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Whyte T120. Lovely.
No, it looks like a 5yr old was let loose in the scaffold factory.
Honestly, some of the stuff on this thread...!
And relatedly the Wolf Ridge. The Attack trail of that era was also a beauty...
Form follows function for me crazy legs. Those pivots and the placement were really sensible. Out of harms way, great mud clearance.
Love the 'tech' industrial look
I also like Nicolai
This thread is just missing an Ellsworth.
Can't figure out how to post images from Kindle, but the Swarf Contour, for me, is hands down the best looking bike. Would love to own one someday.
The only ones which appeal are the Curtis by binners, epicyclo's Cinelli and the beautiful Passoni from lunge.
My eyes still hurt from looking at some of the others.
I'm going all in with these two:
I do like that fatbike in a kind of brutalist kind of way. I suspect many won't though.
So my pic didn't work before, let's try again...
And here's a Swarf FSer, because I agree they are among the best looking current bikes...
Fat Chance Harlequin.
I'm going to be very biased (what's new! This is singletrack after all) and list a few of the bikes that I've owned (and still own a few) that I think are/were real lookers.
2005 Kona Blast in gloss black. First bike that I bought when getting back into mountain biking since I was a kid. Yeah the fork, brakes and tyres were shit but it looked nice, rode pretty fast and it made me want more!
2005 On one 26" SS Inbred. Fully rigid singlespeed with sliding drop outs in pearlescent white. Rode it for thousands of miles, wish I'd never sold it.
2009 Orange 5 in red. Was the first (as far as I know) of the slack 5's although not very slack by today's standards. Built it up from a frame with blue Hope Headset, hubbed wheels and stem. Made me ride like a total hooligan. Sold it when we had our first child as it never really got rode anymore and was too much bike for my local trails.
2009 ish On one 26" Scandal. Was built to save my Orange 5 as my Sunday best. It was very good all in black. Was way more capable than what I expected but I was worried I'd break it as it had a habit of going big (for me) on the table tops at Glentress. Rode my first Selkirk Merida 100 on it.
2009 Genesis day one in orange. You really can't make a singlespeed/fixed steel drop-barred bike ugly though can you?
2008 Cotic soul (had one in black and Orange, looked good in both but preferred the orange which I still gave). Classic bike, was so good it was my only bike for a few years.
2015 Ritchey Road Logic II in metallic grey, I know it's a road bike but what a road bike! It's got skinny steel tubes and is comfy but also quick, still have it, still love it (even with lowly 105 groupset) and can't see me selling it anytime soon. Took it to Alps a couple years back and it was ace!
2015 Stooge in turquoise, again another steel framed bike and again can't see me selling it anytime soon. It just makes me smile every time I ride it. Even though it's a parts bin budget build with only the one gear I still get people telling me that I have a nice bike which is always nice (sucker for a compliment).
2018 Cannondale Scalpel SE in gloss black, came with tanned wall tyres which I liked but I prefer it all murdered out with full black tyres. Currently replacing the hubs, headset and frame bearings, can't believe the shite bearings they Cannondale fitted to a bike that retailed only a couple of hundred from £4k!!! Thankfully I got mine in the sales.
As for retro bikes, the bikes I always wanted were from the early nineties (when I was in my early teens) and were made in America like GT'S Klein's, Cannondale's, Fat Chances and Pro-flexes. The paint jobs on some of those were a work of art.
lunge
That ti DB is close but you’ve got to get rid of the bottle cages and the colours accessories.
What's wrong with Ringlé cages? They're the same vintage as the bike.
Maybe all purple and would be better.
Bring back Ringle bottle cages, wish I'd kept mine now.
Liteville 301, the only FS bike that gets away with it IMO.
And here’s a Swarf FSer, because I agree they are among the best looking current bikes…
There are some right mingers in this thread, but that right there is a thing of great beauty.
Ringle bottle cages looked good but generally imo crap. The only real good thing they did was scatch the crap out your water bottles.
Always wanted a Hammer Race* long before I got my first MTB. Ditto, Klein. Not a fan of retro bikes per se, but more modern additions like disk brakes, rear suspension and to some extent suspension forks all detract from that 'right' look.
https://www.mtb-news.de/forum/attachments/equipe93-1-jpg.334975/&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwjvh9_gqszpAhUdBGMBHcuaCSgQ5hMIBTAA&usg=AOvVaw3JgHbG0LHqGZ82g9sYSeD d" alt="" />
*Without the gold baubles tho, ta
@Northwind you normally talk a lot of sense but there is nothing right with an all left(y) bike! They are just wrong, wrong, wrong. And fat bikes don't look good full stop!
But it's ok to be wrong, as long as you think you are right!
@bob_summers that cable routing to the back brake is atrocious, WTF were they thinking letting that out?
& the Blizzard always looked better.
This thread, more than any other, proves (to me) that beauty definitely is in the eye of the beholder!
Some really beautiful bikes (mostly HTs) right alongside some shockingly hideous creations.
I think the Marin Attack Trail gets the prize for ugliest bike on the thread so far (in the eye of this beholder clearly).
damascus
Member@Northwind you normally talk a lot of sense but there is nothing right with an all left(y) bike! They are just wrong, wrong, wrong. And fat bikes don’t look good full stop!
