Saddle Up

I don't get mismatched wheels, rims or tires. This forum is full of photos of some beautiful bikes but are let down with different rims and or tires front to back IMO. I don't see it over at the mountain, road or C&V forums. Am I missing something? To my eye it just throws off the symmetry and distracts the eye. The bike has no flow to the lines. I can understand on the track it would be beneficial to have a solid rear and aero front but on a street bike it ruins it for me when I see a aero up front and a regular spoked wheel out back for instance. Maybe I'm just to rigid.

RichPugh

we are janky

Kol.klink

my bike usually has mismatched tires do i care

No

My last 2 tires have been free
before that i had a Lithon up front 60$ retail
and 20$ jobs rocking the rear, they are cheaper and last longer than any high end "race tire"

tmh657

Sometimes it's just what you can get for the price at the time. I have a Campy low flange hub to a Mavic open pro up front, it was $60 on CL.
Since it looked good I had a custom build Dura Ace LF to Mavic OP for the back, $250 and they aren't the same but look awfully good. The tires aren't the same brand but close enough.

j3ffr3y

arrospoks are expensive. +2 arros together just look dumb imo

tmh657

I have the matching black deep v's as well. They are so yesterday right?

ersatz

my rear was tacoed, got a cheaper one at a different color, and the front one is fine thus i have different colored wheels

misha misha

i have a bit stronger tire in the back

jdms mvp

i have a rear track hed3 and a front hed3... the only time it'll see dual heds is at t-town

Steev

Some folk have more concern for price and function than looks. I guess they just don't belong here.

bja86

who gives a sh**, to each his(or her) own

planyourfate

I have mismatching rims because that's what I got for cheap/free. Personally, I think an aerospoke with a spoked wheel looks kinda cool.

Also, symmetry doesn't create flow, actually asymmetry does...check out classical paintings or Bauhaus designs. "Flow" through any work of art be it on a wall or riding down the street is created through attention to craftsmanship, cohesive color palettes, and visually repeating ideas or motifs. Just my 2 pesos.

dayvan cowboy

right now I've got mismatching wheels. I bent my front wheel in a crash and for the last month I've been using my friends orange deep v(I hate the way it looks, but I'd rather had a bike that looks janky than no bike at all).

I had a new wheel built up that has the same rims but has different hubs because of what they had in stock. I just need to get around to making it to the bike shop to get a new tire.

Skylar

It took me a couple minutes to adjust to an arrospok or spinergy or hed up front and spoke in back, because for me the non-stock rim goes in back, but before I was screwing with pedal bikes I was screwing with motorbikes, and on a couple of my hackjobs I've thrown a mag in back and a laced wheel up front.

The mismatch thing is just another form of expression/personalization. I like it, and I like all these people on bicycles nowadays.

na975

i cant afford mismatched wheels, it would mean buying 2 sets of wheels.

pirate

I cracked the rim on my rear wheel, so I bought another one on craigslist. I'm sure a lot of people are in a similar situation. There really isn't much to get.

dylandom

ugg, you are a ******.

huck finn

$ reasons like stated above, it's personal and customizable. I could careless if my wheels do not match it's looks unique imo.

iamthenoise

Flimflam

Requirement and function over fashion for me. I run different tyres because the one on the front of my bike has 4855 miles on it, and the same tyre on the back didn't last over 700 miles, so I use different rubber on the back.

My back wheel is also different now (Velocity Aerohead onto an IRO flip/flop) because I can't get the 17T cog off my Formula/CXP22 wheel, and I changed cog to a 15T.

I needed to change wheels to change ratio, I didn't really care about the way it looked - I just wanted to ride my bike.

edit: I should note my wheelset was originally black rims/spokes, my new rear is all silver - extra mismatch power!

bbattle

It's a style thing. If you can't understand that, you have no sense of style. That doesn't mean you have to agree that mismatched wheels are cool, but rather that the rider has a different sense of style than you.

Live and let live.

Or as we cyclists say, just ride.

patbateman

I personally am running a red deep V on the back, and an anodized black mavic rim with silver spokes on the front.

Simply because I sometimes ride single speed and I need a front wheel with braking surface.

queerpunk

only one of my bikes has a matching wheelset.

everything else wears what quality i could find for a good deal. almost always used.

i had a matching wheelset - the set that came stock on my Felt TK2 - but I sold it because I didn't need it.

91MF

some of us do it intentionally. i was having a wheelset built and my wife was all 'it would be cool if you had a black wheel on the front because your fork is black' i called the LBS and they hadnt started on the wheelset so i told them to make the front black. i think it looks good and its exactly the same as i had originally planned except the color. really tho who cares?

ADSR

Because buying two armadillos would have been like 80 bucks, and I wanted a slightly wider tire up front. Need, price and opportunity tend to dictate a lot for someone on a cooks wage.