Bar tape for my Langster - Martini colour scheme

daniel_b

Rolf F wrote:

Funny thing is, with all the extra red, it doesn't look like a Martini livery anymore. More red and white with a bit of blue.

Now I do see where you are coming from there - as far as I could see there was no matching blue for the tyres, and personally (And this is a very personal thing of course) I find all black tyres a bit boring on my bikes - I like a bit of colour in my life.

I have never had white bar tape, so perhaps incorrectly assumed it would be a total mare to keep clean.

I feel the tyres, bars and stem work well, as do the jagwire cables, the only thing I am a bit disappointed with (Although I have learnt how to wrap bars as a result so it's still useful) is the resulting colour of the bar tape - in untensioned format it seemed to match the red of the bike, but now it looks a far lighter shade of red.

Some suitable blue bar tape would work better I think - finding the right shade is a challenge though.

Here is another pic in better light:


Enjoying all the comments though, keep em coming

talius

Would suit white seatpost / forks?

daniel_b

Talius wrote:

Would suit white seatpost / forks?

Agreed that might work - seatpost easy enough to do, forks a fair it more work expense?

Closest blue I can find tape wise is this cheapo deda one:


Might order it and a few others to see, what with free returns and all that.

vermin

I get what you're trying to do and it's your (rather lovely) bike so you are free to design it as you please, but ...

The thing is, the Martini colour pallet is white, with stripes:



There is no red bumper here. Or red steering wheel. The colour used for other details is a dark navy bue, colour-picked from the stripes. Otherwise, it's a bit of chrome and some black tyres. Bright colours elsewhere would simply draw the eye away from the vivid stripes and lessen their impact which, to my mind, is what has happened on your bike.

Perhaps very dark navy tape might work, if not white.

daniel_b

vermin wrote:

I get what you're trying to do and it's your (rather lovely) bike so you are free to design it as you please, but ...

The thing is, the Martini colour pallet is white, with stripes:

There is no red bumper here. Or red steering wheel. The colour used for other details is a dark navy bue, colour-picked from the stripes. Otherwise, it's a bit of chrome and some black tyres. Bright colours elsewhere would simply draw the eye away from the vivid stripes and lessen their impact which, to my mind, is what has happened on your bike.

Perhaps very dark navy tape might work, if not white.

Cheers for the comments Vermin, all constructive, and I can see a lot of if not all of your points.

Talking about the stripes though, do you not think the light blue would be an option from above, as that seems to make up a reasonable portion of the striping no?
In which case that was what I was thinking of in the tape above - if not then I agree that white would probably be the only other solution.

vermin

Daniel B wrote:

Cheers for the comments Vermin, all constructive, and I can see a lot of if not all of your points.

Talking about the stripes though, do you not think the light blue would be an option from above, as that seems to make up a reasonable portion of the striping no?
In which case that was what I was thinking of in the tape above - if not then I agree that white would probably be the only other solution.

I reckon you would just face the same issue, replacing one bright, eye-catching colour with another. I think you'd lose the impact of the stripes if you went with anything other than white or very dark blue.

daniel_b

vermin wrote:

Daniel B wrote:

Cheers for the comments Vermin, all constructive, and I can see a lot of if not all of your points.

Talking about the stripes though, do you not think the light blue would be an option from above, as that seems to make up a reasonable portion of the striping no?
In which case that was what I was thinking of in the tape above - if not then I agree that white would probably be the only other solution.

I reckon you would just face the same issue, replacing one bright, eye-catching colour with another. I think you'd lose the impact of the stripes if you went with anything other than white or very dark blue.

Point taken - well I have ordered a few varieties of white tape from Wiggle, some Deda, Fizik and Cinelli, so will see what turns up next week, and probably re-tape the bars.

rolf_f

Just go with the Fizik stuff - that can be kept pretty whitish without too much fuss. Cork tapes I'm not convinced will ever stay white for long though people on here have claimed success so who knows!

I found the Deda tape tears easily.

I'd try to avoid dark blue for the tape (though it is the best practical option!) just because there's already a lot of dark about the bars now.

daniel_b

I've ordered 2 Deda tapes - white and the sky blue to compare with the frame colours, but take your point, reviews seem VERY variable, but then it is cheap I guess.

Two Fiziks - the super shiny one, and the normal one - again reviews seem very variable on this, some people saying it is a bugger to wrap properly - wonder if that is partly because it comes flat as opposed to rolled, so perhaps a simple re-rolling and leaving for a few days might help with regards to that.

And the white version of the red Cinelli I fitted.

If I do go with the Fizik, which I believe is pretty thin, I am contemplating leaving a single layer of red cinelli underneath (especially as it is now pretty much useless to me!) the thinner Fizik tape - good or bad idea?

Kieran_Burns

I still think this should be a CX bike.

"Any time, any place, anywhere..."

MonkeyMonster

Not need a blue saddle to counter the overall red effect?

rolf_f

Daniel B wrote:

I've ordered 2 Deda tapes - white and the sky blue to compare with the frame colours, but take your point, reviews seem VERY variable, but then it is cheap I guess.

Two Fiziks - the super shiny one, and the normal one - again reviews seem very variable on this, some people saying it is a bugger to wrap properly - wonder if that is partly because it comes flat as opposed to rolled, so perhaps a simple re-rolling and leaving for a few days might help with regards to that.

And the white version of the red Cinelli I fitted.

If I do go with the Fizik, which I believe is pretty thin, I am contemplating leaving a single layer of red cinelli underneath (especially as it is now pretty much useless to me!) the thinner Fizik tape - good or bad idea?

I don't think Fizik is that hard to wrap - it isn't so stretchy as some so it is easy to find a crinkle in it - generally just after you've finished wrapping the end off. But easy enough to go back over it again.

Re putting the new stuff over the red tape. Those bars are very fat looking as it is. White makes things look bigger than they are. Wrapping white over that red is quite likely going to make the bars look like they've been made out of the dismembered limbs of a Michelin man......