For me, it completely depends on the bike. Something I really love about bicycles is that they can really be a mix of form and function, especially in the choice of color and components. Here are mine:
My Colnago road bike is (
was . . . that's a story for another thread)
bright red with a chrome fork and chrome/polished Campy components. There's nothing subdued about a 70's racing bike. For this one, I wanted loud and proud.
For my Trek commuter/burner bike, I wanted something really understated for the city (San Francisco at the time), and for Burning Man, it was basically just going to be a substrate for lights/fur/decorations, so the color didn't matter as much as the durability. I went with a
flat olive green engine enamel with all inexpensive black mtn components.
For my in-progress '81 Univega Specialissima touring bike, I'm also going a bit understated but something prettier and more noticeable than olive. Once it
gets back from the shop, I'm planning on doing a
grey frame with black and chrome (mostly Deore XT) components and brown Brooks leather saddle+tape. Interesting enough, there's a place near me called
Hub Powderworks that does a really nice shade of grey powder coat – and it's
retroreflective! I need to check out their work in person (especially given the lugwork on the frame) before I pull the trigger. Here's an image from their website:
