Are you familiar with a bar tape brand called Extram?
Well, I'd say very few people know about it at this point.
While the brand itself is new, the manufacturer has existed for a while—they're the OEM manufacturer behind Spa〇z, Liza〇d Skin, and more recently Fizik's bar tapes, and they've started their own brand.
As for Spa〇z, they're no longer the full OEM supplier; they only supply the outer fabric layer now.
The reason being that only this manufacturer can make that distinctive sticky fabric...
Currently, they're offering bar tapes in these versions:
2.0 Tacky Light
3.0 Tacky Light
2.5 Tacky
2.0 Tacky Hybrid
—where the numbers indicate thickness in millimeters.
Looking at the manufacturer's homepage
it's been saying "coming soon" for about two months now.
I wrote "coming soon" (with an extra character) as a jab at a spelling mistake, so don't mind that.
I was planning to hold off on posting this article until they announced it officially, but I can't wait anymore.
↑These are the 2.0 and 3.0 Tacky Light versions.
The box thickness differs because the bar tape thickness differs.
It looks like Liza〇d Skin? Well, of course—they're the manufacturer.
This Tacky Light, especially the 2mm version, sells really well.
What's remarkable about this bar tape is that for a tape with decent thickness that actually functions as bar tape, it's incredibly light.
↑By excluding other bar tapes with that definition, I mean things like Cat Eye's Shiny or Sugino's paper bar tape.
When you hold it, you go "whoa!" at how light it is, and your visual expectations don't match the actual weight in your hand.
As shown in the image above, the 2.0 uncut version weighs 25.8g per side, and the stated weight for the pair is 50g, so they're honest about it.
The 3.0 stated weight is 60g, by the way.
I'm not sure how they achieve this lightness (maybe it's porous with air pockets?), but when actually wrapped, the 2.0 feels like Liza〇d Skin's 1.8mm, and the 3.0 feels like Liza〇d Skin's 2.5mm.
Tacky Light comes in all 10 colors for both thicknesses.
It looks like there are two blacks, but the ones ending in BK is black, GR is gray, and GR1 is light gray.
It's not a photography issue—the difference between black and dark gray is actually indistinguishable to the naked eye.
Black has a black backing while dark gray has white backing, but this color hardly affects the wrapped appearance...
(Since the side is this color, if you wrap the gray, you'll get a white outline effect).
The bar end caps are plastic,
and the logo portion on the end is made with reflective material.
This specification was proposed by someone at a Japanese distributor, and it seems the brand itself owes a lot to that distributor's leadership.
The end tape quality isn't bad either.
It's good enough to actually use.
Most manufacturers' end tape I don't use—I have my own tape I prefer—but this one is decent.
I always use tapes that match the bar tape material, like Spa〇z or Liza〇d Skin, and I absolutely won't use the narrow, oddly stiff, fluttery stuff from O〇K or Si〇va. Fizik's recent complete model change made their end tape feel cheap.
Next I wanted to cover the 2.5 Tacky, but I've never stocked it and don't have photos.
Given that Tacky Light has that incredible lightness, I thought a 2.5 might be a tough sell.
It comes in three colors—black, gray (distinctly different from black), and red—with a stated weight of 90g.
Finally, the 2.0 Tacky Hybrid.
Colors are black base with gray text, red text (as in the image above), and white text—three options—with a stated weight of 115g.
It feels substantial to hold, but that's not because it's heavy; it's because the Tacky Light is so light.
Here's the gray-text version.
Half the bar tape has a soft, suede-like feel, and the other half has a sticky, grippy texture,
↑and here's what the transition looks like.
Here's an actual wrapped example.
Both the distributor and athletes who actually use it recommend putting the soft side on the drop bars, so that's what I did.
The transition happens just right at the bracket back, at the final upward wrap...
I did a temporary wrap first,
adjusted the length at the handlebar end, then cut it.
Also, I wrap it thicker around just the bracket area because people who primarily use the bracket position wear through the bar tape quickly with their gloves.
About this brand's name: initially, even the distributor people pronounced it as "Extreme," but then in some materials they handed me recently, it was written as "Extram." So I asked when they came by today, and they said it "hasn't been decided yet."
So I said to them, "If you search 'Extreme Bar Tape' you'll get results for Extreme Tape from saddle brand Astute, so maybe you should avoid using the generic term 'Extreme' and go with 'Extram' instead?" And they were like, "Okay, let's go with that!" Just like that.
If "Extram" gets officially adopted, I guess I was the one who pushed for it last.
