Newbaum's Cloth Bar Tape

Let me get this outta the way first: cloth bar tape and foam padding don’t mix. It’s a recipe for a lumpy, ugly tape job. Furthermore, almost all foam bases in tape are of really terrible quality, and the foam just packs down after a few rides, leaving you with lumpy, ugly, unpadded tape. If you want padded cloth tape, great! Get some Fizik gel and put it under the tape. It lasts ages, works better than any foam, and your tape looks 97% normal. No lumps, unless you put some chicken nuggets under the tape while you wrap. Don’t do that. It’s not worth it.

Newbaum’s tape is the burly kid on the block, as far as cloth tapes go. Beefier cloth, lots of glue on the back of the tape. This is a good tape to either leave raw, with no shellac, or to shellac the hell out of. It needs at least 3 layers of shellac to not feel sand papery. Good news is, if you do end up shellacing these with 5 layers of shellac, you will basically never need to replace your bar tape. It’s super tough.

It’s grippy, which is a good thing. Colors are good, deep, and don’t fade super fast. Lots of options. The tape itself is made in Philly, so you know it’s legit.  I once saw two Tow trucks in a high speed chase with the cops in Philly.  

Start wrapping with a dab of super glue gel, and finish with twine and a dab of super glue gel. Pre wrap the brake lever area with 2 strips of tape (it's kinda narrow), to make life easier.

Sold as a pair.

A quick guide on how to wrap your bars with a harlequin tape pattern:

1. Buy 4 rolls of Newbaums, from Analog Cycles, your friendly friends to the north.
2. Watch 3 youtube videos, at least one of which should be about cats.
3. Start to try to wrap your bars.
4. Watch in frustration as the tape sticks to itself more or less immediately, and won’t come unstuck without wrenching a hole in the tape.
5. Work for at least 40 minutes but only make it 3 inches down the bar before your elevated heart rate causes you to reach for a double IPA.
6. End up crying on your workbench, smearing your recent copy of Bicycle Quarterly, making it look as if Jan Heine is riding a melting hot dog.
7. Call your OCD friend who smokes a lot of weed and ask them to do your bars.
8. Reorder 4 rolls of tape from Analog Cycles, your friendly friends to the north. Or south, we like Canadians too.