[Closed] Can brown bikes work?

I've got a brown Cotic, but it's darker than that and has less of a 'bad-poo' feel to it, it's not my favourite ever bike colour I've had but its better than that!

Yes - that's good. You'd have to think carefully about your riding clothes though. Muted, but not retro.

Not 'bad poo', more 'strong tea.'

Not 'bad poo', more 'strong tea.'

...with a turd floating in it.

Only if it's a classic standard trail boss
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I think the shade and amount of brown affects my opinion, I quite like the "Tea and Coffee" Kaffenback frame.

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[url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/fs-on-one-456-18-steel-chocolate-brown-excellent-condition ]Even when you roll a brown bike in glitter, it still just makes it look like a polished turd... [/url]

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I had a metallicy brown 456, I think it looked pretty smart.

However, my nephew did ask me if it was from the 'olden days'

Chapeau 😉

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That top bike is disgusting.Possibly the worst colour frame I have ever seen and can only be described as poo brown. I'm not a fan of brown anything though really.

A friend has a rootbeer chameleon. Not my cup of tea but it looks quite nice.
(pic isn't of his)

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I like mine well enough 😕

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But then, I've had a succession of brown bikes and tend towards thinking that other bike colours are a bit err.... feminine

I always liked the colour of the old Genesis iO, matt rust metallic brown, but it was love/hate and certainly not the most popular colour
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Chocolate or dark metallic brown like the older Coves can be good, esp with a bit of orange detail, but generally it's hard to make it work. The Open and the Jones in brown look pretty unappealing to me despite both being great bikes. Root beer dark orangey browns can look really good though, I like the Chameleon there ^

behold! (not mine - a found pic, but I knew Genesis has a nice brown)
[img] http://www.rennrad-news.de/forum/attachments/cdf2015_2-jpg.197793/ [/img]

Maybe the top pic has too much brown. Black forks might sort it.

I have an old inbred which although not brown is more of a hearing aid beige.

I have a metallic brown Trek Portland. It looks alright-ish, which is better than it goes round corners TBH.

I had a rootbeer Niner, that was OK as it was more red.

I really like the Open in Brown, tan walls set it off nicely too.

Wouldn't buy it though, I'd buy the Orange one.

On one did a nice brown & cream frame; think it was a 456.

Trek did the Fuel EX in 'root beer' that was like an orange/brown colour that I really liked. It looks better in the flesh than the pics...

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I had an ano bronze Turner RFX that I really liked, will try and dig out a photo later

I had a brown Commencal Supreme 6 a year or so ago. It was a great bike but the colour was awful. Some 70s wallpaper yesterday-

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Can brown bikes work?

This thread suggests not.

Why in the name of sweet baby jesus, holy mother mary and the orphans would you put yellow tyres on brown bike? With black deep section wheels an tyres that wouldnt look half as bad as it does. Still a bit gastroentiritis but not nearly bad as it is now.

I'm struggling with this at the moment. I want to pike up a Charge Plug on C2W, but really think I might downgrade to the blue one because I'm really not sure about this colour.

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Ha! was looking at the same and came to the exact same conclusion. Looks like your grandads socks.

My dad owned a poo-brown Lancia HPE in the 1970s, his friends cruelly suggested that the colour would mask the inevitable ferrous march underneath the paintwork. He had it Ziebarted and eight years later, the bodywork was pristine. But still poo-brown.

My nice new brogues are brown. I like them a lot.

The 2005 Specialized SX trail was bronze/black and looked awesome, as was/did the 2009 Pitch Pro. Brown is okay in flat shades, but I find it challenging when confronted with gloss brown paintwork.

I suppose I'm agreeing that some of the frames in this thread are very, very nicely finished indeed.

The Trek 69er, the singlespeed with Maverick forks looked awesome in the flesh! That Open is just a nasty colour, if it was more chocolate/rootbeer than weak tea it'd be alright.

I always thought the spesh pitch and enduro's look decent in brown.

I clean forgot about copper plated frames
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I think some people are getting confused on the shit Brown and Bronze colour charts 🙂

Can you wear black shorts with a brown bike?

I always wanted a poo brown pitch

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But instead I got a poo brown roadrat

[URL= http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i264/Northwindlowlander/mountain%20bike/Roadrat/Main_zps6eca968f.jp g" target="_blank">http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i264/Northwindlowlander/mountain%20bike/Roadrat/Main_zps6eca968f.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

Can you wear black shorts with a brown bike?

I think all the photos above answer the OP's question without doubt, no brown bikes don't work.

This is my commuter bike. It's brown, and all I ever get are comments on how nice looking it is. Unless everyone is just lying to me.

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2007 Poo brown Specialized Langster, it doesn't work. Even the pirate skull graphics can't save it. Nice to ride though. Lives with Teen 1 at Uni.

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But I prefer my Paddy Wagon.

Beauty is in the eye etc... I quite like brown bikes. At least they look s bit different. I even almost like the one in the OP. Almost.

So only me that thinks the bike in the OP is lovely?

I'm sure there are many exceptions however as a rule brown bikes don't look good IMO ..

I had a brown Santa Cruz Butcher, looked good in a sort of purposeful tool for the job way, I actually had a choice of colours and went for brown. Even my wife, who has an eye for style, liked it. When I told her how unpopular the colour was she asked why I expected cyclists to have any taste! I was told it would knock £50 off the resale value though, so I sold it to a mate. A great bike, one of the best I've had.

