I am truly awful at....

Noclue
Noclue Posts: 503
edited January 2011 in Road beginners
....wrapping bar tape. Whats the secret, it never goes well for me.
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Comments

  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    Son was given a tatty old Peugeot so I'm helping patch it up. Never done bar tape before, so I just watched a couple of Youtube videos then gave it a go with some tape from Halfords. I have to say, the results look pretty tidy. Secret seems to be keeping decent tension in the tape, and overlapping so the central adhesive strip is on the bar rather than the previous bit of tape.

    I'm now confident enough to change the bars on my bike!
  • Bobbinogs
    Bobbinogs Posts: 4,841
    This is a great site http://bicycletutor.com/guide/

    I think the chap has a lovely laid back style that I find very informative. If you click on the area of the bike you go to that section, e.g., handlebar wrapping. I used the video when wrapping my bike the other week and it looks really nice (even if I do say so myself). Could be better but that will be my target next time.

    As stated by keef66, just make sure you keep the tension tight and don't be afraid to modify the overwrap percentage as you need to when going over the tricky bits. If you still have the wrap that came off, use that to practise.

    I seem to recall that Montydog recommended to a) warm the wrap up on a radiator prior to use (which I did to good effect) and b) wrap the bars in electrical tape first since that will help you take the tape off and reapply if you need to. I didn't do that because the aluminium bars came up nice and shiny after a good clean so I was able to have two cracks at the drop area. Good luck.

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