Persnicketiness with color combos/Wider aesthetic convo...

[Drew Fitchette]

Hey all,

Was thinking about this recently with two bikes I've got as we head into winter/overhaul season. Namely, one of my bikes leans heavily on Brown/green accents with a complimentary frame color while the other leans heavily on Black/orange with complimentary frame color. This has me realizing that on the individual bikes I love the set ups, but swapping parts would throw both colorways out of whack.

I know some of us go as deeply as theming our bikes(looking at you Leah), and others spend so much time planning builds that it feels like an artistic or scientific exercise. I think all of which are valid and fun, while knowing some of you build your bikes from a purely utilitarian perspective and that's okay too!

So my question for the wider group is: what hard and fast rules do you have for components/bits of color when it comes to your bikes? Do you refuse to use components that would otherwise achieve what you need because you find them garish or the finish doesn't meld with your style?

I'll start with a rule I have for my bikes: I don't mix black and earth tones when it comes to Saddles/Grips. One of my bikes has a black saddle and black grips, the other has a green b17 saddle and olive grips. Not opposed to grey/white with black, or brown/honey with olive. The only place the twain shall meet is with colors like Pink/Purple/Blue/Yellow/Bright Green... all bets are off there.

Let's hear what idiosyncratic or peculiarities you all might have!  

[Patrick Moore]

I generally prefer more subdued and more conventional color combinations: shades of blue and black with Ford Blue frame and silver components; sage green with silver and dull red; white with red accents and black and silver. Exceptions occur largely by chance as when someone remarked that my K-Lite headlight was orange (I’d thought it was gold) and suggested more orange to set it off. This got out of hand as you can see below. But I like how it turned out. 

I have an easy on/off pair of Arkel panniers to use for large loads and that is black; I think the combination of bright orange, dark green, black, and silver works.

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[Dan]

Great idea for a thread. It's something I think about a lot and can agonise over in a low-stakes kind of way.

For me, I think the combination of silver hubs + spokes with black rims and black tyres looks fantastic.

I recently changed the tyres on my Appaloosa to break from this rule.

I still think it looks good! But I am still getting used to it and if these Rene Herse Endurance tyres came out in all black again I would be mightily tempted.

After:

Before (following my rule):

[Steve]

Drew - interesting question; I can't say that I've ever voiced my aesthetic preferences with  bicycle builds. But since you're asking; I guess I'm pretty eclectic. Anything goes as long as the bike visually hangs together. Here's my Platypus in its current guise - green, black, polished aluminum, shades of brown, and a even a little grey. 

[Bicycle Belle Ding Ding!]

Drew, I am so guilty. I have 4 bike and 1 doesn’t have a theme and it bothers me endlessly. 

Rules: 

If it comes in oil slick, I’m going to get that one.

If it is ugly, it must be dead useful to earn its place on the bike.

Mostly, I find that today’s parts are coming in lots of color and I can usually find what I’m looking for. And if anyone needs help, let me know.

I, like Drew, get myself into trouble with colorways. I wanted to change out parts on my mermaid Platypus but it was dressed in green/gold parts that needed to stay with it. I sold the whole bike and started over. What are you going to do about yours?

Leah

SW Michigan

[Guy Jett]

Looks GREAT with all those colors. 

GAJett

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[Leah Peterson]

I do really love to color-coordinate bags. But I am picky about bags and will choose a less-pretty color if it’s a more conditional bag. Again, refer to Rule #2. Photos of the newest bike with it’s new color-coordinated tote and bar bag, which are actually gorgeous:

On Nov 4, 2025, at 9:37 PM, Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! <jonasa...@gmail.com> wrote:

Drew, I am so guilty. I have 4 bike and 1 doesn’t have a theme and it bothers me endlessly. 

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[Ted Durant]

On Tuesday, November 4, 2025 at 2:01:56 PM UTC-6 drewfi...@gmail.com wrote:

So my question for the wider group is: what hard and fast rules do you have for components/bits of color when it comes to your bikes? 

