Can you change sti levers without removing bar tape?

As above if the bar clamps in place is it easy to just undo the allen bolt and swap over or should I jus t bite the bullet and pull the tape off

Possibly if jt was a cheats wrap where they stick the cuttin over the clamp. If its a double pass old school tradesman wrap i highly doubt it.

For the seconds it takes to rewrap it would be much less hassle to just unwrap

Just unwrap and use pritt stick to ‘glue’ the tape again.

If it’s a like for like swap – a new lever of the same type to replace the old – then it should be doable. It depends how tightly the wrap is done around the lever. You might run into problems getting the brake cable to line up so that you can feed the inner through from the lever.

It’s simple enough to unwrap as far as just below the lever, secure the wrap with tape (so it doesn’t unwind further while you get the lever swapped), swap the lever, feed through your brake and gear inners then rewrap the tape. The tape will hold its previous shape as a good guide to wrapping it back up again.

Yebbut the proper way to wrap bars is starting at the ends and working inwards, so that means you’ve got to unwrap it all!

Or does it….? This has got me thinking…..!

Yebbut the proper way to wrap bars is starting at the ends and working inwards, so that means you’ve got to unwrap it all!

Or does it….? This has got me thinking…..!

that is the correct way to wrap, but if you are replacing like for like, undo and remove the clamp band from both levers, swap the levers. You won’t have to fully unwrap, just unwrap enough to ensure the cables are fully exposed.

I was about to ask this very question

undo and remove the clamp band from both levers, swap the levers

how fiddly a job is this? Some old altus mtb levers I had donkeys years ago used a clamp band, was a right faff to get them back on.

It’s not hard to reuse bar tape. When you unwrap it, be careful not to tear. The central sticky part can sometimes grab on the next underlayer. But I’ve reused tape many times.

If wrapped properly, you will have to unwrap down to and below the shifters anyway if you want to keep the clamping bands. I’d just keep going.