I admit, I am a roadie (actually trackie) by nature, and an overly anal retentive one at that. Here's my current road bike, with matching saddle and bar tape... finished with blue electrical tape to boot. I was recently trying to convince myself to use aluminum nipples on an upcoming wheel build so I can make them blue.

Although not the determining factor to buy it, the team I was racing with at the time had a kit that went well with it as well.


Here's the road bike I built up in the mid 90's. I had the rims, headset races, seatpost, and cranks CUSTOM anodized because nobody offered them in a medium blue (only turquoise). I even found yellow tires and bottles to coordinate with the stickers, saddle, and bar tape.

The fact that the team I wound up on that season had a yellow and blue jersey was also an unintended bonus.


This is the mountain bike I rode in the mid 90's. Notice the turquoise bar ends, seatpost, bottle cages, brake calipers, and skewers which conveniently match the stickers on the fork. I also later added a turquiose Rollamajig... just because it was turquoise. Oh yeah, I wore that jersey for the race simply because it kind of matched.

I later had to retire the frame (non replaceable derailleur hanger + too many right side falls) and put the drivetrain on what used to be my downhill bike. Since that bike required a different size front derailleur clamp and seatpost, and I needed new cranks and bottom bracket anyway, I ended up with every shade or gray on the bike, as well as bits of black, red, yellow, and turquoise. It looked funny, but it rode just fine.

I also have a soft spot for Celeste green.


By the way, every bike I have owned since 1994 has been built up or highly altered by me. The GT and Balance above were take-off framesets I bought at my team sponsor shop, and the Tsunami was used off of Ebay with the saddle and headset. I saved a bunch of money by shopping around and using whatever parts I could get a deal on... and then spending some of the money I saved on the color-coordinating bling parts

I'm not sure about the mountain bike section, but the road forum has a thread dedicated to bikes people have built up themselves. They also have a thread for craigslist and ebay finds.