Originally Posted by
Andy_K
Nice try, but you are the one person on this forum who I am certain can absolutely identify with why I'm spending so much time overthinking this. The frame color is the basis for the rest of the aesthetic decisions I'll make about the bike. Maybe I should start with the decals, wheels, tires, cables, bar tape, and saddle color I'm most likely to choose and then figure out which shade will work best with those.
But really, the problem is that I'm still a week or two from being ready to pull the trigger on this process and that time is a void to be filled with exploring ideas about the color. If I had to decide today, I definitely could. In fact, I've decided several times already. I just haven't made the same decision every time.
I certainly am! Don't worry, I'll be hacking through paint colors Part II on the Medici if I end up liking it a lot (which I am optimistic of). I've already run Part I on the former Specialized Expedition and a little with the Medici already.
So maybe you'll have to sneak up on the paint color. Carefully gather the Celeste elements that you want, which are a lot cheaper than powder coating, and see where they all land. Look at your swatches and go. The frame color is the biggest variable here, of course, so reducing the other, planned, Celeste-colored variables will help. We all have to start somewhere and make progress somehow--baby steps and all of that. This sort of "reverse engineering" is what helps me. It's what I'm working through on the Medici. What components exist that I don't mind paying for, and how do those components fit with my aesthetic vision possibilities?