The interesting thing is, when I was first looking at the bike (online) I thought the only choices were the accent colors of red or blue. Then I finally realized that the main bike color was either charcoal or dark blue, and decided on the dark blue. It's subtle, but noticeably not black/near black. The very small amount of red really does stand out. Personally, I do wish they did it in traditional Trek Red, but really, what's most important is how it RIDES! And I have absolutely NO complaints there.