I wouldn't describe my rules as hard and fast, but as I was designing my Breadwinner I developed this set -

Styling Guidelines:
Balance the elements - not too much of any of them
Use colors to break up large masses - emphasize lightness
This is a modern bike, not a classic, but shouldn't look like a Transformer toy
Black looks good against the green of the frame

In another thread we had some discussion about mixing shiny and black. My first rule applies there - balancing the elements. Too much black is definitely bad for the kinds of bikes I like to ride. Too much shiny, well, maybe it's hard to have _too_ much shiny on my bikes, but I like a balance of black and silver. 

As I was working on my Chapman, I spent a lot of time on Brian's photo site looking at all the bikes he has done. They are a wide range of color palettes and schemes, but something he is consistent with is that the handlebar wrap is a single color, generally matching the saddle. I went on a binge of doing harlequin wraps, and I found Brian's bikes to be a good case for putting the handlebars in the background a bit. Naturally, my Chapman has matching black saddle and bars. (Though Newbaums fades quickly and my handlebars are now a brownish gray.) As I swapped other bikes to narrower bars and shorter stems I wrapped the bars in single colors, generally matching the saddle, though my Riv Road (seen recently in the October photos thread) has a white saddle and bright blue bars. If I was really good at this, I'd have that saddle recovered in navy blue and use a darker blue on the bars. (Light silver metallic frame with cream head tube and navy blue window fill.) And get rid of the bright red little saddle bag.

I'm not an expert on the color wheel and I'm not good at creating an artistic palette, but I think I know a good one when I see it.

Ted Durant

Milwaukee, WI USA

[esoterica etc]

Drew,

Are you familiar with the Canva color wheel? https://www.canva.com/colors/color-wheel/

It allows you to select any color, and then you can see what color or colors work well with your base color. You can choose complementary, triadic, or tetradic colors. 

I used the color wheel when I built up my Black Mountain Cycles Monstercross, because I wanted to give it a little more personality other than just silver and black. I really like the way it turned out. Only other thing I would change would be some anodized purple Paul brakes, and maybe a seatpost collar to match the pedals/chainring bolts/saddlebag. 

~Mark

Kailua, HI

(but currently in Oak Harbor, WA)

On Nov 4, 2025, at 7:12 PM, Ted Durant <tedd...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Drew Fitchette]

Loving these responses so far, y'all! 

Patrick - Really like the orange against the darker black/green. Just the right amount of pop! 

Dan - Tires are an interesting area of this discussion, as tan sidewalls look good with all Riv frames. I really like looking at the Blue Lug build catalog, where tire choices run the gamut. I've got black tires on my bike with black accents, and tan sidewall tires on the bike with brown/green accents, but could see the opposite working just fine. That Appa looks great with the RH tires! 

Steve - That Platypus feels like a great balance of color, silver, and black. The Mermaid & Atlantis Green seem to really lend themselves to black and silver component combos(at least to my eye). 

Leah - Totally hear you on one bike's build/lack of theme driving you nuts. One of my bikes was sort of a mishmash of parts I had on hand from previous builds/my parts bin, and the other was a build I pined over and planned to "Pontiac Perfection". I love the thoughtfulness of one of my builds, and sort of silently resent the lack of thought on my other... My conundrum is that hilariously the build that was thrown together happens to be on a frame that fits me better and I prefer to ride. So I'm considering a massive parts swap from one to the other, even down to cable housing. I guess sometimes bikes are good exercise in letting things go, or not being too precious. Also, love the Bag combo on the new bike, looks killer! 

Ted - I agree on "Too much black is definitely bad for the kinds of bikes I like to ride." I know Grant seems to feel this way too. I like to match my grips/wrap and saddles too(or get them as close together as possible). Based on your bikes posted here I'd definitely say you "...know a good one when you see it"

Mark - I've seen color wheels that talk about complementary, triadic, or tetradic colors before, but that's a nifty tool! Really dig the look of that Monstercross, pedal and handlebar colors really do pop against that frame color. dig it!

