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Author Topic: respraying bicycle, what color?  (Read 981 times)

Spitfire

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respraying bicycle, what color?
« on: February 05, 2013, 02:04:48 pm »

I'm currently trying to earn some money by buying broken bicycles, restoring and reselling them on ebay. Right now I'm working on one with an aweful metallic purple paint.

My question to you: Does the color of a bicycle affect how much money you are going to spend on it?
And a more fun question: Which color would you say is a lot more awesome?
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kerlc

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Re: respraying bicycle, what color?
« Reply #1 on: February 05, 2013, 03:04:41 pm »

It really depends on who you're trying to sell it to. If you're trying to sell it to a teenage adrenaline junkie, then a nice coat of black with some bright orange fire patterns should do. Otherwise, I don't think it matters as long as it's not too much of an eyesore.

So, try to keep away from colours that are too bright, and figure out who you want to sell it to.


As for the most awesome colour, I'd say flamboyant pink with stripes of peach a nice dark blue with a gray pattern would be my personal favourite.
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miauw62

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Re: respraying bicycle, what color?
« Reply #2 on: February 05, 2013, 03:06:10 pm »

It really depends on who you're trying to sell it to. If you're trying to sell it to a teenage adrenaline junkie, then a nice coat of black with some bright orange fire patterns should do. Otherwise, I don't think it matters as long as it's not too much of an eyesore.

So, try to keep away from colours that are too bright, and figure out who you want to sell it to.


As for the most awesome colour, I'd say flamboyant pink with stripes of peach a nice dark blue with a gray pattern would be my personal favourite.
Pretty much agreed. And you can't go wrong with grey with some nice-looking patterns.
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Spitfire

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Re: respraying bicycle, what color?
« Reply #3 on: February 05, 2013, 03:19:22 pm »

Unfortunately patterns suck to spray, so no. =/

It is a mountainbike and it hasn't got fenders (yet), so that's two minuses for resonable city-dwellers and a big pluses for your teenagers.

Two colors that sprang do my mind where white, being a fashion color and all. And here in Stuttgart I've started seing a trend of navy gray cars, which is a fantastic color. (Not so recent photo: LINK)
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MetalSlimeHunt

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Re: respraying bicycle, what color?
« Reply #4 on: February 05, 2013, 03:20:45 pm »

Da red ones go fasta.
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nenjin

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Re: respraying bicycle, what color?
« Reply #5 on: February 05, 2013, 03:37:12 pm »

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kerlc

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Re: respraying bicycle, what color?
« Reply #6 on: February 05, 2013, 03:40:59 pm »

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Starver

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Re: respraying bicycle, what color?
« Reply #7 on: February 05, 2013, 04:23:38 pm »

Without knowing the mind of your potential customer (or at least the first one that might possibly go for the rest of the deal), I can't really be definitive, but...

A bright colour would suit (UK) city riding, because (along with absolutely every flourescent bit of clothing you can find) you want to be as visible as you possibly can so that the motorist concerned can't possibly resort to the SMIDSY defence.

Admittedly, a fluorescent frame isn't going to add much to your copious (or lacking) hi-vis vesting...  Also, you're not in the UK (I gather, from your use of the non-u word "color", and I know a number of countries (Dk, De, Nl, Be) are particularly good with cyclists).


(I'm also not a militant "retake the streets" cyclist.  I've been cycling for about four decades on the British roads and am far more conservative (small-c) than the cycloactivists that tend to make themselves a nuisance over here, and I am the kind of cyclist who will stop at lights (even pedestrian crossing with no-one crossing them!), and I don't like using pavements, even "cycle-pathed" ones.)

My bikes over the years have been a couple of different reds, and various blues, of the ones I remember.  Relatives bikes have included a subtle (not camouflagey, but not bright) green, orange, yellow.

I think it's odds on whether a good, straight primary/secondary colour (pigment primaries and secondaries: red, blue, yellow in the former case, leading in the latter to green, and orange, but not so sure about purple...) is going to be a selling point or boring.

I don't like the idea of grey although (assuming you can do it with few enough blemishes) more silvery greys might be attractive.  Chromey would be nice (but need a lot of cleaning.)

"Paint it black and it'll go faster, if not by itself" (a British joke, harking back to Chris Boardman's olympic track triumphs, a few years ago, on the black carbon fibre frames) might work, but for the same reason as with some of the greys I wouldn't personally like it.  However, it could be stylish.  (Of course there are those that know that muck shows up more on a nice glossy black than many other colours...  But I'm also not suggesting you paint it mud-colour!)


