robertj298 

After quite a while I found hoods that fir the Dia Compe Gran Compe brake levers on my 84 Team Fuji. A
member was kind enough to send me a set no charge.So now that I have the hoods I need to put new
bar tape on. I want to try cloth tape and I have 2 rolls of the blue tape pictured which isn't an exact match or would you suggest yellow?

due ruote 

The blue doesn't work for me. Yellow is kind of obvious I guess, but it's sometimes hard to match, and the wrong shade always looks sort of pathetic to my eye. I would probably just go with black to match the saddle. It's a pretty bike, and an argument can be made for letting the frame do the talking.

ridelikeaturtle

This might be the only time I recommend black, but since the saddle and tyres are already black, it could work.

White is my preferred "neutral" option, and it normally goes surprisingly well with yellow. Being a third color in this case, means it will match perfectly (with itself)

Do you like bright, or dark? White or black, there you go.

AUPedla

Black or white, yellow is pretty out there. I only did this as it's a display bike.

Unca_Sam

The easy match is dark blue, not the bright medium blue you bought. Would this bike have had shiny tape stock? I know some of the Benotto tapes out there have a blue thats a ringer for the paint color, but Dark Blue Newbaums.

I'm here for this thread

robertj298 

Yes the original was shiny ribbon which had fad

ed over the years

davester

My Miyata has a similar color scheme and I went with yellow tape. I really like it, especially with the yellow cables, which you also have.

SurferRosa

For me, it all goes together: tape, hoods and tire walls. Change one, I might want to change to another.

With an open palette, I would first look at the catalog. It seems, Fuji always made the right choices with respect to these three (or four, because they used different colored/texture saddles as well). Even if you're not a Fuji fan, you gotta admit their catalog pages of their lightweights are pretty sweet.

Andy_K 

White cloth tape becomes brown cloth tape very quickly. I would expect the same to be true of yellow, and to a lesser extent blue. With white tape, it's a good look. It shows the bike has been ridden. With yellow, you're probably going for "pop" and the dirt would take that away in a hurry.

As others have mentioned, "almost matching" colors can look really bad. I think you could probably match that yellow, and I think that would look great, but not with cloth.

My yellow bar tape bike:




The Salsa cork tape cleans up pretty well, but you can see here that it's showing a bit of dirt.

Cloth ends up more like this:



(No, I don't use the drops much, but the camera is hiding some dirt even there.)

tolfan

You already have the yellow cable housing. The bike has yellow accents. Yellow tape and a yellow seat.

Unca_Sam

That last part is the hardest to pull off. Well, cheaply, anyway.

Soody

pink tape would look nice
that's a lovely bike btw
the headbadge and chrome fork crown are really cool

polymorphself 

I would do yellow tape and probably a dark brown Brooks pro.

If you go cloth it’s cheap enough and easy to install making it easier to experiment with.

polymorphself 

Pink actually could be great here. Sometimes going purposefully outside of any color expectations just works and adds some character.

Maybe consider looking for a multi colored tape. Like blue with yellow dots or something. They’re out there.

Insidious C. 

Your frame already has a lot of color. While bar tape ~matching the yellow head tube might look okay, you can't go wrong with black.

Roypercy

This might sound strange, but I think red cloth tape might look really cool.

degan

Are you going to shellac the cloth tape? If so, I think you can probably get something that matches the blue of the frame pretty close depending on how many coats you go with. Wrapping bars in bright colors only works if its a bonkers paint job, like a Miami Vice or splatter or something already gaudy on purpose. That Fuji's got a classic, understated look, yellow would be too much. Like putting spinner rims on a old Jag. If not blue, black to match the saddle.

Phil_gretz

There's your answer ^.

jamesdak 

If it helps, here's a few from my Team Fuji.

This is with the stock blue still.



And then with the yellow I finally decided on. I did like the look with the yellow a whole lot more.

juvela

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grey

there is so much colour happening already, more colour is overkill

the grey will look good when new and also as it ages/collects soiling

bright colour on casing and bar wrap can often give the completed machine that dreaded "worked on" look...

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ctrl_space

+1

h_curtis

Bike looks more purple than blue. Blue tape doesn't look right. Yellow is best, black is second best.

robertj298 

Strange. The only yellow on my Team Fuji is on the headset like in the stock photo someone posted

jamesdak 

They are just different year models is all.

Leonie

Agreed. With the purple tint of the bike blue tape would add more colors and could come across cluttered. I'd go for a color match on yellow for an intense complementary color look, or more discreetly with black (or purple if it goes with the frame color).