In case anyone was looking to add a retro touch to their handlebars, I just wrapped my track bars with the Stella Azzurra tape that is perforated and stitched with white thread.

It's very oldschool looking and finishes my retro/mod Pista.

How does that tape feel? Is it particularly thick or thin? Does the stitching feel weird to your hands? I love the look of that tape and would like to use it on a retro build. It looks great!

How does that tape feel? Is it particularly thick or thin? Does the stitching feel weird to your hands? I love the look of that tape and would like to use it on a retro build. It looks great!

I've changed all my bikes over to this tape. It is the most comforatable tape I've ever used. It has a very cushy feel.
FYI, the Colorado Cyclist Douglas brand and the RavX brand is the same tape. The only problem I've had is it's hard to keep clean. I have black on two bikes, white on one and red on another..

How does that tape feel? Is it particularly thick or thin? Does the stitching feel weird to your hands?
I would describe the tape as medium in thickness. It's thicker than the old Benotto cloth tape, but not as thick as today's cork tape.

Cork has a sponge like softness to them, whereas these S. Azzurra ones feel more firm and less cushy. It doesn't dampen as well as cork IMO, but I still like it. It has a very grippy rubber like texture and surface. I wrapped with a little more overlap and it has just the right amount of cush.

I don't even feel the stitching when riding, even when riding gloveless.

They come in solid and dual colors. Their super grippy rubber texture does stain easily. I locked up my bike to a rack and now there is a black streak on it from where it contacted the pole. My cork tape used to just dust off, but these take a damp cloth and some muscle to keep clean.

Colorado Cyclist has these under their house Douglas name for less (http://www.coloradocyclist.com/common/products/productdisplay2_v2.cfm?PRRFNBR=31665&CGRFNBR=597&CRPCGNBR=597&CI=1,225,485,597&TextMode=0). My LBS sells the Stella Azzurra for $19 and the Douglas ones are $15.

http://www.coloradocyclist.com/images/products/full/dxxlj2c04.jpg

Note on colors.

The Douglas/Colorado Cyclist photo I linked above is a little misleading.

I can only speak for the red version...

It's not as bright and intense of a red as they photo shows. It's more of a dull red as you can see in my photo of my Bianchi. I actually the dull red is more retro looking anyways, so I think it's a good thing.

Meat, that looks great on your Pista. I am going to keep an eye out for some for my retro Trek project, thanks for the heads up!

Update...

This bar tape gets dirty quite easily, and I am a clean person too. The tacky rubber texture is great for grip, but it seems to bond to dirt quite well. I used a damp rag and soapy water to clean and it comes off mostly.

i just wrapped some bars with SA. maybe it was the fact that i wasn't able to keep the bike stable, or because my scissors wouldn't cut the stuff, but my wrap came out looking very shitty. especially at the end of the bar.

can some of you guys take some pictures of y'all's bar cap area? i'm almost disappointed enough to re-wrap.

I have really sharp art supply store scissors, so I may have just lucked out and had nice easy cuts.

It does take more precision to wrap with the SA tape to evenly expose the stitching. The trick is to be figure out the amount of overlap you want. Then as you wrap, constantly maintain that equidistance as your proceed. When you get to the curves of the drops, you do have to stretch it a little more to pick up the slack and buildup, otherwise you'll have a lot of excess material that will crease when wrap the next pass.

As for the beginning of the wrap, I did start will less of an overlap than with cork. For cork, I typically start with two straighter wraps before beginning the diagonal direction. I only did one wrap before starting the diagonal.

I'll take some pics of my bar caps later and post them for you. It was the slowest bar wrap I have done, but well worth the time and effort I think. Now if only it was easy to keep clean...