- Drew

[Ben Miller]

Drew and Fellow Riv Builders,

I'm loving this thread! I think building a well-curated bike is a big challenge, but also an extremely satisfying one! And as such, I definitely fall into the "spend so much time planning builds that it feels like an artistic or [philosophical] exercise" bucket. 

Viewer Audience Philosophically, I think a well executed build should offer something new and uniquely interestingly, while also offering a clear vision for the utility of the bike. Ideally, the build should not only grab enough of the viewer's interest that they want to ride it on some level, but also envision exactly how they would ride it. Thinking about who your intended viewer is can help you formulate your build's goals; maybe it is as narrowly defined as just you, or, more broadly, to a specific group, like this one. Trying to make your "viewer" audience too broad is likely going to get you something mass-produced and/or lead to frustration. 

Anyways, here are my four design heuristics:

1. Theme I believe every bike build needs to have one: it can be something as simple as "let the frame speak for itself with a classic look" to building around a specific part/component to a very specific colorway like "I want to go full Rasta-themed" Eitherway you need some theme to provide a direction your build is gonna go in, otherwise you are likely to get lost. And unless you're planning on repainting your frame, likely the theme needs to take into account the current frame colorway.
2. The Big Four After the frame, the parts that are going to offer the biggest areas for impact are the tires/rims, handlebars, cranks, and saddle. You can either choose to downplay or highlight these areas, but if you do highlight anyone of them, it's going to have a big impact on the overall aesthetic so in general careful consideration is required. As Ted pointed out, matching handlebars to saddle is an easy way to get harmony here, but its not the only way and I definitely think there is ways to have multicolored handlebars and such. But since these components physically dominate, it's easy to disrupt the harmony of the build here. It's not just about looking at a colorwheel (although that is definitely your friend!) and choosing complimentary colors. Finding harmony in the complete bike is key and their is no single correct way to do that. And don't limit it to just color; texture/structure will have a big impact too: knobby vs smooth tires, fenders and their texture, cloth vs leather vs rubber handlebar wraps, crank arm thickness and whether its a 1x, 2x, or 3x all have big impacts here and should be taken into consideration. (I've never done it myself, but I do think you could get black and earthtones on a saddle/handlebar combo to work, but it's definitely trickier and requires special care to get right in my opinion)
3. Small Parts After the big four components, I find the smaller components a much easier and fun way to accent things without breaking up the harmony of the build too much. Things like getting colorful jockey wheels, crankbolts, waterbottle bolts, tubeless stems, spoke nipples, brake hangers, cable housing, etc. You can probably still overdo it here, especially if you do that entire list, but it's much harder to. And I find it a lot more fun and interesting than just choosing a bold handlebar wrap or something. It just makes the bike feel much more considered and interesting to the viewer. And bonus is that small parts tend to be much more inexpensive, giving you more bang for your buck and not making you later regret that super-expensive component that just doesn't work with anything now. (I really value builds that intentionally use colored cable housing in a way to adds interest, it's so easy to do but is often overlooked!)
4. Make it unique Which leads me into my final design heuristic: You need something to make your build interesting! Unless you are trying to do an absolutely faithful reproduction of an Alex Singer, add something personal to the build that makes it your bike. And to me at least, it needs to be really incorporated into the bike, so I'm not talking bags, bar tape, stickers, or waterbottles. Those are important to consider, yes, but their implied impermanence doesn't make them feel like they're completely part of the build. Ideally, this should tye back into my first point about having a theme, but even if you theme is simply "let the frame speak for itself with a classic look" you still should have something that really makes it your own. Don't be afraid to be a little controversial here! And obviously you aren't limited to one unique thing, but also keep in mind that the more "unique" you make your bike less likely it will satisfy a broader viewer audience. 

Executing: Again, I find this all to be a big challenge and I never get it right on the first shot. It's easy to plan it all out on paper (or a spreadsheet) and put it together to only realize that it doesn't quite all harmonize together. So, unless you have unlimited funds to spend at Blue Lug, I suggest starting small with the main goals of the build in mind and work from there. Build it up with parts you have on hand as much as possible and make sure the main components are working well together to achieve your theme. This gives you some leeway to course correct without going to far down the rabbit hole. And then stare at it and figure out what works and what you want to improve upon next. My preferable way to do this is to go on a ride, stop and sit outside at a cafe or something, with your beverage of choice and/or snack, and put the bike somewhere in your field of view. Usually it is the unconscious part of the mind that will pick up on what needs fixing aesthetically and I find this is a great way to let it do its work. 