See I usually hate leftys but I saw one of those lefty fatbikes in the flesh (at glentress, inevitably) and it was glorious.
(I've got a Calibre Dune and tbh it does look out of proportion now that it has 4.8s on it but when it had 4.0s it looked brilliant imo, like a child's drawing of a bike.)
Zolatone Marins. Lovely to look at, but never meet your heroes. Picked this up a couple of weeks ago. I say picked up... It was a challenge. Weighs a tonne and I've not ridden it.
That Swarf FS is lovely, but reinforced my view that mudhugger style guards ruin the look of a bike. I have one on mine and hate the sight of it, even if it is an absolute necessity
My two look right of course, no fancy carbon here.
MTB Cotic Soul
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49968020776_5bcf29451d_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49968020776_5bcf29451d_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j8vaHA ]20200603_195050[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/164739786@N06/ ]David Jones[/url], on Flickr
Road Van Nicholas Zephyr (sorry for the dark side....)
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49967505863_6720e7dfa6_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49967505863_6720e7dfa6_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2j8swDM ]Zephyr[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/164739786@N06/ ]David Jones[/url], on Flickr
Don't anyone tell my Epic but for me this is the prettiest bike I've owned:
I didn't actually get on with it all that well though, so I didn't keep it all that long. Swapped it for a Roubaix which was probably a good move as I've probably done more miles on that bike than all the rest put together.
Weird that someone else posted a pic of another Van Nicholas while I was typing this in!
Jesus what a tangle of cables on that Cotic, looks like a child has scribbled all over a picture!
Sorry Dave,
I have not yet shortened the cables and hoses, need to test ride first ☹☹
In true STW style of going with what you've owned, I've never had a bike more aesthetically pleasing than my mojo sl-r, it's a shame that the new ibis models just look a bit more generic now.
The best Kona from the '90s was the Explosif in green with the fluted down tube, I'm a wee bit biased as I still have the frame up the loft
This is probably the best looking bike I've owned. I really like the colour and while it's an XL frame it manages not to look too much like a gate, which is an issue with most of my bikes:
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/4156/34539234552_26fce44972_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/4156/34539234552_26fce44972_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
A long time ago I had a mark 2 Soul, and the tiny welds on its joins and the lack of gussets (well except at the BB/chainstay join, but those were hard to spot) were really nice.
I think if you want a bike that looks 'just right' then you have to go single speed hardtail or even fully rigid. Otherwise there's too much going on that catches the eye.
As much as I loved the bikes from the early 90's (I used to look at mountain bike magazines then nearly as much as a certain section of the Kay's catalogue but then I was 12), they now look ungainly with their long stems, steep geometry, rim brakes, thin tyres and massive triple chainrings.
Ah, big chainrings! Or as they inevitably became if ridden properly off-road, bash-guards!
Agree that beauty is in the eye of the beholder because I think people have misread the OP's original question (I'm just as guilty listing bikes I've owned that really liked).
Bikes that just look “Right”
Not bikes that are really good.
Not bikes you have had emotional attachments to.
Not bikes that you have owned in the past or really want to own in the future.
But bikes that look like they were designed with the whole bike in mind with the perfect proportions. I might be wrong of course 😅
That's why I think the likes of Cannondale and specialized (others do it too) are so good at making average bikes look so good, with their colour coordinated forks and frames and nice colour choices. Actually come to think about it Genesis are pretty good at this took.
I think if you want a bike that looks ‘just right’ then you have to go single speed hardtail or even fully rigid.
Hithangyow.
My pal described those era of Specialized as "trying to **** themselves" always stuck with me.
Those Enduro's were really ahead of their time. Even their name was prophetic.
Haven’t read from the start but has the Swarf Contour been mentioned?
I think if you want a bike that looks ‘just right’ then you have to go single speed hardtail or even fully rigid. Otherwise there’s too much going on that catches the eye.
For to agree. Odd full suspension but rare. Steel helps as well with tube proportions. Also have to agree with the long stems. Not a good look. For me it has to be risers too. Some times wiggly bars can look good but never flat bars.
To sum up, hardtail or ridid, single speed or 1X probably steel, short stem and riser bars.
That's a lovely purple Stooge. It was a tough decision to choose between the purple and turquoise when I bought mine I picked the turquoise but I would have been happy with either.
I think mine is better looking though 😉
TheBrick - I get that it is each to their own views but your statement precludes anything that is 10 years or older............
Glorious:
That Shand Shug is a lovely thing.
What about liteville full suspension frames
I'd agree but then I'm biased.
Just straight tubes, no silly bends or curves. Seat-stays & top tube near-parallel which looks good. No 'shouty' paint job..just right!
There’s no accounting for taste.
My touring/gravel bike looks ‘right’ but someone suggested the stem was the wrong colour and now I can’t unsee it 🤬
I've always had a thing for Blue BFes.
Something about that colour just goes so right with it.
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Retro but just lovely. The only thing I'd change would be a lower rise stem.
Another vote for that Shand looking "right"
Retro but just lovely. The only thing I’d change would be a lower rise stem.
Little wheels and not much travel means at least one of the following:
-big head tube
-stack of spacers
-bars with lots of rise
To fit the taller rider
Unfortunately ruining the looks.
As imgur appears to behaving a fit, lets try postimage:
Morph 140/160