As it does often, Emily's post got me to thinking about bike painting I like, and that I don't like. All this is very personal, of course.
--> To me, pattern is more important than color. The head tube contrast color matching a well-proportioned seat tube band in the same color, with the head logo repeated. Particularly over the top in a nice way if the Silca pump is painted to match, of course. And the head tube cannot be stove-top white. Cream is ok. Although not uniquely so, this feels quintessentially British and proper to me.
--> Usually, I don't like mixing kinds of finishes. A metal flake with an enamel, for example.
--> some patterns get neat from seeing them repeatedly. Like the Legnano/Frejust rounded-end down-tube semi-panels. Champagne and burgundy, eh?
--> understatement wins. Chromed crowns and drop-out contact surfaces are cool.
--> good fades, really good fades, are invisible. You realize that the back is different from the front, or the top from the bottom, but you just can't see where or how it changes, because it is so subtly done. Les Lunas did a tri-color fade on Beloved Spouse's French "Orphan." I'll bring it to Cirque, and defy you to put your hand (much less your finger) on the fade locations.
--> I love the "wet" look of Imron, but it is not right for bikes that didn't look that way originally. Yup, we violated that rule with our Town & Country triplet, in "red cabbage" Imron, but that bike was going to be stared at anyhow.
And, there are things that are just plain non-starters for me.
--> I don't care for lugs in contrast colors. Bayliss does it well, but somehow, from early PX-10s, it always reminded me of someone trying to get an effect like chrome lugs w/o the price.
--> I don't like clash. Purple and yellow together don't move me. I'm too old for that.
--> I don't know why, but I don't like thick paint that hides. I fell in love with a silver mist Paramount whose total finish thickness was so little that you could read "Reynolds 531" on the fork blade, through the paint.
--> To me, paint chips are awful. That is, paint chips that go down to naked metal. Maybe I oversimplify, but these signify laziness or shortcuts, because they mean that the surface preparation or the primer failed. harvey sachs mcLean va usa
Emily O'Brien wrote:
As long as we're being judgemental, I'll chime in. I like the color brown in general for lots of things; it looks great on things made of wood or textiles, for example. But I don't really like it on bikes. It's kind of a bland color that makes the bike look old, beat up, and heavy; when I think of brown bikes, I think of a touring bike with slack angles and its fair share of dents that's been commuted on all winter for ten years, but will never rust through because the tubes are so thick. How's that for unjustified prejudice? For that matter, I don't really like black much, either, unless it has some really snazzy accents of some sort.
Anyway, I like bright colors on bikes, especially classic bikes with smaller-diameter tubing than modern bikes. On a bike with slender tubes, brown or black makes it just fade into the background, which is great if you hope no one steals it while it's locked up in front of the grocery store. But bright colors make the bike pop out, make those slender tubes look graceful and fast, make it get noticed. And did you know that the color affects the ride characteristics, too? Brown bikes are heavy. Red bikes go fast, but blue bikes are more comfortable. Yellow bikes have very responsive handling and make you happy to ride them; orange bikes have good power transfer and are stable under a moderate load; green bikes climb well but aren't as light as white bikes. Purple bikes are almost as comfortable as blue bikes, but not nearly as fast as red bikes. Pink bikes sprint very well. Two-color fades give the bike multiple personalities, which are more likely to cause shimmy at high speeds!
The worst, though, are those god-awful neon splatter jobs of the '80's that look like the bikes got vomited on by a hi-vis signage company. I guess they're sort of fabulous in a dated kind of way, but they wreck the visual lines of the bike and make it necessary to go hunting for things like neon green plastic dust caps.
The biggest advantages of oversized tubing, IMHO, (especially large ovalized downtubes) are the possibilities for hot rod flames. Flames make you go faster.
Emily O'Brien gleefully passing judgement despite lacking any qualification to comment on anyone's fashion sense in Medford, Massachusetts, USA