smd4

How the four posts in this thread would look if mstateglfr had any say:

Yes. Yes.

No. Yes.

No. No.

Yes. No.

Eric F 

I took this pic at the coffee stop of a group ride I do on an irregular basis. Mine is the one not like the others.


I think we will start to see colorful frames start to return.

Germany_chris

I agree silver would look the business on that bike

veganbikes

Just remember Don't Eat the Yellow Snow!

PeteHski

I think there are still plenty of colour choices in CF frames if you want something other than black. I can't say I miss silver components and actually prefer the black finish on most. I'm not overly keen on everything being black though i.e black frame and black components. But then again I don't particularly mind it either. The only trend I really disliked was the multicoloured component anodising popular in the 90s.

masi61

Not sure what time frame “back in the day” represents to you but the limited edition GRX group set was offered up in limited quantities just a few short months ago on the Excel Sports (Boulder) website. They are probably mostly picked over now, true. Being mostly a road rider I would think that polished silver anodized + gravel may not be the best implementation for the polished silver bits due to the grit and mud ruining the pretty finish in short order.

It would be great if Shimano would bring back an Ultegra or Dura Ace road group in polished silver again. A disc version of polished Dura Ace 9200 in silver would intrigue me for sure.

As for current silver components I can think of Thomson stems and seatposts, White Industries hubs and cranks, Chris King headsets and hubs, Velocity rims that can be custom ordered in full polish, Industry 9 hubs in silver, Ritchey “Classic” components.

Other current lower priced silver components can be disappointing to us perfectionists since the metal finishing, anodizing or clear coating often looks kind of orange peel ridden.

I can appreciate Campy and I know that they had some nice silver components just a few short years ago so surely they could re-introduce some silver groupsets for us die hards.

As for Shimano which I am most intimately familiar with, their attention to detail on polishing the Ultegra and Dura Ace parts was so exceptional…omg SHIMANO, please visit bikeforums and answer our (my) prayers for what we all want more of!

Fredo76

A similar black vs. silver debate goes on in audio forums. The audio component industry went to black almost totally in the '80s. Silver only remained in some high-end gear but is creeping back in. Funny that several manufacturers offer a choice in Europe, but only offer black in the USA.

A somewhat random mix of black and silver looks fine to me on my bro's bike:


Clem

The Sugino crank was chosen for its color, however (besides its ratios!). It has modern bits on it and works well, but it's not in the sculpture category. We just wanted a silver crankset. On the basis of that sample of two scarcely independent data points, I think that a well-finished, upper-shelf modern silver component gruppo would go over well.

c0urt

granted brakes are a passing thing, they tend to have some epic looking frames Frames – NJS EXPORT (njs-export.com)

mschwett 

presumably the variety of materials, manufacturing techniques, joints etc in modern drivetrain components require some kind of opaque finish to not look crappy. painted silver finishes (even expensive processes) tend to look cheap by comparison to actual silver metals, whereas an even black is simple and clean and goes with …. well, everything.

IMO the black ones look better than the various silvers and multiple tones of grey.

Sy Reene

I'd agree that I'm not fond of the Shimano gray look.. but would disagree on true silver not looking nice.

mschwett 

oh i agree that if everything were naturally silver/bright metal, it would look nice. but my point/speculation was that the underlying construction of a modern RD/FD (and maybe some cranksets?) is not in fact a uniform silver metal. isn’t there a bunch of carbon, plastic, different metals, etc? thus requiring an opaque finish (powder coat or FPRC or something?) of which “silver” is not really a thing. you get metallic grey, which isn’t so sexy.

smd4

I agree, I don't like painted parts. And painted silver does not look as good as bare metal. I may not like it personally, but I guess the black is just form following function.

PeteHski

I think they are simply following the modern automotive trend i.e. replacing chrome/silver trim with black/grey trim. The exceptions are usually when they are targeting an older, more conservative demographic. It was interesting that Tesla attempted to buck that trend with chrome trim on all their cars. But they gave up with that in 2020 and moved to black trim in line with pretty much everyone else.

So for me it is really a cosmetic fashion trend and nothing much to do with material choice.

Road Fan

What is "bare metal/black?" The discussion is about the silver tone of bare or clear anodized ALUMINUM which is silver-colored, VERSUS black-colored components either black carbon fiber, black painted, or black anodized.

What metal is black in its natural state?

Erzulis Boat

2 brand new bikes I just put together. I did as much silver as I could, but I still have to account for performance, so some black components are a necessary evil.