What's the Fastest Bike Color?
It started with a debate at Bicycling HQ: What's the fastest bike color?
For our limited-edition poster "Les Couleurs de la Victoire," writer Kip Mikler chronicled the hues of every Tour de France-winning bike since World War II. We then turned to London-based designers Howard Smith and James Mason, better known as Massif Central, to transform Mikler's findings into art. We're printing only 100 posters—reserve yours at shop.bicycling.com.
Here's how the duo translated piles of data into this explosion of color. (Spoiler: Blue came out on top.)
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?The first graphic I created was in 2011 after a trip I took with some mates, riding Italy from top to toe. We'd talked about creating a memento that could reflect what we did. People collect all kinds of data on their Strava account or GPS device or Garmin, but it just sits there. We wanted to think about how people could express themselves with data. —James Mason
?We try to create a piece that is beautiful and attracts the eye from a distance. But when you get close, it tells a story. —Howard Smith
?Our designs' similarity to a bike wheel is quite by accident. When James was working on the illustration from the Italy trip, it was the approach that worked best. To end up with a circle is counterintuitive. —H.S.
?With the radial system, everything has a purpose, and the beauty stems from that purpose. —J.M.
?What was fun about the Bicycling job was starting off not knowing what it would look like. —J.M.
?What on the face of it is a simple thing—what color was the bike that won each Tour?—was in fact an extended research project by Kip Mikler. And there's one year—1960—that the brand is unknown. No one knows what that year's champion, Gastone Nencini, was riding or even what he was supposed to be riding. —H.S.
?The print is not obvious at first glance. You need to take time to work it out and understand it. —J.M.
?The color blue took the lead in 1981, but since carbon fiber frames were introduced, black is catching up fast. —J.M.
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