Bonus content (might delete if I get yelled at)
My cyclocross bike currently has a 3.0 Tacky Light pilot/prototype version wrapped on it.
The end tape and bar end logo differ from the retail version.
Also, the packaging and
the pattern on the bar tape's outer layer are different.
There's also a simpler packaging version, and we've been selling these to regular customers for quite a while now (without displaying them in the shop), but the other day a customer came in asking "Do you have Extreme bar tape?" and bought a 2.0 Tacky Hybrid.
When I asked how they knew about Extreme, they said they found out through social media.
One more bonus
↑This is a customer's bar tape that I photographed for this article—both are 2mm versions of the old Fizik Microtex Tacky bar tape.
This bar tape was, as far as I know, "the ultimate bar tape that doesn't slip even bare-handed," but it's been discontinued.
Rather than discontinued, it was more like it disappeared due to a full model change (apparently they changed OEM manufacturers 〈in a deadpan voice〉).
Before this came out, I used the Microtex Soft Touch 2mm version (→here). That's discontinued too.
I mentioned Coca-Cola's New Coke situation earlier, and this is similar—I don't think it's good to casually discontinue existing products when launching new ones.
The difference with Coke is that this isn't in-house manufacturing.
Many people don't notice, but the old Fizik bar tape's embossed pattern is Fizik's ":k" logo repeated endlessly.
This is the current Fizik Tacky bar tape wrapped on my bike.
↑An image I can reuse in the next article
At 2mm thickness, the outer layer pattern looks like this.
The way they don't cut a groove where the logo goes, combined with other details, it looks just like a Vittoria Corsa tire.
There are two approaches to 2mm thickness: the center is 2mm and it tapers toward the edges, or the center and edges are both a uniform 2mm with a square cross-section. The old Fizik uses the former, this one uses the latter.
That's why the bar tape edges create a step, and while the stated 2mm isn't a lie, it feels thicker.
The bare-hand grip feel that I prioritize is good compared to bar tape overall, but it's completely different from the old Fizik Tacky texture.
The logo is embossed on both sides of the bar tape—one side stays black, the other becomes white.
If you wrap it to hide the white, it looks completely black; if you show it, you get this speckled look.
Finally, a thought:
While many companies make Tacky bar tapes, I've never seen the opposite—a smooth or slick bar tape with an official name for that category.
Well, I'd say very few people know about it at this point.
While the brand itself is new, the manufacturer has existed for a while—they're the OEM manufacturer behind Spa〇z, Liza〇d Skin, and more recently Fizik's bar tapes, and they've started their own brand.
As for Spa〇z, they're no longer the full OEM supplier; they only supply the outer fabric layer now.
The reason being that only this manufacturer can make that distinctive sticky fabric...
Currently, they're offering bar tapes in these versions:
2.0 Tacky Light
3.0 Tacky Light
2.5 Tacky
2.0 Tacky Hybrid
—where the numbers indicate thickness in millimeters.
Looking at the manufacturer's homepage
it's been saying "coming soon" for about two months now.
I wrote "coming soon" (with an extra character) as a jab at a spelling mistake, so don't mind that.
I was planning to hold off on posting this article until they announced it officially, but I can't wait anymore.
↑These are the 2.0 and 3.0 Tacky Light versions.
The box thickness differs because the bar tape thickness differs.
It looks like Liza〇d Skin? Well, of course—they're the manufacturer.
This Tacky Light, especially the 2mm version, sells really well.
What's remarkable about this bar tape is that for a tape with decent thickness that actually functions as bar tape, it's incredibly light.
↑By excluding other bar tapes with that definition, I mean things like Cat Eye's Shiny or Sugino's paper bar tape.
When you hold it, you go "whoa!" at how light it is, and your visual expectations don't match the actual weight in your hand.
As shown in the image above, the 2.0 uncut version weighs 25.8g per side, and the stated weight for the pair is 50g, so they're honest about it.
The 3.0 stated weight is 60g, by the way.
I'm not sure how they achieve this lightness (maybe it's porous with air pockets?), but when actually wrapped, the 2.0 feels like Liza〇d Skin's 1.8mm, and the 3.0 feels like Liza〇d Skin's 2.5mm.
Tacky Light comes in all 10 colors for both thicknesses.
It looks like there are two blacks, but the ones ending in BK is black, GR is gray, and GR1 is light gray.
It's not a photography issue—the difference between black and dark gray is actually indistinguishable to the naked eye.
Black has a black backing while dark gray has white backing, but this color hardly affects the wrapped appearance...
