The Mysteries of Handlebar Tape

[Philip Whiteman]

Handle bar tape should be the easiest item to fit on the bike.

SO WHY DOES MINE ALWAYS UNRAVEL?

EVERY BLOODY TIME. GOD IT MAKES ME SO ANGRY. IN FACT IT MAKES ME SO ANGRY, I MAKE THE RIGHT REV DR IAN PAISLEY LOOK LIKE A FRIENDLY OLD SOUL

I diligently clean the tubes off to free them of any grease, they are then dried before fitting the said tape from the bar end. The tape is wrapped tightly whilst making sure that it does not overlap to little or too greatly between each wind. At the ends and behind the shifters, I use insulation tape to hold it all in place. Yet it still bloody unravels.

So here are my questions:
1. Am I incompetent? (Don't answer the question unless you want me to respond with unrepeatable insults)
2. Is handle bar tape adhesive fundamentally useless? (I have been using Bontrager's)
3. What tricks do you use?

I am even considering the use of double sided sticky tape as a medium. But I bet that falls off too.

[George]

Handle bar tape should be the easiest item to fit on the bike.

If it's any consolation, Phil, I too find fitting bar tape a fiddly business. Not an impossible job by any means, but a time-consuming and concentration-intensive one.

In my experience:
a) Tension is critical: too much and it'll rip; too little and it'll slip in use. You have to be specially careful to avoid any looseness where you finish it off or round the levers. One loose turn will lead to several adjacent turns losing tension in use, and then to slippage.
b) Those bits of plastic sticky tape they give you for holding the end are useless. I secure the end of my bar tape with electric insulating tape, which I then cover with two turns of old-fashioned cloth tape.

Earlier this summer I tarted up my best bike with some of that Italian tricolore tape (for obvious Beacony reasons). One drawback with this that hadn't occurred to me until fitting is that the spiral can only go in one direction, whereas I have always taped my bars symmetrically, with the spiral on each side being the mirror image of the other. The lack of symmetry really irritates me.

[Si-D]

Which end is it unravelling from Phil??

I'd never attempted it until recently, and followed a guy on YouTube and got it reasonably right 1st time. One big thing which affects things is the direction of the wrap. I can't remember off the top of my head but switching the direction at the point you wrap the tape around the Hoods seemed to be the answer.

I think when you're out riding, gripping the bars, you tend to naturally pull in a certain direction. (and that direction can change depending on whether you're on the drops or on the tops, and particularly whilst hill climbing, which you're quite fond of) The wrap needs to be with the direction of that force. That way you end up gripping and tightening the wrap, instead of gradually pulling it loose.

I used good quality black electrical tape to hold it all down (at the Stem end) with several windings of it, pulled quite tight.

The Bar Ends, where you start wrapping, should have about a 2inch overlap, which you then stuff inside the Bar and hold in place with the End Cap.

Apart from that, if your actual Bar Tape is unravelling in the middle of the bar anywhere then I'd say you haven't wrapped it tight enough. The double sided tape doesn't do too much, its more reliant on a tight wrap throughout the entire length of tape.

If all that still fails then I'd be taking it into my local 'competent' LBS to get it done!

[Dave Cox]

I dont clean the bars first - works for me with Bontrager. I think its the masochistic riding you do - are you sure you arent biting into the bars???

[Kermit]

Try slowing down Phil, hurricane winds will pull anything to shreds.

[chalkie]

do you ride with mitts on or bare (bear)hands - i havn't noticed, is sweat the issue? you could try cinelli cork bar tape, or the thinner binotti type a la 70s, but that's harsher on the grip

[AlanW]

I can honestly say that I have never had a problem with fitting new tape?

The key as others have already said, is taking your time and getting enough, and even tension, as you go along.

The only real tricky part is wrapping it around the Sti levers. But once you have gone past the lever by a couple of turns, just check and make sure that no handlebar is exposed anywhere.

NOTE - making sure that you maintain the tension of the tape while you are checking!!

The clever trick when you get to the end (centre of the bars) is to cut the bar tape at an angle so that it sits flat and even. Then a couple of turns of insulating tape, finishes the job of quite nicely.

Tip,
Make sure that the bar tape is nice and warm before you start, on top of the boiler for an hour or so before hand is good.