I've a shitbrown™ Fargo I should really sell as its not getting the use it deserves..

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This is my commuter bike. It's brown, and all I ever get are comments on how nice looking it is. Unless everyone is just lying to me.

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That's not brown, it's [s]creamy beige[/s] latte.

I quite liked my Pitch Pro.

But i wouldn't choose brown if I was having a bike resprayed.

My car is almost the same colour as the op. When I bought it , it was in a row of identical model, similar mileage, same age fleet cars except it was a few hundred quid cheaper. When I asked the salesman why, he said it was the colour, they had to make it cheaper to sell it! I wasn't so bothered about colour, more about paying less money so I bought it. However sitting on a bike you are always aware of the colour, in a car its not such an issue. You only see the colour when you are outside the car.

May I present my Ragley Rodwell in poo brown. I've got used to it, roadies do a double take when they see it... 🙂

[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7617/28220875672_94c5f269c3_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7617/28220875672_94c5f269c3_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/JZMn8W ]Escapade Rodwell[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/beanum/ ]Beanum[/url], on Flickr

I quite like Salsa's Brown/Orange/Gold paintwork.

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the brown finish on the btr is awesome - pics don't do it justice

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You know how some bikes just look 'right', or 'purposeful'?

That doesn't.

It looks like something an arthritic granny would ride to the market in Belgium.

thisisnotaspoon - Member

You know how some bikes just look 'right', or 'purposeful'?

That doesn't.

It looks like something an arthritic granny would ride to the market in Belgium.

you mean the orange salsa ?

I used to have one of these with orange z1s. Loved it.

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My brown and sticky [IMG] [/IMG]

The chameleon is nice but some of the others make me feel unwell.

I've this one and a Kona which is more Brown and coffee. Quite like them to be honest but they do date the year of manufacture more than most colour schemes...
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I had a poo brown SX complete with poo brown 36's.

I thought it looked alright....

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Does metallic count as brown, or is it bronze?
I used to have a 2009 Enduro SL in Bronze and it was probably the nicest brown I've ever seen.

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My 2010 fuel ex9 was a little brown, always liked it. For a thing that spends most of its life covered in brown mud it's was a sensible colour, and the white bits looked fine when they went beige
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I too have a 2007 Langster finished in dog poo brown. There is no getting away from the fact it is turd coloured. It rides great and I believe actively discourages theft and in fact any form of admiration.

[url= https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8580/28149861731_3537888c9d_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8580/28149861731_3537888c9d_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/JTvpaD ]GTR, Tobacco, Copper, Duck Egg Blue, Corretto[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/baumcycles/ ]Baum Cycles[/url], on Flickr

Call it what you like, it's still brown.

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Mine.
Sparkles nicely in the sunshine, but still reminds me of a turd rolled in glitter in so many ways.

I did quite like my 456, but I have since got it redone in lime green.

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I bought this a few years ago to commute over the winter. got it for sale ever since because the colour is..like that. It hasn't gotten stolen, obviously, in the 3 years I've used it in copenhagen.
Thomson stem, nice Tiagra 10s groupset, just got a new crankset, anti-puncture tyres - the thieves knows it but it is brown..
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Haven't managed to scratch/chip the paint to have an excuse to paint it over - Cotic simply use a good paint.

was considering a bit of retro cr-molyness - the bronze looks good - but if buy frameset only then is black - which would be my default - also don't do my size there small is too big - Australian's are tall bastards

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(wayward cycles cape york tourer / commuter)

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My Condor Leggero, brown one side, cream the other. Lovely.

I was tempted to get a woodgrain SE Lager single speed a few years ago, in hindsight I'm glad I didn't.

A slightly better build on the same frame as the OP. Definitely prefer the orange version though.

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See, that's clearly a nice bike, but it's in spite of the paintjob. Would be so much better in almost any other colour

I saw a guy on the orange Open U.P when I did the dragon ride a few weeks back. It was absolutely beautiful.

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mmmmmm

My mate went shopping for a T5 & come back with a brown colour Renault Grand Scenic
He calls it bronze.
I've called it "Excrementa".

Brown can defo work. I've seen a lovely DeKerf that proves it 8)

Ok, well think we've established that brown's a terrible colour for a bike, I don't think we need any more pictures. You can all stop now

No, really, please stop now

I think brown can work... I like the pics taken in very poor lighting or of a copper frame the most 😉

Not flat poo brown but metallic bronzes can look pretty pimp.

This sort of thing:

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shit brown C'dale Prophet.. why, just why?
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My mate went shopping for a T5 & come back with a brown colour Renault Grand Scenic
He calls it bronze.
I've called it "Excrementa".

Hey not as bad as the T5 in the village, that came in that "shit brown" colour..

Ok, so the consensus is; bronze, copper can be lovely. Flat or glossy brown looks like shit, literally.

My brother's old bike, he's kept the yellow front wheel theme going on his current setup too, must be his thing 🙄

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I think I could stretch to this Firefly ti. Fade to feces.

Ok, well think we've established that brown's a terrible colour for a bike, I don't think we need any more pictures. You can all stop now

No, really, please stop now

agree, to be honest the only time brown works if its a lump of mahogany (wood kind, not geordie lass) or oak.

I like a brown bike for some odd reason. Currently have this Mercian in Vauxhall Hazel Brown (though it's quite gold ish)

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My old chocholate brown tifosi, frame is still in the loft

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and my long gone kona dawg

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