“I’m building a do it all bike based on a Soma Double Cross Disc with straight disc fork (this is only available in black). Bartape will be Brooks honey, and the saddle will be Brooks honey B17.
Given this, what would your recommendation on the colour matching for the headset and hubs? Am looking at Chris King so lots of options, but perhaps black or silver? Also, what about the rims, spokes and handlebar - natural shiny alu, or black?
Groupset will be Campagnolo Athena 11, but black or silver? I guess black will match, but I kinda like the look of the silver Campy stuff…have them on a Zullo now – it looks neat, and the disc brakes are already silver.
What do you think? I fear going all black might be very Vader like…and not sure if will match honey tape and saddle.”
Wowsers, where to start?!
It’s interesting you say the Double Cross is only available in black as there seems to be lots of other colour options available on the ‘net. I’ll take your word for it though, and there is a good chance it’s the most current colour option. That aside, the one below is quite indicative of your description and might help us out a bit here (ignoring the frame colour at least):
Starting with the silver groupset; I think it works well here, and I think it matches nicely with the ‘feel’ of the honey-coloured saddle and bar tape (the bar tape isn’t quite right on this one, but it’s good enough to get an idea). I think you could do worse than to pair up the silver groupset with a silver Thomson stem and seatpost, and then match it with a silver bar such as a Ritchey Classic.
An alternative would be to tie in the rest of the components with the frame colour and go black on the bar, stem and seatpost (I think the Athena groupset looks nicer in silver so I’d stick with that option regardless of what else you do). This approach would give it a nice retro-modern feel.
Regardless of what you do I don’t think you should go silver or black on the Chris King components. What would I do? I’d go brown, or possibly pewter – and I think this depends on what colour finishing kit (bar stem and seatpost) you choose.
The options as I see them are a silver Athena groupset with:
- Silver bar, stem and seatpost = brown Chris King (and for this route I might also consider going brown on the Brooks stuff, rather than honey)
- Black bar, stem and seatpost = pewter Chris King
My reason for this is that I think these colours give a point of interest and an additional level of detail.
As for the wheels, I’d go with a black rim with silver spokes. Black nipples would be ok, but silver ones would too (regardless of the other colours used). You could even get away with a carbon rim, and whatever you choose would look really nice with a tan wall tyre.
I hope that helps? Be sure to send pictures when it’s done!
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Hi, thanks for the suggestions…but a bit late for some of them. I already went ahead and bought the components…this is what I went with:
Groupset: Campagnolo Athena 11 Black.
Hubs are black White Industries M16 and CX11.
Brakes are black Hope V-Twin, with of course silver discs…don't know if anyone makes black disc brake rotors.
Rims…not decided yet, but will quite definitely do black, with black spokes…will leave two spokes leading to valve stem in silver. Thinking Stans ZTR or Velocity Dyad. Not looking at carbon.
Bartape and saddle Brooks honey
stem, bar and seatpost not final yet, but likely black/white 3T Ergonova and ARX with black Thompson seatpost
Headset: will take your suggestion on Pewter Chris King
Tires…maybe can play with a bit of tan sidewalls…Maybe Challenge Grifo, but I also wanted slicks for dry roads…maybe Grand Bois Cypres. Both are tan sidewalls.
Will send pics when build is complete.
p.s. yes, Double Cross Disc is only available in black this year. I think they will have a gold frame next year, and the non disc is available this year in the colour you show above.