My Terry Isis came with white bar tape, which looked grubby almost immediately. Changed it out for black, and what an improvement!

I really like colored bar tape, though, if there's a good one that matches the bike. I spec'd out the prettiest matching "Bordeaux" tape for my raspberry-colored Aegis Swift, and bright blue for my white Bike Friday (with matching blue Candy SL pedals).

So now that I am doing the mountain biking thing, I'm wondering about replacing the boring black grips on my new bike with colored ones, like these. The blue ones would look good with my front fork, which is also blue, and I am going to put the blue Candy SL pedals on too. I just like color! I don't even mind being just a little bit over the top.

Back to the original comment, though, I have noticed the white bar tape on the tour riders' bikes (so clean, so sparkling fresh, so pretty), and last night the photographer did a close up of one of their immaculate white bikes. I commented to my husband that you could sure tell that someone (not the riders!) was spit-cleaning their bikes every night after the stage!

Emily