Pinkbike Poll: Wild or Mild - What Makes A Bike Look Great?
Colour and graphics are hard. Long after the engineers engineer, and the industrial designers design, it's the graphic designers who are the last step in a product's looks before it gets released into the wild. Balancing brand identity, market trends, and opinions from literally everyone with an internet connection, it's easy to get overwhelmed and rely on anecdotal advice and gut feelings—"taste may be subjective, but everyone who disagrees with me is wrong!"
Jokes aside, just like the subjective nature of riding style, I wonder if there's more consensus than we think. I have a hunch that more than a few product managers will take a look at this poll, so here's your chance to tell them what you're more likely to want in 2022 and 2023.
The Giant Trance X is available in this wild paint job. I can't decide whether I like it or not, but it's unique for sure.
Specialized is doing some unique solid colours with minimal branding this year.
What are your favourite bike colours?
Choose all of the colours you like, but remember this for a one-colour bike, so if you choose yellow, green, and orange you're NOT choosing a bike with all 3 colours, you're just saying you like yellow bikes, green bikes, and orange bikes.
Dangerholm takes colours, fades, and graphics to the next level.
How many colours do you want on your bike?
If you like blue bikes with no graphics (or tone-on-tone graphics), choose 1 colour; if you like blue bikes with black or white graphics, choose 2 colours; if you like half blue half yellow bikes with a black wordmark, choose 3 colours; etc.
The Kavenz bike is available with a sandblasted, then chemically polished and black anodized finish that looks amazing.
Purple ano's popularity is cyclical.
Which of these aesthetic trends do you DISLIKE?
Choose all that apply.
How matchy do you want to get?
What do you like your components to look like?
Controls, bars/stem/cranks, etc. Choose all that apply.
When brands like Santa Cruz mix Fox and RockShox suspension they usually take care to match up the fork and shock colour regardless.
The BC Originals Podsol has no graphics at all, save for an embossed head-tube logo.
Can't scratch paint that isn't there.
Ibis's distinctive industrial design is sometimes polarizing in the comments.
Yeti has one of the nicest headtube badges out there.
Most of the models in Trek's Slash lineup are available in two or three colourways, and it's also available in their custom Project One program.
Would you ride it if the performance was there?
What trends did we miss? What other factors do you look at in terms of aesthetics? What do you think designers and product teams should be doing?
Must Read This Week
353 Comments
incorporate the term pinkers using ghost sprinkle graphics and you've got yourself a winner.
This may be the case for bike frames. There could be a chemical reaction from the glue on the wrap with the frame resin etc...
No need to build a new business or anything complicated, just an agreement between the distributor and a stablished shop local to them.
I they manage to design in California, outsource manufacturing and QC to China, then ship acrosss the globe to every country and straight to your door... I'm sure this is just a small step
Frames are assembled with poor quality parts and improper tools all the time, without any manufacturer oversight. Should the frame fail in the future it can be returned. The manufacturer will assess the cause of failure and decide if the warranty claim is valid. This could be the same for repainting a frame.
I'm looking at you Norco, Salsa, etc.
Funny that oil slick is a thing nowadays, but lots of people actually doesn’t like it according to this poll
All of the above!?
Something plain and uninteresting which has everyone like "Ok, whatever" will not have as many people who dislike it and also not have as many sales.
1. If you don’t like purple ano are you even a real mountain biker. That is what made it in the 90’s
2. Headbadges are ???? necessary on a bike.
They do make already busy bikes look even worse though.
I don't wanna wear a dayglo f*cking logo.
I don't want my bike plastered with f*cking logos, the graphics won't make my riding less shit.
IMO all the branding makes mtb so/too much about status and this leads to dumb f*cking prejudice, watch the behaviours when you roll up to a group of riders you don't know, the bike check is immediate, you are being quantified before anyone has seen you ride.
As many videos on PB and elsewhere prove, a shit bike can be ridden really f*cking well.
Pick a colour you like but DEBADGE NOW!
Relax. Not everyone is judging you.
I think this sort of behaviour is very much part of human nature.
It's much like folk comparing their 4x4s and Porsche's in the golf club car park.
Some of those people, like you, will 'just like cars', and some will be identifying the status symbols and forming a pecking order. Mountain biking is very similar, including the what-you-drove-to-get-here part.
Compare it to something like skateboarding or BMX though and the tech doesn't matter so much, there is less interest in the machine and more in the human capability, I think I prefer that on the whole as I assume most people go biking to aquire and hone skills, not categorise or be categorised on their possessions.
Also I've paid for a bike, an advertising deal isn't implicit in that so I'd prefer less branding in general.
It is very frustrating. (1st world problems)
On a related matter, what's going on with Santa Cruz and their colour pallette? Are they picking up the sale remnants at Home Depot?
Then you can swap over components without the end result looking absurd. Same with kit/helmet/etc.
Also, when did black become uncool? A black anno Banshee looks pretty sweet to me. Like something Darth Vader would ride, or a stealth bomber.
Looks don’t matter tons to me, but If I’m choosing between a black (or other relatively neutral) frame, and a neon purple/tie die frame, I’m going with the non crazy option 8 times out of 10.
I don't see how the average joe has more imagination because he has a frame color the bike came with stock and some anodized parts like many thousand other people too. Choosing a slightly different combo of these parts isn't really that special or artistic.
In the end that stuff shouldn't even matter and the fun you mention should come from riding and not from subjective bike fashion
But yeah, keep saying that black is "THE" "color"..as it is not, in both ways.
