I've always made an effort to make sure the components on my bikes remained the same colour as much as possible. If a bike had silver bits I sought silver replacements. But I think I'm having a change of heart. I'm sick of finding ideal parts in the 'wrong' colour and having to pass on them. The other week I paid a fiver extra for a new rear tyre with a reflex stripe so that it matched my existing front one and that seemed silly. I have old bits I can't use because they wouldn't look right.
I am trying to convince myself that it needn't be this way; that a touring bike shouldn't look like it has just come out of the factory; that a mix match of parts is just a sign of a bike which has been owned and adapted to suit an individual; that such a bike might be less appealing to thieves
So I'd like to know about others; does this bother you? Are you happy to fit whatever you have to hand and learn to love the beast you have created? Or is it a matter of pride to keep your machine looking 'just so'?
Or should I just get a life and get out and ride the ruddy things?
I think that all of my bikes have a liberal splattering of black or silver rims on un-coordinated hubs. Front and rear tyres normally a different make and size, front and rear rims often a different make and size. Different shifters left and right on all my bikes, different types of brakes front and rear, I even used to have different model cranks left and right.
I do have the same colour mudguards front and rear, if not racks.
Bicycler wrote:I've always made an effort to make sure the components on my bikes remained the same colour as much as possible. If a bike had silver bits I sought silver replacements. But I think I'm having a change of heart. I'm sick of finding ideal parts in the 'wrong' colour and having to pass on them. The other week I paid a fiver extra for a new rear tyre with a reflex stripe so that it matched my existing front one and that seemed silly. I have old bits I can't use because they wouldn't look right.
I am trying to convince myself that it needn't be this way; that a touring bike shouldn't look like it has just come out of the factory; that a mix match of parts is just a sign of a bike which has been owned and adapted to suit an individual; that such a bike might be less appealing to thieves
So I'd like to know about others; does this bother you? Are you happy to fit whatever you have to hand and learn to love the beast you have created? Or is it a matter of pride to keep your machine looking 'just so'?
Or should I just get a life and get out and ride the ruddy things?
I'm guilty of all of the above and more. My bars and stem must be of the same brand and my inner tubes must be the same brand on the front and rear wheels and must also be the same brand as my tyres
Bicycler wrote:I've always made an effort to make sure the components on my bikes remained the same colour as much as possible. If a bike had silver bits I sought silver replacements. But I think I'm having a change of heart. I'm sick of finding ideal parts in the 'wrong' colour and having to pass on them. The other week I paid a fiver extra for a new rear tyre with a reflex stripe so that it matched my existing front one and that seemed silly. I have old bits I can't use because they wouldn't look right.
I am trying to convince myself that it needn't be this way; that a touring bike shouldn't look like it has just come out of the factory; that a mix match of parts is just a sign of a bike which has been owned and adapted to suit an individual; that such a bike might be less appealing to thieves :wink:
So I'd like to know about others; does this bother you? Are you happy to fit whatever you have to hand and learn to love the beast you have created? Or is it a matter of pride to keep your machine looking 'just so'?
Or should I just get a life and get out and ride the ruddy things? :oops:
I do the same. Try hard to keep the bike looking good, like components I have added are part of the thing rather than haphazardly. But I also "have a life" and I do "ride the ruddy thing". I don't regard being choosy about components as meaning the other attributes are related.
The answer is simple.......if you find the desire to have things to match is getting in the way, then it has gone too far. A crusty old Yorkshireman of my acquaintance used to say "I think they are to use."
I've done my best to keep the bike looking understated but elegant and a few other cyclists and local residents have remarked how nice it looked. Even going so far as making sure the bungee cords matched the frames colour That went out the window this week as the new dyno hub is silver where the rear hub is black and due to B&M's light mount I've had to ditch the shiny polished oryx front cantilevers (fork crown mounted hanger) and an eyesore of a black mini vbrake is there instead. Ugh.
Bill
“Ride as much or as little, or as long or as short as you feel. But ride.” ~ Eddy Merckx It's a rich man whos children run to him when his pockets are empty.
Very slowly but surely over the last few years I've stopped seeing a bike as a bike but as a collection of components. When you've bought a bike new, it's tempting to think of it as a single object, even of some beauty. I was always concerned to keep the bits it came with on the bike as they somehow belonged to it and it wouldn't look right without those particular bits. Now it's all different: I start with the frame and go from there. When I have my first frame powder coated, it won't even have a name or badge on it. Then parts get mixed and matched, depending on cost, availability and function. But I still like to run my eye over the bike: does it look right? Is there a sense of coherence, of balance? Would I use a black stem with silver spacers and silver handlebars? Hmmm ...
I think when you put a bike together or replace parts, you do look for visual consistency. But nearly all the major components now come in black or silver and tracking down one or the other seems less important than their role on the bike.
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
Vantage wrote:I've done my best to keep the bike looking understated but elegant and a few other cyclists and local residents have remarked how nice it looked. Even going so far as making sure the bungee cords matched the frames colour That went out the window this week as the new dyno hub is silver where the rear hub is black and due to B&M's light mount I've had to ditch the shiny polished oryx front cantilevers (fork crown mounted hanger) and an eyesore of a black mini vbrake is there instead. Ugh.
I was able to retain my cantilever brakes by using one of these
The bracket goes down from the mounting hole so you can still have a near horizontal straddle cable and it will catch it if your main wire snaps. Unfortunately not much use to you as it is black.
ah, this raise the question of where prettiness ends and OCD begins.
It has been my observation that OCD-esque bikes tend to be unusually attractive to thieves, which makes me wonder if in some way they are similarly afflicted, or perhaps if they just have the same genes at work in them as magpies...
A bit an*l about matching components, started back in the early 80's My Dawes Super Galaxy was Gold Mink with Brown lug lining and brown handlebar tape, it frustrated me an awful lot as time progressed and variety in colours of tape declined and it was extremely hard to source brown tape. Not so an*l that i match inner tubes etc., but i do like matching colours.
I stand and rejoice everytime I see a woman ride by on a wheel the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood. HG Wells
Depends on the bike, but availability takes precedence...
My upwring is a thing of beauty (to me), but the black stem and bars were available. The only black on the bike (aside from cable outers).
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way.No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse. There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
Brucey wrote:ah, this raise the question of where prettiness ends and OCD begins.
It has been my observation that OCD-esque bikes tend to be unusually attractive to thieves, which makes me wonder if in some way they are similarly afflicted, or perhaps if they just have the same genes at work in them as magpies...
cheers
Agreed,but when I start making my bikes look deliberately undesirable for fear of theft the bad guys have won IMO. I like my bike to look good to my eye(couldn't care what anyone else thinks)they don't get the cottonwool treatment and they're used but not abused.And they're insured Of course OTOH a hack is a hack.
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"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
