Does the colour matter!?

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful, is a famous quote, and applies to bikes as they are both useful and beautiful, so you need to chose the colour you like and not one you think that is right by someone else's standards. After all it's your money that your spending so you need to be able to enjoy and appreciate.

Every time I look at bikes on the internet (which is rather too often) I always get swayed by celeste Bianchis. Even the low end ones with average reviews have me doing maths to see if I could justify buying one.

Blue and orange is a great combo

If you ride for pleasure then I don't see what is wrong with owning something that you get satisfaction from because it is beautiful (by your own definition) as well as functional even if it costs a little more.

If you make aesthetic choices based on what you think other people will think then you probably won't be happy for more than a short time, until the next 'must have' is dangled in front of you.

If you genuinely don't care then that also a statement.

I generally don't like many (predominantly) blue bikes, irrespective of make/groupsets etc
...but am quite partial to the Defy Advanced 1 looks
...and like the black/orangey colour scheme most
...and I like black or dark grey in general (a la Canyon)
...but, I guess it's down to whether the bike is a good comfortable fit or not
...I have a range of coloured cycling kit
...and my bike is currently black/red/white
...I'm not averse to wearing totally un-coordinated kit (daltonism does that for you)
...I think I look majestic in anything/everything
...lol

Black and red all the way.

Black or white. Or black and white. With a dash of silver/grey. Nothing else.

I had two options last year when i bought my Foil. The Foil 15 in stealth black or the Foil HMX Team Edition which matched my club colours. Needless to say i plumped for the more expensive HMX in black and green to match the club kit.

The winter bike is black/ red and is 3 years old. I'm thinking of getting it sprayed black with green accents. Colour does matter.

After the Tour de Burren I was talking to a guy who it turned out (he'd changed by then) I'd been in a bunch with for a long time.

He recognised me by my knee supports. "I was the guy on the bright green-and-yellow Planet X", he said.

Yep, remembered that bike alright! A bit loud for me, but he was rocking it well.

If colour matters to you, if style matters, then of course the colour of your bike matters. As someone said upthread, the more you like putting your leg over it, the more often you will. If it doesn't matter to you, it doesn't matter. But don't let aesthetes tell you it does if you don't care, or uggoes tell you it doesn't if you do. Ride what you feel.

"Flandria" red and white is the best colour scheme of all time. Full stop - the end...

Echo the black matches everything. Yellow is a massive no no unless your in the TDF, red agreed is probably second to black for matching kit. I couldn't get away with a Monster Green bike, youve got to have the speed to match the shouty colour. There is a day glo orange Allez at work that actually looks great with black decals. Max two block colours on a frame, any more and it starts to look messy! Beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder. There arent enough grey bikes!

White bikes show the dirt. Black bike show you're cool. Red bikes, as mentioned above, are fastest. Simple.

I really don't like red or red/white/black bikes, not too keen on all-black either.

I do have a preference for white, despite knowing that white paint is usually heavier (it's thicker).

If you're buying something like a Defy where the frame is actually identical throughout the range but the colour of the frame indicates the groupset 'model', it might be worth asking your LBS if they'll build you up a frame in the colour you like with the groupset you want/can afford...?

I paid extra for the Ultegra version of the Roubaix at least in part because it was a nice grey and matte black, while the 105 version was a disgusting yellow/black/white combo. I am totally happy I paid the extra £200 or so (it was when they were hugely reduced during the sell-off of 10 speeds) because my bike looks really cool instead of like someone has been sick on it.

I probably won't make one jot of difference to your performance but stealthy matt black goes with any kit you decide to wear regardless of colour . Suits you sir ! !

Colour does matter but wouldn't be a dealbreaker unless like the Specialized Allez it's "monster green"!

1&2 difference is in the components and not colour scheme.

Red bikes are the fastest, obviously

White bikes are a pain to keep clean. On one of my bikes the downtube has a white underside - ridiculous!

There's some bikes I would exclude simply because they're ugly (ahem older pinarello's....) and I think that some bikes can look much nicer in certain colours than others.
At the end of the day I ride my bike when i feel like it, I'm not forced out the door to have to ride so if my bike looks nicer (imo) then I'm more likely to ride it and have a good time.
Long story short, yes, colour does matter but it is not the most important factor...as long as it looks nice enough.

if the only difference is the colour then youd be pretty vain to pay more.

Im not fussed at all about how the bike looks, so long as it works perfectly and fits my form. Im a cyclist not a poser, although there are a lot of others who are fashion victims and have matching everything and change their bike / kit to the latest trend.