Calling all poser's - please help me pick a King head-set color for my new steed

[Kurt]

My frame will be a full OS legend w/ full polish and ti/charcoal decals only on the downtube + a headbadge. My stem/bar/tape will be black, using old 00’ record – I like things pretty subtle but am looking for maybe an accent to spice things up.

Please go to:

http://www.chrisking.com/headsets/hds_index.html

and hit the colors gentleman in the center and play around.

I think the full ti @ probably $ 250 is out of the question, unless someone has seen it in person and it’s to die for.

Thanks!

Kurt

[Tom Byrnes]

Kurt,

Congrats on the new bike order! How about a pewter-colored headset - in between the titanium and black colors that you have.

See you on the Nichols ride on Sunday?

Tom

[Keith A]

If you want spice, then Rasta is the only way to go...

http://i7.ebayimg.com/01/i/01/5a/76/e9_1_b.JPG

[Keith A]

Or you could go with the patriotic theme...

http://velosophy.com/images/products/normal/CK0004.jpg

[dirtdigger88]

go to Thomson's web site. Look at the polished headset (king) with the polished stem with the ti tubes. Don't waste your money on the Ti headset. It does not look that good in person, and you can only get a black cap for it. Then you are also worring about seizing the two ti pieces together. If not silver go black, then you can always change color schemes on the bike without having to change the headset.

[Keith A]

I'd actually do just want dirtdigger said, with my preference being black as I think this would look best with the polished frame.

[larryp2]

is the saddle black? I'd agree with the black, my Ti bike is almost the exact scheme and it looks subtly elegant IMHO

[lithiapark]

I put a gold CK headset on my Ottrott-polished Ti and Harlequin Pearl Carbon-with black stem/bar/fork. I like the little bit of sparkle and the giant KING in white letters doesn't stand out nearly as much on the gold background, which is to me nice. I also got the top cup without the KING letters at all, a special order per my LBS that put the build kit together for me. Decals on my bike are titanium/charcoal. The last few years I've tried a lot of new colors for me. Black used to be the only one. And my wife buys all my colored clothes (which do get complements), so I probably really shouldn't be giving anyone suggestions about colors, I can see her smirking at the very thought.

[Kurt]

.

[slowgoing]

black

[Kevin]

I have the Chris King Ti on my Ottrott. I think it looks sweet.

Kevin

[lithiapark]

Kurt, thanks for the request, but I am nearly compputer illiterate, and I can't find the step by step instructions my son gave me to get an image from my digital camera viewer condensed and then transferred to this site. I had a picture of the whole bike on the old gallery, but that doesn't seem to be available now. I will continue to look for my instructions and post an image if I can.
Paul

[Kurt]

I will talk you through it baby - what is the model # of your camera? you got the usb cord? you got windows 2000/xp? I got to see what you got.

[davids]

I'd get the pewter - I think that the headset is the wrong place to draw too much attention. I thought about getting the Mango for my Yellow-Orange-Red fade Klein Adept, but I'm glad I got black. My Seven Steel Axiom (painted metallic silver) has a Silver King.

(The problem with the colored headsets is that the color shows up at 3 separate places, above and below the headtube and again above the stem. Multi-colored headsets make this worse...)

Chris King headsets may not truly be worth the extra money, but they're like jewelry for your bike...

[Sandy]

B L A C K

[Ozz]

Black.

Will accent charcoal outline on your decals...

[Kevan]

to post a reply.

What color bar tape do you plan to be using mostly?

I like the rasts suggestion as I was thinking red would be nice.

I think I'd be more inclined however to select form someone other than CK.

[woolly]

I like Keith A's suggestions. I've got a CK Rasta on my Ibis single-speed MTB, and if the used Ritchey I slapped into my NOS Ibis Ti Mojo doesn't work out, I'll consider a CK in the Patriot color scheme, just to add a bit of color to an otherwise black/silver/Ti bike (the suspension fork is even black). That said, I went with a black CK on my Habanero ti frame - I do not think that there's any way to go wrong w/ a black CK headset on a Ti frame.

That said, here's my TMI opinion as I run down thru CK's color offerings:

Pewter, silver, polished Ti: not enough contrast to an already shiny silver-like frame.

Gold - maybe a little to washed-out for this particular frame also?

Turquoize: I HATE turquoize, but to each his own. I can't believe that CK actually sells much of this color. Blech. :no:

Purple: Could be interesting, if you like purple. Be prepared for cat-calls from old-school MTB type folks (the ones old enough to remember the purple-anodized hype feeding frenzy from the 80's). Expect stuff like "Hey look, it's Johnny Retro!" :D

Mango, Red, Green, Blue: Good choices, but depends on which one speaks to you more. Personally, I think the deep blue would look classy, without attracting too much attention to that part of the bike - it would be my choice for a non-black single-color headset here. Red would be my second choice from this subset.

Black: Can't go wrong w/ this - it's the safe choice. But then again, it's just black. (OK, it's also slathered w/ Chris King logos).

Be bold, get the Patriot or the Rasta. :cool:

New bike stuff is such a cool thing.

- Chris

[Carlo]

I'll chime in with those who say BLACK! I have a pewter King headset on a Merlin MTB with a black stem -- the pewter is pretty but just doesn't quite make a match, nor does it make a nice contrast!

Titanium contrasted with black has an 'understated elegance' that you just can't beat.

The Rasta is over-the-top cool, and the patriotic colors seem to me, the other side of that coin. Both are nice, but not for me.

Regards,

Carlo Carr
(Let's go Saint Joe's Philly!!)
New Orleans

[lithiapark]

Kurt,
I appreciate your offer, I hope you are prepared for frustration. I have a couple of image programs: Panasonic SD Viewer which came with the Panasonic DMC-LC33 camera which is easy to use-I just plug in the USB cord and activate the program and it down loads the pictures to the computer and then I can sort through them etc. The other is an HP program that came with the photosmart 7150 printer. I only use that when my son is around.

I have a picture of the head end of my bike that I can get into the computer and I have used the "Browse" function of the image upload feature on this board, but then I can't seem to find the image and have it transferred to the bulletin board.

Please understand I'm willing to try, but 90% of the things that probably can be done on this bulletin board I have never attempted. It was a bold move for me to use a "smiley":(

[Kurt]

I think after your description everyone would like to see a pic of your bike. I would like to see a front view and side view. The trick is just getting the pics to your harddrive, from there you just reply to this thread or start a new one, path out and browse for the file, make sure it <1.5 meg (I think) and that’s it. When you plug your camera in, have internet explorer open – you will see a change in the drive lineup, a new virtual drive or device will be added – this is whatever your storage medium is on your camera – then it just a matter of copy and paste to where you want the pics to reside. I also like the below program because it has a viewer for all popular file types – the full priced program is totally worth it, you can do everything you ever wanted from it, file/dir wise. Shoot me a PM is you want to go further, it would be my pleasure.

http://www.v-com.com/product/pd_free_trial.html

[PaulE]

or another neutral color. The headset will probably last for life. Get something that blends in and you can then change bar tape and tire colors whenever you want.