Philly Bar Tape

It's a new brand, Newbaum's ("baum" doesn't mean "brand"), and it's made by Philadelphians and dyed with earth-friendly dyes. Compared to Tressostar, let's see:

Width:
Tressostar:19.5mm
Viva:19.5mm
Newbaum's:19.05mm (3/4-in.) So close enough.

Length:
Tressostar: 8.5 feet
Vivian: 8.25 feet
Newbaum's: 10 feet. Longer stubs!

Here's a video of Mark wrapping and twining a pair of drop bars.

The weight is the same. It's a V-weave, not a W-weave. Tresso and Yvette have both. No biggie there. It wraps easily and looks great

The real news is that it even exists. It's 2010, and all the news is bad or high tech. But there's this tape mill in Philadelphia, near where the Liberty Bell was made, and out from nowhere they show up with bar tape. And they did a great job of it, even, horrors, without our input.

We can now boast or hang our heads in embarrassment knowing that we have way too friggin' many colors and brands of cotton bar tape. But at this stage it's good to encourage the newcomer, and so we're stocking it. Three brands, more than thirty-five colors, many of them nearly identical but nearly isn't exactly.

Each one can be shellacked, and whether you go with clear or amber, the resulting color will vary, so all in all---more than 100 variants are possible. This is no good, but it is not terrible. Don't marry any color. Try a few, change around, see what you like, mix 'em up!

Newbaum's has some colors new to us: A Kelly green (called "Grassy"), a plum (eggplant), maroon, a slightly brighter yellowy green (lime green), a blue that's almost periwinkle, the best elephant grey I've seen, Mary Kay pink, and then some more familiars. Oddly, no white, but we have that in other colors, and white bar tape means you're trying to be like Eddy Merckx, and if that's the case you probably insist on Tressostar (oops, Newbaum's does have a White sorry).

We say try some of this new Philly tape. Don't overthink it; just wrap it on, twine it off, shellac it if you like, and ride like Tonto!



At least two rolls of Tresso and Viva tape are needed for bars up to 44cm wide; three rolls if your bars are 46cm or wider.

Only two rolls of Newbaum's are needed for even the widest bars since the tape is so long.