downtube42

Watching TdF I got supper annoyed at white labels on rims going round and round.

Does anyone think that's cool?

It prompted me to go pull the stickers off my wheels and take a sharpie to the tire labels.

Felt good, though I think the sharpie may have been over the top.

Troul 

What's worsers is the downtube logos.

rsbob 

Like these? The Orbea, I find particularly obnoxious since Orbea appears about 10X on the frame. Where’s my sharpie? (Both mine).

To answer the OP: Nope. Not really. Still don’t like all the black gruppos though.

tFUnK

I dunno, I kind of like how Pogi's Enve wheels look while spinning.

icemilkcoffee 

No way. There have been so many iconic carbon wheels:




Hed wheels on my bike:

HTupolev

It can be, if you commit to the look rather than half-baking it.

skidder

I didn't really notice them during the TT the other day. Most of the camera shots were from the front or rear of the riders showing how close they were to overtaking (or being overtaken by) other riders, no shots from the side that lasted long enough to see the wheel stickers. That being said I did take the stickers off the side of the wheels I bought about four years ago. If they would have been reflective I might have kept them on (I ride a lot at night), but they just look silly spinning round-and-round.

Iride01 

Well the sponsors want there name to be seen and figure that the two or three of you that get enraged about it enough to gripe won't outnumber the people that want their product.

I don't like flashy logos either. But that's the way it is.

Did if bother you that Piper Aircraft put their name in big letters on the sides of their airplanes used in "Gold Finger"? Or Cooper Mini's more bold display of their name on the car used in "The Bourne Identity" ?

I have de-labeled the logos from some of my every day clothes that I wear. It is somewhat annoying to be used as a bill-board and not get compensated for it.

smd4

I love logos and lettering, but prefer it tasteful to overbearing. Even swapped out my DA brake shoe holders because I found some that were labeled (and they were polished instead of being dark anodized, like the originals). Got some branded Swisstop shoes arriving today. I've even got cool lettering on my chainring bolts.

PeteHski

Have you been following the TdF for long? Large white wheel logos were far more prominent a decade earlier than they are today. They are almost the exception now.

Carbonfiberboy 

What really tees me off is that tire manufacturers now put 2 labels on both sides of the tire. That makes it harder to line up the puncture in the tube with the damage to the tire when changing a flat. The single tire label is supposed to be aligned with the valve on the drive side. I think there's a Rule number for that and there was a good reason for that. Otherwise I don't care about labels. There are people who remove the model designations on their cars and have bodywork done to hide that they've done that. I'm not one of those people, either. I wear event T-shirts and jerseys with logos though. My shorts have logos, except for the ones where it's fallen off from use. OTOH, I don't wear logos on my civies.

downtube42

Yes.

PeteHski

So you never noticed it years ago when the likes of HED and Zipp had half a dozen massive white logos spinning around? I think the current trend in the peloton is a lot more subtle - with a few notable exceptions.

urbanknight

I like it, but I'm a redneck who was raised on NASCAR. My current bikes are from the "stealth" era, so I did take a Sharpie to the white logos on my seat bags. Wheels already had black or gray stickers.

You mean when they went to huge downtubes and still made the letters wrap halfway around them? And then add smaller ones on the fork, top tube, and stays? Maximize advertising space, I guess.

To be fair, "long" is subjective, and I feel like we just came out of a good stretch of time where stealth and black everything was in style. But I do remember early carbon wheels. Heck, one guy at the track made spiral decals for his disc that just about hypnotized everybody watching!

gravelfan

I ordered a Matt White Trek with white labels. Wheels were ENVE with Black Labels. Liked the incognito look in an era of black carbon wheels and lots of brand labels.

Troul 

back when I was looking at getting a Domane Project One, one of the "options" was adding a unique name. Turns out, you are governed as to what Trek will allow due to them protecting their brand image of some sort. If I am buying it, it's rightfully mine, I thought.... Then the color scheme options were next being limited. All that limiting makes it not worth the cost. /offrant

LesterOfPuppets

this is how it's done

urbanknight

Yeah, I remember when "Project One" was being advertised hard, and I thought it was cool that my bike could be "any color", then I realized I didn't care about color as much as the price tag suggested I should.

urbanknight

Troul 

with a 6+ month delivery "estimate" ... screw that!

staehpj1

I was happy when Astana changed wheel graphics to real gaudy ones mid season. It made them easy to spot among too many similar colored jerseys and bikes. As a Cavendish fan I appreciated that.

I recently bought a new Cannondale MTB and have to say I am dissappointed with the bare look of a just plain red frame with no brand on it. The candy red is pretty, but I am used to seeing and like the Cannondale name in big white letters. I am not going to go and put a brand name on it or anything, but I miss it. Call me weird.

rollagain

I'm with you on that.

rollagain

Oh, now that's just plain evil.

Bald Paul

It's even more annoying to be used as a dartboard without compensation.

I paid extra for the wheel decals. Anything that makes me and the bike more noticeable to drivers is a good thing in my book.

msu2001la

Most of Enve's consumer wheels have more subtle logos than what you see on Pogacar's race wheels. As noted above, the trends in the bike industry in general have been moving away from large obnoxious logos for a while now. Pro racing is almost entirely funded by sponsors, so I wouldn't expect to see pro racers following that trend.