Handlebar Tape and pads

ogre

My tape is alittle on the thin side.... I bought the bike and specced it in naive ignorance.

What shall I get to protect my delicate little hands? A friend suggested Specialised BarPhat and another said about tape with pads underneath.

Does anyone have any good hints? :?

redddraggon

Padded mitts will be fine.

Pozzatto rode Paris-Roubaix with a single layer of thin unpadded fizik tape, so just mitts should be fine.

acorn_user

Sure, but Pozzato is hard core. Remember Museeuw riding cross tubs with the knobs shaved off?

I really like Specialized Bar Phat. There are some other copies of it, and I'm sure they will work well too. Then get some nice padded gloves too. That helps a lot with West Virginia roads...

redddraggon

acorn_user wrote:

Sure, but Pozzato is hard core.

Off the Pave (even on the poor(ish) British roads), surely single bar tape is fine with mitts?

APIII

For me it is, but other things like not having carbon steerer, tyre choice, etc all make a difference. I remember seeing a guy at the end of the London-Canterbury ride last year in a lot of distress from the pain of road buzz in his hands. Give the Bar Phat a try, you can always dump the gel if it doesn't work out, and reuse the tape.

dennisn

Cork tape and thinly padded mitts work for me.

Dennis Noward

gkerr4

i like a chunkier feeling handlebar - just feels nicer to use.

that said - the barphat stuff is available in two sizes and the thickest is ridiculously thick - 4.5mm I think - I had it on my trek pilot for a while but got rid of it - far too thick.

On the langster (on s-works aerobars) I have the 2.5mm barphat pads wrapped in s-works cork tape - very nice - thick and padded but not OTT

good stuff.

Hugh A

I have had trouble with numbness in my hands from the bars - and on various different bikes. Even with decent mitts I like to have something besides the single layer of bar tape, so I would go for it if you think you'll need it.

Bar phat is pretty good. There are also a few similar things on the market. I've just got some Marsas tape to fit to my new bike, as I think it is slightly better when new (it does lose its give over time). It is also marginally lighter.

I reckon any decent cork tape helps too.

toontra

I put 2 layers of tape on my bars, but then this is for doing 150m+ days back to back. Any less and my hands/wrists get the judder and my little finger and side of my palm goes numb.

Single layer with pads would probably work as well (or better) so I'll try this when my tape wears out.

velocitizen

Bikebodger would reccomend getting an old innertube and cutting out the valve, tape the bar with it and bar tape over the top, comfort, no cost and another tube kept out of Landfill. Never tried it myself, but thought I would throw it in.

edeverett

I've got the Fizik bar padding stuff on the bars on my good bike and I'd recommend it any day. Half my motivation was to increase the diameter of the bar, but the feel of the bar with this is really nice.

As with most things, a bigger tyre will make you more comfortable but I found this does relieve some fatigue on the hands.

blorg

ogre- I'm presuming you do have gloves which you are happy with otherwise (would make much more of a difference than different varieties of bar tape in my experience.)

keebo

I have Bar Phat on my Roubaix & Fizik gel pads on my winter bike - both are very good