Firstly, I’ll confess to owning a road bike and even riding it now and again.

I need new bar tape as the existing stuff has gone minging but I know nothing about this. Having googled it I think I’d like padded tape and lizard skins 3.2 seems to be the recommended tape in a lot of places but it is (in my eyes) unbelievably expensive for a bit of posh tape. Does anyone else have an alternative suggestion?

Thanks

Natural Cork tape

Tortec Super Comfort is a decent alternative to LS and is a fair bit easier to wrap too.

Lizard skin DSP is the nicest, not cheap but worth it.

+1 Tortec. Excellent choice for comfort and a doddle to put on.

Have a look at Widget Tacky Wrap from Merlin – £8 reduced from about £30 – I find it excellent and unbelievable value for money!

The Park tools vid is great, I use the method 3, which is about 8 mins in, and it has always worked well for me.. Plus 1 on Lizard skins DSP, it’s not that expensive if it lasts a year IMO.

I’ve found that the Lizard Skins stuff doesn’t last that long, maybe 3-4000 km for me. The rubbery surface is really thin, and once it wears out on one spot it starts peeling off the (grey) fibrous backing, which looks horrible and doesn’t feel very nice.

I don’t really care what I have wrapped on, since if I wear gloves, the only discernible thing is the thickness of the padding, as any tape will have sufficient grip with a decent pair.

If you want durability, Fizik Superlight and avoid white unless you enjoy cleaning it daily. Wrap your bars first with electrical tape which means that you can remove and refit the tape literally as many times as you like. Leave the bar tape on a radiator to warm-up before wrapping as it becomes stretchier.