Ppl with black cars, bikes, mtbs, clothing, sunglasses, etc bore me to death. They have no style, no imagination and basically, no culture. They cannot project a coherent image of their inner self in the outside...as they aren't developed as a person(grumpy teens usually wore in some of their phases..); it get's complicated...let's simplify it for you(and others like you): you're basic...as in the memes.
So because people don’t share your favorite color, you think they are all boring, uncultured, style-less, basic, non-imaginative, non-developed (as a person) people, who only attend funerals and board meetings?
Wow.
There are tons of reasons why people might like black, or other “boring” colors.
They might just like them. Their personalities might be more introverted/subdued. They might want an easier color to resell, or one that attracts less attention, or tons of other reasons.
My favorite color isn’t black, or any other neutral color, but I tend to prefer more subdued colors for my bike, that I can do more low key accents on with my favorite colors. IMO, that looks better/more tasteful than a really loud bike covered in oil slick, anno purple, and neon clear/fluorescent clown/whatever.
And, that doesn’t make me right, as it’s just my preference. But hearing you say people with different preferences are boring/lame seems wildly inaccurate.
Just like if I said that people who like neon metallic mauve frames with color shift decals were all socially awkward, obnoxious, annoying people would be kind of weird, and probably wildly inaccurate.
I say it once more, that whole imagination statement is just dumb and the questionable developed person here is the one who can't understand that different poeple may just prefer different aesthetics without having psychological issues.
Color relates directly to (perceived)personality type.
Thanks for trying to mansplain my job to me, that was pretty entertaining.
Its 2020, as an artist im not legally allowed to say much about where I work or what I do, due to the internet and its trolls.
Why?
Hideous paint schemes = Awesome discounts
The colour scheme nobody else will be seen dead on i will happily ride for the right [heavily discounted] price.
Prime example: 2017 Nukeproof Mega 290 Comp. My first proper mountain bike that i had a huge discount on (which i attribute to how awful the colours looked on CRC website, where it was described as 'Lime/Red'). To be fair, colours looked a lot better in person than the pictures and i'm still awfully fond of it.
but ultimately its all about making your bike look like your bike. if you want to run a tan wall in the front and a red tire in the back on your neon green bike with a pistachio fork go right ahead its gonna look gross but thats your bike. Will the ¨cool kids¨ with murdered out bikes make fun of you? Probably. But do whatever you want.
... I would totally buy that
My hardtail is stealth, with black components as I don’t want it to be too noticeable when riding through town etc. However I have a few purple components on my full suss, as you need to have some bling on your pride and joy. I haven’t gone mad though, I don’t have any 2 purple components touching. So (pedals and chainring in purple, but black cranks).
I’ll probably get downvoted for this, but I like the way the full suspension Orange bikes look, you don’t need a big logo, or headtube badge to know it is an Orange.
Plus, it’s got to cost more.
Why not just do each frame material in its own color (or two)?
That said, I own a horrifyingly ugly base model Kona with like 3 or 4 colors. Because sale.
And currently lusting after a Raw AL/Black anno Banshee Titan.
I personally like red bikes purely because it is easiest to see in most natural conditions and stands out in photos and isn't quite as cheesy as fluro or opinionated as pink.
1) Black bike. Not really a color, just is. Goes with any kit. Especially important if you have multiple bikes. Never looks old or goes out of style. Get this if you don´t like options 2-N.
2) What ever color scheme is fashionable in current year or you think looks good on the bike. Might aling with the kit, might look good for years, or not.
3-N) Variations of #2.
(Good job YT and Canyon)
You didn't like the idea of Fordlandia?
Ehhhh, I found shiny bikes with extra clear coating more durable than dull/matte or satin finishes.
Some solid blacks are definitely key, but I hate the look of a pure black bike, give me some contrast!
I bought my current bike based on price/components, but the colour scheme was a solid plus, it has a neon bright greenish yellow frame but with every other component in black, including the decals on the fork. I find that's the perfect balance. The frame pops and draws your attention, but everything else is slick and subdued in just the right way.
Keep Oil Slick as far away from me as possible, I wouldn't take a part in that if you paid me.
Rockshox Lyrik Ultimate unavailable in 29/150/Black? That is just silly!
Santa Cruz picking two colors they like and then (as on the 2020 Hightower) having those be the only two colors including logos. So the 2020 HT was Tan with Blue Decals or Blue with Tan Decals. Looks cool with both colorways next to each other but otherwise limiting. At least it wasn't a purple 5010...
MFG's need to pick a color. Thats all they make. It would keep the stupid colors at bay.
Then lets have 2 component specs. That brings pricing down b/c manufacturing is simpler.
Let aftermarket guys do the bling.
So you go in the shop, order the bike you want or pick it off the floor. Its $2-3k less than it waa in the old days when there was 10 models and you go ride. Something breaks, no probkem. You pick up the 1 of 2
Lighter colours may be useful in that it would be easier to see a crack in the frame.
I prefer a dark top tube (the part I can see from above when on the bike) as this has less sunlight reflection into my eyes. Kind of like painting a car's hood black.
1. Raw titanium is the sexiest colour you can have on a bike.
2. Graphics on bikes are a lot easier for a user to add than substract.
Slam on some vinyl or DYED Bros to add graphics. A flashy bike will always be flashy unless you repaint it, a subdued bike can easily be made flashy with some stickers and also changed to suit every season if need be.
i think silver should make a comeback. all parts are black ano, i guess it makes them look like carbon? toys are made from plastic, machines are made from metal. and they're allowed to show that off.
Architects rejoice! Matt Black is what the people want @brianpark
If I could save a few hundy and get a bike with no paint i would.
Not gold, KASHIMA!
paint?? as long its anodised or powder coat