(Since the side is this color, if you wrap the gray, you'll get a white outline effect).
The bar end caps are plastic,
and the logo portion on the end is made with reflective material.
This specification was proposed by someone at a Japanese distributor, and it seems the brand itself owes a lot to that distributor's leadership.
The end tape quality isn't bad either.
It's good enough to actually use.
Most manufacturers' end tape I don't use—I have my own tape I prefer—but this one is decent.
I always use tapes that match the bar tape material, like Spa〇z or Liza〇d Skin, and I absolutely won't use the narrow, oddly stiff, fluttery stuff from O〇K or Si〇va. Fizik's recent complete model change made their end tape feel cheap.
Next I wanted to cover the 2.5 Tacky, but I've never stocked it and don't have photos.
Given that Tacky Light has that incredible lightness, I thought a 2.5 might be a tough sell.
It comes in three colors—black, gray (distinctly different from black), and red—with a stated weight of 90g.
Finally, the 2.0 Tacky Hybrid.
Colors are black base with gray text, red text (as in the image above), and white text—three options—with a stated weight of 115g.
It feels substantial to hold, but that's not because it's heavy; it's because the Tacky Light is so light.
Here's the gray-text version.
Half the bar tape has a soft, suede-like feel, and the other half has a sticky, grippy texture,
↑and here's what the transition looks like.
Here's an actual wrapped example.
Both the distributor and athletes who actually use it recommend putting the soft side on the drop bars, so that's what I did.
The transition happens just right at the bracket back, at the final upward wrap...
I did a temporary wrap first,
adjusted the length at the handlebar end, then cut it.
Also, I wrap it thicker around just the bracket area because people who primarily use the bracket position wear through the bar tape quickly with their gloves.
About this brand's name: initially, even the distributor people pronounced it as "Extreme," but then in some materials they handed me recently, it was written as "Extram." So I asked when they came by today, and they said it "hasn't been decided yet."
So I said to them, "If you search 'Extreme Bar Tape' you'll get results for Extreme Tape from saddle brand Astute, so maybe you should avoid using the generic term 'Extreme' and go with 'Extram' instead?" And they were like, "Okay, let's go with that!" Just like that.
If "Extram" gets officially adopted, I guess I was the one who pushed for it last.
Bonus content (might delete if I get yelled at)
My cyclocross bike currently has a 3.0 Tacky Light pilot/prototype version wrapped on it.
The end tape and bar end logo differ from the retail version.
Also, the packaging and
the pattern on the bar tape's outer layer are different.
There's also a simpler packaging version, and we've been selling these to regular customers for quite a while now (without displaying them in the shop), but the other day a customer came in asking "Do you have Extreme bar tape?" and bought a 2.0 Tacky Hybrid.
When I asked how they knew about Extreme, they said they found out through social media.
One more bonus
↑This is a customer's bar tape that I photographed for this article—both are 2mm versions of the old Fizik Microtex Tacky bar tape.
This bar tape was, as far as I know, "the ultimate bar tape that doesn't slip even bare-handed," but it's been discontinued.
Rather than discontinued, it was more like it disappeared due to a full model change (apparently they changed OEM manufacturers 〈in a deadpan voice〉).
Before this came out, I used the Microtex Soft Touch 2mm version (→here). That's discontinued too.
I mentioned Coca-Cola's New Coke situation earlier, and this is similar—I don't think it's good to casually discontinue existing products when launching new ones.
Many people don't notice, but the old Fizik bar tape's embossed pattern is Fizik's ":k" logo repeated endlessly.
This is the current Fizik Tacky bar tape wrapped on my bike.
↑An image I can reuse in the next article
At 2mm thickness, the outer layer pattern looks like this.
The way they don't cut a groove where the logo goes, combined with other details, it looks just like a Vittoria Corsa tire.
There are two approaches to 2mm thickness: the center is 2mm and it tapers toward the edges, or the center and edges are both a uniform 2mm with a square cross-section. The old Fizik uses the former, this one uses the latter.
That's why the bar tape edges create a step, and while the stated 2mm isn't a lie, it feels thicker.
The bare-hand grip feel that I prioritize is good compared to bar tape overall, but it's completely different from the old Fizik Tacky texture.
The logo is embossed on both sides of the bar tape—one side stays black, the other becomes white.
If you wrap it to hide the white, it looks completely black; if you show it, you get this speckled look.
Finally, a thought:
While many companies make Tacky bar tapes, I've never seen the opposite—a smooth or slick bar tape with an official name for that category.