Stable theme: Almost everything about the philosophy can also be applied at the stable level. So, if you do have a stable of multiple bikes, finding a theme that incorporates your whole stable together while keeping the individuality of each bike is fun to do. Ideally the goal here is have the viewer look at any one bike build and be able to recognize the owner in it. For me, I have a few things I always try to include in my builds: Special/limited edition saddles, MKS Bubbly pedals, Blue Lug mini reflectors, Oury grips, and the very recent addition of Ghooost twist flowers. Not all of those things make it onto all my bikes, but it's a loose thread that ties things together, while still being customizable themselves to harmonize with whatever build I am doing. My sort of anti-thread to my stable is that I strive to have a different method of drivetrain/shifting on each bike so that no 2 bikes have the same one. Sort of hard to do as I grown to love 3x9 drivetrains more and more :) I also strive to have each bike have its own main colorway, which given the nearly infinite options of combos should be pretty easy to achieve. I think Leah and Bill Lindsay both have loose themes going on in their stables and are good examples of this!

Final musings: Bike building is alot like writing: the theme is your thesis and editing is usually the hardest part, requiring multiple iterations to get correct. And much like writing, studying others work will improve you're own work, so study custom builders, Riv employees bikes, Blue Lug, Radavist, and, obviously, this group! Doing it in person is 1000x better, so go visit with other bike enthusiasts. Maybe ask them what the one thing they would change about your build; get feedback!* Find those things that inspire you to want to do that. Finding your "voice" and communicating the bike's intention in the clearest way will lead to the most satisfying and successful builds. And it should go without saying, but don't sacrifice form over function; something may look really great on the build (like handlebars, but could be anything), but if it isn't working for your riding style it's never worth it. And, relatedly, the most important thing is to just ride. You don't need to do any of this, it's just a fun/silly distraction for when you aren't/can't ride. Just don't let it get in the way of riding. (This is as much as a reminder to myself than anything :) There is much, much more one can and should consider, but this post is already probably too long! 

*But don't do this in reverse; never provide unsolicited feedback about someone else's build. And keep in mind, even when asked to provide feedback, be gentle. This is a personal expression of someone's taste we are talking about. But honest and constructive feedback can be extremely valuable to those ready to accept it.

____________________________________________________

Here are some of the themes I've built my bikes around in the format of "bike frame" | "frame color" | "build design notes":

• Riv Hunq | Kidney/Grey | Designed around red and black "Inferno" Kooka cranks and special edition Analog x Waxwing "Keepaw" bag in matching Kidney/Grey; Red 700c GK tires were just finally added this year and really complete this build to me. This bike has gone thru the most iterations for me with the theme changing multiple times. 
• Riv Bombadil | Black/Cream | Oddmone riser bars in clear black with brazed bronze accents led to a black and brass/bronze theme; component that ties it all together for me is the brass Shovel Research brass front brake cable hanger. This my lastest build and perhaps smoothest in terms of execution?
• Riv Roadeo | Orange/Cream | My "let the frame speak for itself with a classic look" build. Things that make it mine are the refurbished Mafac centerpulls with a blue Paul Funky Monkey hanger, as well as the Shimano 105 STI shifters that I put gum hoods on. This is my oldest build and probably in need of some minor refreshing.
• Riv Rambouillet | Candied Forest Green/Cream | This was built around the Huret Ecopar RD with the idea it was to be a rinko bike. Brown leather sewn-up handlebar wraps make it feel truly one-of-a-kind.
• Crust Disc-brake Lightening Bolt | Brown clear coat with fillet brass accents | Steerer was threaded to make this probably the only 1" threaded LB out there. Then built up around an Analog Cycles Fingerling stem in clear Cerakote and White Industries G25A rims that I personally removed the anodizing and made into probably the only polished silver version of these (they are now discontinued). Feels almost custom at this point. 
• Crust Romanceur v2 | "Puke" Greenish-yellow/Cream | Built around Red UD Mars 26"ers tires and a NOS 27.2 Easton dropper in gold finish. Rest of build is mostly muted earth tones. To me, not my most beautiful build, but my most interesting one: it's probably my most personal build. 
• Ahearne Custom | Chartreuse Green clear coat with fillet brass accents | Custom bike frames are already, well, custom! But you should still have a bit of fun :) I have a few small purple Paul Components (and others) bits to compliment the chartreuse I chose for the frame. But again, mostly letting the frame speak for itself. 

