey and Blue are both awesome, but come in lots of options for shades; green has always been love it/hate it for me, as have the orange/yellow/lime type colors.

Either way, it sounds like you're not parting with any kind of daily driver to pull it off - I'd just roll with whatever you can put together at the best final cost, and that'll be the color. Remember, it's probably better than half the colorway schemes SantaCruz if putting on awesome bikes, so you'll be in great shape.


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## knutso (Oct 8, 2008)

I buy whatever colored parts are the cheapest .. if they are all the same, I buy the one that matches the least.

Too matchy matchy 

I'd get the black or red frame!


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## jcd46 (Jul 25, 2012)

Me I would be doing Orange and Black but those are not your choices. I would go black frame and red-tones (I'm trying to get there) -or- Red frame and black-tones. 

Although white bikes are awesome too, and you can add any color to match it up. That has to be a fun project!


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## DIRTJUNKIE (Oct 18, 2000)

Start with a basic color and then add another two colors. Then subtract one color while adding three more colors. Shake it all up and see what floats to the top.


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## AndrwSwitch (Nov 8, 2007)

The new Fix graphics are pretty sweet, speaking of orange and black.


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## jcd46 (Jul 25, 2012)

DIRTJUNKIE said:


> Start with a basic color and then add another two colors. Then subtract one color while adding three more colors. Shake it all up and see what floats to the top.


I really enjoy your posts man! :thumbsup:


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

All black is boring.

Me, I try to do something a little different.

I have a thing for yellow. All of my mtb's have had a lot of yellow. Two with yellow frames. Current one has yellow accents, with a blue frame. Black components. It's very bright, but looks good. It has enough black to tone things down some.

My wife's bike has a lot of black. It is what it is. But it also has some nice purple ano accents, so it's not a run-of-the-mill black bike.


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## jeffw-13 (Apr 30, 2008)

All of my bikes are mud colored

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


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## #1ORBUST (Sep 13, 2005)

1st Nice choice on Bike! No Ano orange im dissapoint! The colors look way better in person. The orange looks like General Lee Orange super bright. I'm doing a lime green combo with the pedals/chain ring/Maybe bars rest black/orange.










Color wheel is your friend when building. Painting a Room building a bike/Same deal.










All my bikes pretty much have 1 base color 1-2 accent, 4 is pushing it.


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## OddTrickStar (Aug 22, 2014)

Black and blue is my first. Anything but orange is my second choice.

Yeah, colored housings stand out too much. Sometimes it works though.


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## Zowie (Aug 3, 2013)

DIRTJUNKIE said:


> Start with a basic color and then add another two colors. Then subtract one color while adding three more colors. Shake it all up and see what floats to the top.


Do you need to add additive colors and subtract subtractive colors?

If so, that's pretty technical. Should be good on rocks.


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## DIRTJUNKIE (Oct 18, 2000)

Zowie said:


> Do you need to add additive colors and subtract subtractive colors?
> 
> If so, that's pretty technical. Should be good on rocks.


🍭🎨📊📉📈


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