himespau 

I never had problems with my Fizik 3 mm bar tape (microtex bondcush) or white hoods until I rode on them once with brand new gloves (black leather palms) that I had never washed before. So ugly now. I need to get out a magic eraser and see how that works on them. It was a bike that I'd used exclusively on my trainer (gloves only to absorb sweat and slow bar corrosion), and it was shortly after that ride that I put my newly built up bike that fits me better on the trainer and I haven't ridden the bike with white tape since. I swear it has nothing to do with how sad looking at the tape makes me.

rosefarts

My Spectrum had white bar tape when I acquired it. At the time, it had spent the prior 30 years in the basement of a pretty heavy smoker. It had yellow film from the smoke, as did the rest of the bike.

Once I started cleaning it, the tape cleaned up fine. I ended up using cotton tape and shellac since I had a different vision for the cockpit. But the tape was pretty ok.

It appeared to be a decent quality leather with a shiny finish to it. It wasn’t porous to soak in road grime.

Tape like that still exists although I think the dark tan colors look much better than white.

Cloth tape and a liberal amount of shellac is pretty much impenetrable. A deep yellow is the lightest color possible using that technique. The ride is a lot more harsh too, mine is mostly a garage queen though.