Colour, am I a coward or right to be concerned?

[ishaw]

Right, down to the business of colour. Most of my builds have a colour to them though generally only one. My Pipedream build took a bit of a turn, when the planned M970 was replaced by some SRAM X0, the gold coloured version.

As the Pipedream frame is grey, with black/white decals, I had opted for some new RS Rebas in black, which handily came with white/grey decals, so all sounding nice and tied in so far. Then came extra colour number one by way of some very nice hope pro 2 hubs in blue. Not too bad, same colour as one of the fork dials.

Colour number two enters the fray in the form of the X0. As the gold bits are limited to the shifter mounts, part of the rear mech, and the rear of the cassette, nothing too over bearing, but then I thought, hmmm, gold headest, so I have one of these as well, but then I thought, hmmmm maybe too much, so now I have the same headset in black.

Next up for colour are the discs, which are currently silver. As I bought a set of disc brakes with gold floating hope rotors, it would be a shame not to use them wouldn't it? I mean, blue and gold works for Subaru? So what do we think, a step too far? This will answer the above questions too, as if yellow rotors won't go, then the headset will be black, and I'll get some black rotors, or should they be blue?

The frame:

The hub/rotor (ignore the red backed cassette, that really is an additional colour not required)

I do have a gold, blue and black rear hope skewer, so any one could work (or I could even make a multi-coloured on, this was literally a lightbulb moment as I typed), but it has always slightly bothered me that the front QR is a Maxle, so will always be black and not match in any way to the rear (though I do have plans afoot involving some broken maxles and standard rear QR skewers if I really can't cope).

So what do we think, that I am a coward and should brighten up, or that too many colours spoil the bike?

Just so you know what else is being thrown at it, assume black all round and you won't be going far wrong.

 

[jimo746]

Re:

Ummm..... I think you just need to have a few beers and set to building up the bike, see what happens
The Prestige I'm slowly rebuilding to a "bitd" spec is atrocious! Silver,purple,blue,and flouro yellow :shock: obviously I never gave much thought to colour matching parts back then, or maybe it was just the fashion of the times?

I say experiment a little bit, if your not happy then all you'll lose is a bit of your time to put things back to how you like them.

 

[ishaw]

Thanks, I think I will experiment a little, but I'd rather not have to remove and insert headsets nor than necessary, though as it's a steel frame, and new not retro, probably less of an issue.

Do I regret getting the maxle version of the forks? Still struggling to get past non-matching qrs.

 

[Raging_Bulls]

Re:

2 main colours and 2 more for parts and details is usually too much. The parts will be fighting for attention and it'll become a visual mess rather than an aesthetically pleasing bike.

You already have grey and black as main colours. Adding both gold and blue into the mix may be pushing it.
Seeing as you have a gold groupset, the best option IMO is to use black (or gold?) hubs.

Then again I did read SRAM X0 somewhere in the first post, so you may want to consider getting the black version of those discs and getting an all-black Shimano groupset before the SRAM set eats itself and ruins the paintwork and mech hanger in the process. (sorry, couldn't resist)

As for the forks, you can look in the classifieds section for someone who's willing to swap them for the QR version. However the odds are slim. Personally, I'd just get the most black QR I can find to try and hide the difference as much as possible. Maybe even put it in the wrong way around so the lever is on the opposite side of the bike.

 

[ishaw]

Thanks. Had I known I was getting some gold bits, my wheel choice would have been different, but I have got bikes with blue and black already, and whilst I'm not normally a gold fan, the opportunity arose for a different colour than I'd normally go for, so took it.

I think I'll build it up and see, I could always change a few bits as/when they wear out.

Is sram xo really that bad? I still have the xtr bits I originally intended using so could still go that route, again I only picked up the xo to do something different.

As for the qr, I have sourced a spare maxle and might try to make a standard qr from the lever and a normal qr if all the threads are the same size. I did throw together a hybrid hope skewer with blue, black and gold bits and I was surprised i didn't hate it.

 

[Matthews]

Re:

Why worry so much about colour at this time , build it and ride it , see if you like it , if it's anything like as good as my soul it'll ride sweet , as for X0 it's great , I run X0 on the Soul and a mixture of X0 rear mech and X9 shifters on the Lava Dome , both with early XT Shim front mechs , Soul's 2X9 and LD 's 3X9 till I get the bits to convert to 2X9, Build it , ride it , enjoy it then go from there regarding colourscheme OCD IMO.
Matthew
PS if you end up with spare M4 front and mono rear brakes (post mount type ) let me know as I might be interested .

 

[Raging_Bulls]

Re:

You can indeed build it as is and go from there. Just don't expect to win any beauty contests.

Honestly I don't know about the current X0. I did have some pretty bad experiences with the mid-range stuff (SX-5 - X7) and their customer support though and that put me off SRAM drivetrain parts for good.

 

[ishaw]

Hmmm, sram doesn't sound good but I'm going to give it a go I think, I have fallback plans if all else fails.

I have to say that pipedream customer service is non existent. The decals on the frame despite being new are a bit scuffed, the 853 decal hasn't been put on right and is wrinkly, plus I want a see mech hanger. No response at all from either their web form email or voicemail message. I've never had the pleasure of being connected to a real person, so much so that I doubt they exist.

 

[Matthews]

Re:

Sram is just like shimano , the X9 and X0 gear is good (XT and XTR equivalent) the low end stuff is pish , Compare and XT mech and shifter combo to an low end shimano mech and shifter and it'll be poor , as you've got the stuff try it and you'll be happy , It's like comparing canti's to disc brakes and saying canti's are better because that's what I'm used to and they always used to work bitd, they did but they worn the rims out , needed constant adjustment , didn't work in the wet and you needed 4 fingers to slow down , not all modern ideas/advances are bad , bung it together and form your own opinion rather than listening to every tom dick and harry's opinion that is usually based on hearsay (no offence intended btw just generally what you get on the tinternet but I know there are a few who are qualified to make judgement from experience ) Personally I've used early 7 speed DX and XT gear , 9 speed XT gear and both my bikes run 9 speed X9/XO that I use now , through choice not just because they came like that as both are built from bits I bought (2nd hand of course) by me.
I also find Elixier RSL's have more power that Hope M4/mono combo but the Hopes give more feel so they are on my main ride till I can get some more at the right price to replace the Avids on the Kona .
Matthew