[Closed] Tips for wrapping road bars?

Really? Google it. Loads of videos out there on youtube. Some tapes can be a bit more fiddly than others but it's pretty simple really. Umm sort out your cables with some electrical tape first is one tip. Patience, take your time, etc.

What tape are you using?

Here...

Most bar tape manufacturers have their own videos too.

Don't do it hungover.

Take your time.

Pull the tape tight.

Do a figure of eight around the brifters.

As above, I love wrapping bars.

What goes wrong when you do it?

Don't do it hungover.

Good tip. Drunk or hungover probably a bad idea. Wait till sober. I don't think the Park Tools guy mentions that one.

Pull the tape tight.

Some tape you pull really tight and stretch it, others just tight enough (e.g. Lizard Skins). Read the instructions.

Do a figure of eight around the brifters.

Opinion divided on this one 🙂

Buy some cheap, non sticky stuff first and practice.

Two lots are far more comfy than one.

It's very therapeutic.
🙂

I didn't have a drop bar bike for ages a few years ago.
I'd forgotten how much fun it is.

Do a figure of eight around the brifters.
Opinion divided on this one

😀 I know, I said it on purpose. Most people seem to hate the term and prefer to call them hoods/levers/shifters/anything else. 😉

Oh and do the figure of eight a couple of times. By the time you've got the first side correct and finished, you will have forgotten how to reverse for the other side.

It's very therapeutic (until you snal the tape). Tape outwards - anti-clockwise on the left and clockwise on the right.

And the obvious point; START FROM THE BOTTOM of the bars!

Avoid tape with sticky-tape on the back, not required for a good tape job as the tension holds it in place. Just means it sticks to your bars and is a horrible job to remove next time it needs replaced.

Start in the middle then wrap outwards ..

I find it a very satisfying job to do and quite enjoyable. I have never tried a wrap starting at the middle and working to the bottom, but I may do next time, just to see how it compares.

Do it indoors in the warm, so that the tape is more flexible.

Having only recently ventured "back" onto drop bars and having slowly updated most bits on my bike including new bars I set about getting my head round this again, over the past few decades everything seems to have gotten more complicated, imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon that YouTube clip advising that you should wrap from the bottom.
😯

That sent me into a right flat spin, and the little slithers so you can't see the bar?
I discarded this momentarily and figure of 8 wrapped the hoods, I started in the middle just because I'm awkward, stuffed the end up the bar and stuck the end Cap in.

As I stood there admiring my handy work I remembered my glove box rattled in the van so I cut the outers off the slithers and using the central sticky bit I attached it and now it's silent. Multi functional

To go off on a slight tangent, can anyone recommend a good bar tape. Ideally I'd like something fairly chunky with a bit of sponginess to it? I'm currently looking at Lizard Skins.

I've got the Lizard Skins DSP tape, I wouldn't say it was spongy? It's more tacky in a sticky way, grippy I suppose is the word but it's weird, looks like it isn't comfy but it is. There are 3 thicknesses and I went for the middle one.

No doubt the thickest one would be chunky but I'm not sure it would be spongy.

SRAM do a spongy one and specialised do one with gel pads stuck underneath to soak up vibrations.

Tape outwards - anti-clockwise on the left and clockwise on the right.

I don't like a figure of 8 at hoods, and by going clockwise on left, anticlockwise on right this means that on the tops the tape goes in direction you pull, i.e. backwards.

which way is your clock facing? 😀

🙂 indeed. Looking forwards from rear of bike ....

I always start at the bottom and do a figure 8 round the sti units. When you tape the ends just put electrical tape on the bar tape itself, don't overlap onto the bars.

The one bit I always muck up is cutting the diagonal on the last wrap at the middle. How the heck do you get that right?

^^^^^ wrap till tape runs out, back off a few turns, keeping it tight, and then cut parallel to the top tube

I've always went from the top down to avoid any tapage - if it's tight enough you don't notice the overlapping ends are facing in & not out

Back in about 1979 I was the bar-wrapper for four months in a bike factory called Comrade Cycles in Darlaston. I must have wrapped about 5,000 bikes with nasty vinyl tape, starting in the middle and finishing at the ends so I bet the tape came off pretty quickly. Can't have been very comfortable either on un-padded bars, but bikes weren't as user-friendly in the pre-carbon, pre-compact days.

Did mine for the first time last year, initially tried the Cinelli Cork based stuff - horrible texture and feel.

Tried the Boardman tape from Halfords and it's still on. Comfy and lasted really well.

I started from the ends of the bars and wound the tape inwards. I seem to have trouble with the overlapping bit that the plug secures in the bar. No matter how much overlap, there's always a bit stuck out.

I used my own electrical tape to neaten the end near the stem.

I seem to have trouble with the overlapping bit that the plug secures in the bar.

This is the bit I always have issues with too, I can never get it neat enough to satisfy my neatness tendencies - I have never checked if I'm just being overly critical of my own efforts or if all efforts look similar, but I don't think I've done a single wrap to date I'm totally happy with in that respect. 🙁

Watch the gcn video it's pretty comprehensive

You need to start at the bottom and tape outwards so that the overlap doesn't leave the leading edge where it rolls up and ruins the tape. As long as you don't expend tons of tape at the bottom of the bars you'll be fine, the tape rolls are pretty long

Get the bars clean before applying new stuff

Have the tape, scissors and electrical tape ready and in a place you can reach it !

I tape from the bottom up so my hands are pushing the free edge of the tape down when they rest on the corners of the tops or the base of the hoods, rather than peeling it back.

It's actually not hard, I think the most important thing is choosing the right tape tbh- I did it with Fizik stuff the first time and it made things much trickier, it was sticky backed so was harder to tweak, and it was also seriously thick and stiff so wouldn't go easily round corners and finishing the outer ends was a total pain. Some tape is much easier than others.

If you are using tape with adhesive, take all the backing of before you start wrapping.

Don't start in the middle, I was taking the piss.. 🙄

Go for a harlequin bar wrap with cloth tape, finish with some whiped cord.

edhornby

You need to start at the bottom and tape outwards so that the overlap doesn't leave the leading edge where it rolls up and ruins the tape.

Have you had problems with this personally? I only ask as i've been doing it top-down for years & never, over many thousands of mainly commuting miles in all weathers, have I had any problems with the exposed edge of the tape rolling up - if it's tight enough you can't really see where the edge is anyway - is it a mainly a CX issue because of the added mud getting worked into it or something?

Only time i've ever had issues with tape have been where new bikes that have came with bars wrapped bottom-up have started to unravel mid-ride when the bit of electrical tape holding it all together gives up.

Tidy 8)

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Always start from the TOP