I love Velo-Orange for many reasons, but anyone else find their 70's rando bike aesthetic almost offensive? The glut of polished chrome and shades of brown make me throw up in my mouth.
Exhibit from a recent blog post that inspired this rant:
Someone convince me of the error of my ways.
Wow. I do generally like the aesthetic, but something about the stitched leather AND gum covers on the adjuster barrels does take it a stitch too far (nerk, nerk). I see your point.
Sort of the same feeling I get when I see a spotless, oil-free, Austin Healy 3000 with shiny armorall tires.
Well...
It does have a mild hint of fecal overtones.
But still, when I looked at the pic before I read the text, it looked like something that was posted as a cool thing, not odious.
If I had something like that on a bike and was proud of it, I'd be hurt and offended by your post. And it strikes me that most people who own something like that would generally be your friends/allies/neighbors.
I'm a function-over-form kind of guy. Cool looking handgrips look nice, and probably are a lot more pleasant to hold onto on a cold day, but all I really noticed was the front bag.
Beyond that, all it did was to toggle my Some People Like To Be Fancy I Guess flag.
I'm less offended by the color and more offended by how high those hoods are mounted.
I guess I mostly consider myself a function over form kind of guy as well, and those hoods look like numb hands for me on any sort of longer ride like a brevet.
I like the look okay in general. This photo not particularly captivating. But the thing that gets me is the high praise that I hear about these boxy little canvas bags that cost hundreds of dollars. I really can't see how they are so great and having to deal with multiple leather buckles would drive me nuts. I'll take velcro and zippers thankssomuch
Buckles? Could be bad...
...could be even worse!
'Cause Al's cool like that.
Needs more drillium.
The problem with the levers is that they are mounted where you would put them for modern brifters, but the levers aren't angled so they are also good in the drops.
Even the cannibal, the final determiner of most things, wasn't consistent;
But I'm pretty sure the cannibal never used the effing brakes.
The leather will look better once it's broken in with some "natural oils." As it stands, it looks like some kind of extruded Twinkie product.
Velo Orange makes horrible products. 
see, I consider that a very tasteful use of velo orange products and is more a rivendell aesthetic. maybe I'm splitting hairs but that is just my feeling about the matter.
also, high polished cranksets?
my cranksets are generally dirty, scratched, and rubbed extremely well.
Ryan, I'm surprised the frame didn't self-destruct when it sensed you were using brifters.
V-O definitely attempts to capture the early Rene Herse/constructeur aesthetic. I'm not a huge fan of the bike linked to initially, but I think it has more to do with the color scheme and the leather wrap than anything else. This Herse is pretty nifty, and it has all sorts of shiny.
I never liked the look of the Berthoud bags. Something about the light brown leather trim just turns me off. So yeah, there's something about the VO aesthetic that doesn't quite appeal to me.
But it's close to what I like.
(and that is a fender from VO)
^^ exhibit b for the grant petersen aesthetic
Oh man. I'm ignorant with a capital "ant".
I thought dmtroyer meant the orange color on the handlebars. I jsut realized that Velo Orange was a company not a hue.
For those who do not develop hives at the thought of V-O, they're having a decent sale (25% off) on fenders this week.
Per their newsletter:
One week fender sale: use the code kyctz9qked in your cart for 25% off all fenders
Note: only one use per customer. You must be logged in to use the code, and it expires on February 8th
Speaking of the Petersen aesthetic, I really, really like the look of this bike:
Throw some Albatross bars on there, and it'd be perfect!
I actually have a VO Rando bike for sale at the moment, with some nice components (Ultegra gruppo, Peter White wheels) and custom-powdercoated in French racing blue. PM me if you might be interested. It's a 61 cm frame, with a few hundred miles on it.
@ biran j Throw some Albatross bars on there, and it'd be perfect!
+1
