Well Tom, I tend to like it simple....early Klein, etc. I'm not sure on the best, but I have to be honest and tell you that for my taste the new QR Ti-phoon, which I think is a GREAT bike, sure has some overdone miscolored graphics on it.

Hmm, my personal favorite for graphics is Felt. Those guys have the graphics, paint, design and detail thing down cold. the guy who designs the decals and graphics is awesome- he is very in touch with current graphic "looks" and just knows what makes people do a double take at a bike. Felt gets my vote for best graphics.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

without question, the new Fondriest bikes have the best graphics. Their new proprietary finishing process is pretty amazing - they can basically cover a bike with any graphic/picture/photo they want, and the process results in a nearly indestructable finish... at Interbike they were whapping big dents into a tube, and the graphics just followed the dents. Cool stuff.
MH

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/

Most of the companies have pretty boring graphics. I do wish that there were more color options in a given bike. Most manufacturers seem to produce all their bikes of a particular model year in one color; I'm sure it's because of cost, but it does get boring when you see 50 identical bikes at a race. One thing I do like about Aegis is that they give you lots of painting and graphic options when you order a bike. I've never ridden one and I've heard their idea of tri geometry is kind of off, but at least they give some options for looks that I wish other manufacturers would adopt.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the SAT (sliding art technology). I'm changing my vote... Felt gets 2nd. Fondriest is absolutely killer. You're right. Those things are super cool. I wonder how long it will be before everyone is doing the SAT graphics application. Super cool.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I'll agree with the Felt comments. When it comes to U.S. bikes, I suppose how the graphics coincide with the overall "look" may influence me more than I care to admit ;-) Felt does nice work. Even Trek has done some good stuff over the past few years. Between the graphics/paint, they are not quite a Colnago or Pinarello...but they do come close.

What would be interesting, is to hear from us normal public, then have those who are graphics designers/artists give their viewpoint. I'm guessing there would be quite a difference...thus...why there is such a large void between art and science in the bike world ;-) (although Kestrel frames, etc. sure do their part to eliminate that...LOL. They ARE Science & Art combined).

What STILL amazes me, is bike mfgs can't chat with shoe mfgs, and then give their season's color schemes to the apparel mfgs so I don't have to buy a baby blue bike, to go with green shoes, and purple/yellow race gear. Hey, for those of us who are slow, sometimes it's all about how you look ;-)

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Craig Preston - President / Preston Presentations
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In no specific order:Felt, Colnago and Pinarello. Orbea has some nice stuff as well.

One must differentiate between stickers/decals and actual paint jobs.

I sure like the new Cannondale 2000 with the racing flames on black as my favourite. Guru also has some really nice paint schemes and I recall a Klein Aeolus at Endurosport with a blue-green fade that was pretty nice.

For little or no extra money, GURU puts out several nice looking bikes.

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Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)

From what I see locally; Colnago, Pinarello, Litespeed.

FELT! My S22 has a grey/black/red striped carbon fork. Rim decals match bike and fork. Name graphics are excellent. I added Kyrium rims grey and black. A real eye candy. Everyone asks about it. Add the great rims, a easton seatpost, and the right helmet and shoes. It looks fast. Two bad I rode at 18.5 mph at IMFLA. ---=;) but i ran 8s.

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Slow down or Go Around.

the one with the least stickers!

My favorite is the klein's. understated simple stickers and they don't slap their name on everything. my litespeed has the litespeed name emblazed on each leg of the fork. I think my cannondale says "cannondale" on nearly every tube. less is more.

add that to klein's exceptional paint. great blends, and very deep color. paint like this is what cervelo needs.

Tom,

Richard Sachs bikes have the best graphics just because they say "Richard Sachs" on them. Even if it was put on the frame with magic marker it would still be the best graphics because its a Richard Sachs bike.

Some day I will give up tri but not riding. When that day comes I will sell off all my tri-geek stuff and do whatever it takes to purchase a Richard Sachs custom steel road bike to keep as "my rest of my life bike".

When it comes to actualy paint qualifty (how deep and shiney it looks) dont think you can go past kestrel or de rosa but I quite like to matt black felt with graphics and the fondiest stuff is awesome (although some of the more covered ones looked a bit excessive) Not a big fan of the colnago stuff everywhere look though.

Colnago Dream, Pinarello and actually the new qr 0 gravity has a cool look this year.

Klein. Nuff said.

Graphically speaking, I think hands down the new Fondriest with the sliding picture thing. I think Orbea comes up high, as they do only paint (and no decals). I will say that a Colnago ALWAYS catches my eye, though I have seen a few where the masking is not always clean.

I would also say that what ever bike I have has the most eye-catching graphics as I usually end up customising it either with graphics (especially since I use the down tube to advertise), or I send it off for custom paint and my own graphics.

What would I think would improve a bike's appearance? A real live head tube badge. It would not have to be something that is screwed on, but it would be nice to have a REAL head tube badge that could not be reproduced at a graphics/vinyl lettering shop.

I have a klein and love the finish and how their decals seem to be sublayed under the paint...

I also like the limited edition oscar feriere world championship bike I think it is made by colnago... the worldchampionship rainbow never looked so cool...

I have to also put a vote in for specialized cippo coordinated zebra bike... at the very least it is amuzing... I would never be caught wearing that matching kit

Any bike with those stickers that I got at your store a couple of weeks ago.Seriously,any bike with a panel on the down tube.I like a70s look.At the high end maybe SEVEN.

Land Shark, obviously ...

Dre'

While I am entertained by this thread, I can honestly say that I've never been drawn to a bike because of the graphics. Color(s), graphics, all that, is entirely the least of my concerns when bike shopping. I've seen some sweet looking rides -- Orbea, Colnago and Pinarello all come to mind -- but I would never let the paint scheme be a determining factor. It would boil down to fit, geometry, component group, and price. That being said, there's nothing wrong with a cool paint job. It should just be a secondary priority when buying a bike. Never seen cool paint make anybody faster. If it did, all those drab and dreary P3's wouldn't stand a chance.

RP

I may not add much to this forum in the way of research, real world experience, or even vague notions in the ways of Tri, however I can answer this question.

Independent Fabrication has good looking Ti bikes. Very clean design (I like the pseudo-ghetto looking decal).

Land Shark paint is beautiful but the "Land Shark" logo decal thing is horrible.

Ugliest - Giant... although i might buy one soon (tied with Trek)

burns

I'll cast a vote for Cinelli's frames. Really nice yet simple graphics.

I kind of like the look of my Giant TCR-1, but I'll admit I'm partial to the silver one and few of the others, although the TCR Team in black is pretty nice and the new TCR Carbon frames look sweet in all respects, except they say "GIANT" in too many places on the bike (but not as many as a couple years ago;-)

Airborne's graphics are definitely worse. And it's an awful company name, too, IMO.

-David (TCR rider) in Taipei