[Shannon Menkveld]

I'm pretty themey / matchy. Weirdly, but still. I even consider this to have a theme-ish-ness about it:

and it's gotten more that way as I've built it out.

Which brings up another thought. I often find my builds sort of developing their own themes as I go along. Like the PPPKN-10. (Probable Peugeot PKN-10) When I bought it, for like 180 bucks, it had a mish-mash of parts out of dude's bin, and the flat-blue paint.bike rattle-can paint job. I started throwing stickers on it, and then I got the stem bag, and I really liked the way the orange Blue Lug sticker looks against the blue. So when I needed new cables and housings for the new brake levers, I got orange ones. And then my Mom got me the Dark Realm basket bag for my birthday, and I really liked the "Southern Sunset" fabric color, and here we are. Various blues, with pink and orange and black bits, plus enough silver to balance the chrome fork. And, because mismatched rings look goofy, and since I like n.5-step drivetrains, and since all of the very few 110mm x 39t chainrings in the known universe are black, I'll be adding black 48 and 24 rings, with aqua blue Sugino dust caps and orange chainring bolts.

Sometimes the bike wants to be something totally different than the thing you thought you wanted it to want to be. Sometimes you and the bike want the same things. Sometimes it's a negotiation.

The bike usually wins the argument.

--Shannon

[Dan]

Thanks for the dissertation Ben, I really enjoyed reading it. Though you are missing one thing - photos of your bikes that you described! I’d love to see them as examples of your approach in action. 

[Isaak Oliansky]

Agreed, Dan. It's quite cruel to be teased about that Bombadil. My Bombadil has the same hanger and some little brass bits too! It's alllllmost ready to share :)

All that I'll say is that I enjoy letting emergence guide my visual palette when I build a bike. After having had the bike over a year, once I finally deduced that the Ritchey logic cranks with the big black logos looked terrible on the Ritchey bike and replaced them with polished xtr m900s, it was like other visual elements of the bike became suddenly unlocked. I have the pleasure of being an eBay used bike part purveyor as my 2nd gig and inevitably I am constantly switching parts until I'm satisfied because I have access to whatever I want. I still trend towards the higher end of simple, functional, and just plain nice nice over the exotic.

Lately, I've also daringly enjoyed playing with black components. Key exceptions: cranks, spokes, derailleurs. NO BLACK SPOKES, EVER! I used to be such a silver purist but have been loving the visual play that some well placed black bits can deliver. 

[Ben Miller]

Dan & Isaak,

Hahahaha, sorrry. But I have two reasons I didn't include photos:

1. I didn't want to completely take over this thread

2. I photos I do have are a hodgepodge and not necessarily up-to-date.

But, I think I this might be the final nudge to get me enough motivation to make a post about my stable. So stay tuned! 

And Isaak, I'll definitely want to see your Bombaddy! 

[Kath Sparrow]

Morning all 

This is my new Platypus recently built with the help of my sister. Love the silver and blue theme. 

Love this thread. 

Kath from North Wales, England. 

On Fri, 7 Nov 2025 at 02:11, Ben Miller <ben.l....@gmail.com> wrote:

Curiosity about the little nugget of "being an eBay used bike part purveyor" and I found you on the Rad Bazaar and subsequently the your eBay site. 

Can we talk about those Paul Components Rasta Skewers!! I think I might need those 😍

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