This has bothered me for years... I see white tape on bikes far more often than I'd think it's warranted.

Say you've got a black and white frame; do you want the impractical colour that'll look good for 30 seconds, or the colour that matches the colour of lots of other bits on your bike?

It's almost like lots of folks subscribe to some sort of unwritten rule on the subject or something... it seems particularly prevalent amongst the Euro pros... it's a tradition thing, right?

To my eye, many of these sexy bikes are aesthetically ruined by this jarring clash... here's a selection it just doesn't belong on, IMO (some have had white seats thrown on in an effort to create a half-arsed sort of coordination, and just failed, I reckon).



What do you think? How wrong is that last one? It's like, "YOUR HANDS GO HERE!"

Can someone provide a bit of background on why white is so de rigueur?