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  • Tips for replacing road bar tape
  • jamesgarbett
    Free Member

    I hate this job, any tips to make it easier please?

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    Try and clip the bars/front wheel to something solid so they're not flopping around and you can use both hands.
    Peel off the back tape a bit at a time to save the tape from becoming stuck to itself.
    Take your time, it's a job to be enjoyed (honest!)
    Start at the bottom and go inside up, outside down, keep the overlap constant. When it comes to going round the STI's I've seen it done a dozen different ways. Personally I never bother with the little extra bit to stick over the clamp, I do a weird little figure of eight double wrap.
    Trim any excess at a slight angle then finish off with electrical tape (which you will of course have ready cut and easy to hand!)

    Bar tape is a tricky one, most people don't do it often enough to be good at it and a badly wrapped set of bars looks dreadful, especially if it starts unwrapping itself. If you're being really picky you will match the number of turns on each side of the bars – when I rebuilt my girlfriends road bike I had to undo one side of bar tape and redo it to get it to match. 😳

    Steve-Austin
    Free Member

    youtube has some good how to videos. take your time.

    Of course i have no idea as the missus does all of mine. 🙂

    nonk
    Free Member

    i reckon i must have rapped bars over a thousand times and im still sh*t at it.

    Ed2001
    Free Member

    Keep your tape nice n tight and concentrate on even overlap.Taking your time and taking care is repayed by a quality looking job which will last.

    GJP
    Free Member

    I hate this job.

    The mistake I always make is cutting the tape at a taper when you get to the end. Having unwrapped some tape that I had fitted by my LBS when stripping a bike down I realised that you get a better more even finish if you taper from the inside of the tape rather than at the stem side (I think). Seemed counter intuitive to me.

    I also use Spesh tape which is not sticky so you can try and try again.

    westkipper
    Free Member

    The best tip I could give, is to win a major road tour such as the Giro D'Italia, and then threaten ones team mechanic with dismissal if they do a poor job of rewrapping.

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

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