Arguing about color choices

I think enough time has passed that I finally feel safe talking about this. I still might be hung for saying this, but am I the only one that thought Steve Peat's bike at World Champs last year looked terrible?

I'm all about one-off World Champs paint jobs and kitting out your bike with color matched blingy parts for that one event, but there is a too far, right? White rims can look cool sometimes sometimes sometimes, but deep dish Enve rims in white? AND a white 40?

Deity was the first company to come out with a full kit of white components, and the bicycle industry learned very quickly that there was a "too much white." Everyone who rode in 2004 knew someone who attempted the all white bike via-Deity bar/stem/cranks, some Halo wheels, and whatever their selection de jour was of a white seat, grips, frame and fork. Not good. Toss in some white Halo Twin-Rails and you were looking at the only thing that looks weirder than an actual albino person. A little bit of white? Makes your bike pop. Everything white? Looks like a 14 year-old got the custom dream build he's been working on over at Universalcycles.com as a surprise Christmas present from mom and pop.


Besides, didn't we learn this lesson the first time? Right around the same time, back in 2003, the Wachowski brothers were learning the hard way that there's a "too much white" and that crossing that line strains credulity:

Seriously, what happened? The original Matrix had such features as: a plot, complex and interesting characters, and difficult unresolved questions. Reloaded and Revolutions were... different.



At the end of the day, white bike parts often look pretty tacky. And seriously, who runs a white 40? It's so tasteless and pedestrian.