putting on handlebar tape

iclestu

is it as easy as it looks in the youtube videos or best left to a lbs?

king_jeffers

Quite easy and a nice job to do, just take your time - this is key. I'm a disaster when it comes to doing bike stuff, if I can do this job anyone can :-) If you make a mess you can unwrap part of it then re-roll. I used Fizik MicroTex Bar Tape with no problems, I'm told you get better results with practice.

I worked from this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB4FUY4NekM

cjcp

What KJ said.

godders1

I use Cinelli cork gel which has a a tacky strip as opposed to an adhesive so even if you muck it up you can just unravel it and start again (I'm sure there are plenty of others like this).

raffa cakes

It's not as easy as it looks on youtube, but that's only because the people on there have done it many times before. It's really not hard though, you can wrap, take it off, and wrap again until you're happy with it and it's a good way of taking pride in your bike. I agree with King Jeffers that the Fizik tape is great but that's a matter of personal preference, some people might want more padding. The technique in that youtube video... this might be personal preference again... but it didn't seem that great to me as something to aspire to. This is a nice wrap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhXeSJQtoWU

With a nice figure 8 round the hoods (no need for that extra tongue of tape), clean cut at the end, and with the finishing tape only around the bar tape, without it touching the bare bars. Oh so Pro. Although wrapping your own bars is probably not that Pro...

team47b

It's easier than gettin' the bl00dy stuff clean!

Gussio

Park Tool have a very eay to follow web page http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/handlebar-tape-installation-drop-bar

iclestu

thanks guys.

Think ill give it a whirl. Pics to follow!

jmcc500

I did mine for the first time a few weeks ago, with minimal research :-(

Lessons learnt:

1. Keep it tight as you wind. As in properly tensioned else it seems it will loosen and give gaps if you don't.
2. Look at the overlap carefully.

I didn't overlap enough in places, and in conjunction with 1 this led to gaps opening up and tape moving about :-(

iclestu

jmcc500 wrote:

I did mine for the first time a few weeks ago, with minimal research :-(

Lessons learnt:

1. Keep it tight as you wind. As in properly tensioned else it seems it will loosen and give gaps if you don't.
2. Look at the overlap carefully.

I didn't overlap enough in places, and in conjunction with 1 this led to gaps opening up and tape moving about :-(

thats just made me a little more nervous!

Thanks for the advice tho, I shall endeavour to learn from your mistakes! :-)

Twostage

Do it

I did my new tri bars yesterday :-

Tribar by twostage, on Flickr

Wasn't sure if I could use the bar end stops so I used the tape to make a waterproof seal at the ends.
I use Easton tape.

raffa cakes

jmcc500 wrote:

I did mine for the first time a few weeks ago, with minimal research :-(

Lessons learnt:

1. Keep it tight as you wind. As in properly tensioned else it seems it will loosen and give gaps if you don't.
2. Look at the overlap carefully.

I didn't overlap enough in places, and in conjunction with 1 this led to gaps opening up and tape moving about :-(

Those are pretty much the two things that come with practice, and it would be kind of miraculous if you could get it perfect straight away first time. But you can unwind it and do it again bit by bit until it looks good. A possibly useful thing to do, presuming you are re-wrapping, is to do one side first - leave the old tape on the other one and use that to guide your overlapping.

Good luck!