Having recently worked on a couple of bar tape projects I was wondering what members thought about the various brands of cloth bar tape. No cork, plastic, vinyl, bat skin or other materials, please.
Here are my observations:

Velox, Tressostar, Tressoplast, etc. : the standard French stuff I used back in the day and still do on occasion. Thin, fairly flimsy and too short. It's serviceable but there are better options these days.

Toshi: A recent project left me looking for a suitable DARK green cloth tape. The Toshi showed up looking much like the Kelly green available through Tressostar, etc. With shellac, I found it didn't go as dark as I was hoping for. It is quality tape and the length allows a nicely over-lapped wrap all the way up the bars. It seems fairly thick and "comfy".

Greengrips: On the recommendation of a couple of forum members I ordered some dark green from these guys. I will say that the folks at Greengrips are very friendly and helpful and I admire what they're trying to do. I found their product to be lacking, however. The color of the tape didn't quite match the color swatch on their website, There is no actual photo of the various colors. Just one color shown and the rest are small color swatch boxes. I found the color to be muddy and not rich, undoubtedly the result of dyeing over natural with eco-friendly dyes. I will say, though, that after applying shellac, the color darkened up nicely to a deep British Racing Green I was looking for. My main problem with this tape though is the construction. It is wider than other tapes, about an inch wide, but too thin. The tape distorts and has a tendency to want to lift an edge as it is stretched and pulled tight and the narrow, quarter inch wide strip of adhesive on the back doesn't help matters. The weave is just too loose and the fibers too light. I understand they have come out with a thicker tape but I think it is going to be way too wide , an inch and a half?! ...to be practical for making clean bends around corners on drop bars.

Newbaum's: While not available in the very dark green I've been looking for, Newbaum's is available in an impressive array of colors. It is narrow, at 3/4 of an inch, but it is thick. Very substantial with a nice feel to it, and tightly woven. The best feature is the length. Ten feet, which allows you to wrap as tightly as you want to and not worry about running out at the end of the wrap. Newbaum's gets my vote for the best bar tape I've tried.

I've not tried the Viva product from Jitensha but understand it is very nice stuff.

What do you like?

I've only used Tressotar and Newbaum's. Newbaum's offers fourteen colors; ten of which my LBS carries. With multiple coats of clear and/or amber shellac you can achieve pretty much any color/shade desired.

Shellaced cloth tape is going to provide minimal padding, if any. That's not a reason I choose cloth tape.

Light blue Newbaum's with amber shellac produces a nice dark green.

That's a pretty set-up Colonel. yes, with the wide array of colors available from Newbaum's, you can achieve some very interesting colors. I just finished one that at first thought looked awfully weird, but it grew on me and now I think it looks way cool. You're right; one looking for padding might as well consider something other than cloth. I like the extra thickness of Newbaums however. Seems to wrap better.

Newbaum's is my favorite to date. Soft, easy to apply. As far as I can tell Toshi and Viva are about the same ..

Scott

I've tried Newbaum's and while I really liked the color choice, I'm back to using Tressostar, because the carrier on Newbaums disintegrates when you wet it out, and consequently it is an extreme PITA to get a real tight wrap around the bends.

May I ask, Auchen , what do you mean by "carrier" ?

The white paper tape that prevents the tape from sticking to itself.

Bar tape should be cloth. Cloth bar tape should be black. End of story. YMMV, of course.

I like cloth tape a lot, and Tresso especially. But, and here I may have a different opinion than most, it should not be shellacked. The look of faded bar tape, with sweat blotches, stains and vomit, fits in just right with the inherent patina of most classic frames.

jimmuller's comment remind me of this quote from the great yacht designer Nat Herreshoff:

'There are only two colors to paint a boat, black or white, and only a fool would paint a boat black.'

Cloth tape can be white too!




(But not for very long! )

Jan - I don't shellac my cloth tape either, but it's only because I like the cottony feel of it. You miss that if you add shellac.

I had not ridden cotton tape for decades until I visited cudak888 and Michael Angelo in Miami earlier this month.

The prime reason for not doing so, are the rough frost heaved and cracked pavement, which pass for adequate on 80% of our roads. I like the cork for some vibration dampening.

But with that said, on the smooth roads around Coral Gables, FL, where Kurt and Mike took me for a ride, Kurt's cotton wrapped bars were the cats pajamas!

Only pros use(d) white cloth tape, and they had mechanics to retape the bars daily. Anybody else using white comes off looking like a poseur.

SP
Bend, OR

Bar tape should be cloth. Cloth bar tape should be black. Black cloth bar tape should be unvarnished and unshellaced. Unvarnished and unshellaced black cloth bar tape should have a few scars if it goes back to your misspent youth.

+1

I had tried Tressostar and gave up after wrapping half a handlebar...that was on my Touring Series III. Scott encouraged me to try Newbaums for my Newest. WORLD of difference on the ability to wrap and stretch/form where needed. No comparison IMHO.

Here too?

Problem with cloth tape is, like with Cello tape, the handlebars just dont have enough diameter with them for a nice feeling grip. Once I started to use vinyl padded and cork tape in the mid 80's I never looked back.......
I still have the last set of black Tressostar cotton tape I bought in the 80's that never made it on any of my bikes, rolling around in my junk drawer for over 20 years now.........

Chombi

I thought some of those road were rough and unrideable. You should see some of the smoooooth roads around here.

Mike

For that we can make an exception.

(You don't actually dare ride those works of art you create, do you? Aren't you afraid of getting some dirt on them? )

While the Newest hasn't yet been ridden, yes, I ride all of them. That's what they're for.

- Or a bike mechanic!

Goodness! I am of the exact opposite 180 antipodal dissimilar reverse opinion!
I've done a lot of Tressostar wraps with no issues whatsoever, but my attempt with Newbaum's turned into a loose sticky unsalvageable mess.

- Do you not wet-out your tape to help stretch the edges? (When it dries it gives a good tight wrap.)

That's a new one on me Auchen. Wet the tape? Shoot, I've always just unrolled and wrapped it. Peel the backing off Newbaum's or unroll the Tressostar, which has no paper backing. Stretching as you go. I'm normally with Jim. I never shellac-ed my tape, and almost always used black. In the 70's. In fact, the first time I read about shellac, maybe in the early 90's in the Rivendell catalog, I thought , "that's kinda goofy". But I've tried it an like lightly shellac-ed bars if it the tape is a light color. Helps the whites and lighter colors last longer. But, there is nothing quite so nice as freshly wrapped cotton, un-shellac-ed bar tape. Still can't get into twine though as I learned wrapping from the top down, folding and plugging the ends with Velox rubber. Classic black is good, but I like experimenting with this Newbaum's.

Do people really use shellac or is it varnish? Shellac (made from beetles) is slightly water-soluble. That's why you always used coasters under a cold glass when you placed it on a table with a shellac finish. It would dissolve a ring in the surface if left too long. With luck the ring would go away when it dried again. I can't imagine wanting that u nder my sweaty hands, though maybe people use shellac so it will bet tacky when wet and provide more grip.

Well of course they get ridden, and I was only slightly kidding. But... don't you reach the other end of the display case really really quick? Can't get much of a workout that way. My bikes get dirty just riding around the block.

Shellac it is. Not varnish. It's not made from beetles. It's made from beetle excretions.

I thought that you always used a coaster on a shellaced table because alcohol dissolves shellac.

Doesn't anybody use Viva Japanese cloth tape?