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 <https://bluelug.com/bike-catalog/model/rivendell-bicycle-works/>, 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 On Wednesday, November 5, 2025 at 1:07:24 PM UTC-5 esoterica etc wrote: > > 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) > > [image: image0.jpeg] > > > > On Nov 4, 2025, at 7:12 PM, Ted Durant <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Tuesday, November 4, 2025 at 2:01:56 PM UTC-6 [email protected] > 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 > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/e537c3bf-d403-4ff5-b160-958adaaeaf28n%40googlegroups.com > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/e537c3bf-d403-4ff5-b160-958adaaeaf28n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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