However, when talking about pigment primaries, it made me wonder about the optical colour mix...  Cyan? ;)  To the right person that could be quite attractive.  And the beauty of eBay is that "the right person" (or, ideally, a couple of them, with the willingness to tussle a little on the bid price) is quite possibly going to pass by with the right site-placements (and a little luck), just as much with one colour as (most) others...

Have I just concluded that it doesn't matter what colour it is, though?  No, I bet it matters, but probably a little less than a lot of other configuration options, which I suspect you're already on the top of anyway.
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Meph

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Re: respraying bicycle, what color?
« Reply #8 on: February 05, 2013, 04:37:38 pm »

White.
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Zrk2

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Re: respraying bicycle, what color?
« Reply #9 on: February 05, 2013, 04:53:43 pm »

The neonyist pink you can find.
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Spitfire

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Re: respraying bicycle, what color?
« Reply #10 on: February 05, 2013, 06:09:22 pm »

Thanks Starver, for taking so much time!

However, when talking about pigment primaries, it made me wonder about the optical colour mix...  Cyan? ;)  To the right person that could be quite attractive.
YES! Like this Aston Martin. Though probably really hard to pull off, both the color tone and doing a clean paintjob.

The neonyist pink you can find.
No... Thing with pink is, it attracts only one gender. (Additionally to you, obviously... Wait, did you really just suggest pink?? =P )
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nenjin

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Re: respraying bicycle, what color?
« Reply #11 on: February 05, 2013, 07:05:30 pm »

Real men ride pink.
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DangerDwarf

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Re: respraying bicycle, what color?
« Reply #12 on: February 06, 2013, 01:33:58 pm »

I definitely think the color of a bicycle affects its sale in a big way. A bicycle is a bit of a style item, especially if used for commuting.

If its an old frame I would say go for silver. This will have the added benefit that scratches, dings and chips will not show up that easily and will also give the frame a "vintage" look and people wont miss the fact that there are no stickers / logos left on the bike. Personally I love silver frames as they look great with metallic bling components such as metallic gold or blue ;)

Another option is white frames which also usually looks great. Consider spraying components such as the rims a different color. White/yellow rims seems to be more popular than black/silver.
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Starver

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Re: respraying bicycle, what color?
« Reply #13 on: February 07, 2013, 05:27:32 am »

Rims?  The bits the brakes clamp onto?  (Oh, hang on, mountain bike.  Probably a hub break... scratch that objection if so, but consider the rest still valid, at least insofar as my experience goes.)

I've not yet seen a rim that works well with anything other than its native colour (if aluminium/etc, whatever it's anodised with... my current bike's rims (15-20 years young?) are black by this method, although where the break-blocks have been rubbing I'm getting a few silver-streaks through now, so maybe time to look at new ones before they fall apart ;)).

For those that care about weight, it's possibly a significant (if actually small) excess amount.  Although the "everything, including saddle and untaped handlebars painted in a single colour of matt emulsion" crowd (and their close-brethren/sistren/othren, the candy-striped or otherwise patterned all over bike owners) obviously aren't so concerned about this. ;)

But that'd be the art of the bike-refurbisher (OP in this case), matching components between available bikes (swapping as necessary, and buying in a replacement for where a gap is left by a junked item).


However, it occurs to me that I'm an old-fogey in this game.  I know what I like, and I stand by what I said when mountain bikes first appeared on the scene, that "it'll never last, it's a fad"... ;)  (Seriously, these guys have been at it for long enough on touring bikes (myself not quite so long), and many still do.  But mountain bikes for pure road use?  Pshaw!  The number of times I've seen people on the slightest of inclined roads, their feet seemingly going round faster than their wheels!  Never mind me, though.  Racer/time-trial bike with mudguards (removable for racing, but left on for rough-stuff), proper brakes.  I even still have toe-clips, gear levers on the down-tube (yes levers, I actually have two sprockets on the front as well as the six on the back...  Who'd-a-thunk?) and a bottle-carrier.  'Rams horn' handlebars so I can drop low, obviously... No tri-bars, disc wheels, etc, as it's a road bike foremost.  Now you know my cycling style, you can probably safely dismiss every other opinion I have on the subject!)
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Facekillz058

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Re: respraying bicycle, what color?
« Reply #14 on: February 10, 2013, 07:58:54 am »

Real men ride pink.
This sounds so wrong, on so many levels.
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