canklecat

Excellent wraps, @SurferRosa. Is that colored electrical tape or something else?

Reminds me, don't cheap out on electrical tape. There's a huge difference between the dollar store stuff and 3M. I finally ponied up for the good stuff this year. Much nicer.

Also, another plug for Arundel Synth Gecko, at least for practice wraps or folks with joint pain. It's pricey but good stuff and easily reusable.

I'm redoing my '93 Trek 5900, from 140mm titanium stem and conventional crit style drops to 90mm aluminum FSA stem and compact FSA Omega drops. Just waiting for delivery of the shim I need for the 1" head tube to fit the 1-1/8" stem. My neck will thank me.

And I can reuse the same Arundel Synth Gecko wrap again. That'll be the fourth time since April I've reused the same Arundel wrap, since I keep experimenting with handlebars. So it's turned out to be more cost effective than four packs of $10 bar wrap.

canklecat

How do you handle the raw tape edge at the bar ends with top-down wraps? I've done it a few times to quickly rewrap over cheap foam tape, using Arundel Synth Gecko silicone rubber wrap. But there's always that raw edge. Only drawback to fat cushy wrap.

If I used a single wrap of cloth or cello tape it'd be easier to hide. I did that back in the 1970s, but I didn't have a bum neck and shoulder to deal with back then. It was easy to hide the tape edge and stuff it into the bar ends with plugs.

curbtender

Just in case you couldn't decide which way to go...

Salamandrine 

Obviously with cotton and cello or other plastic tape, just stuff it in the bar ends and plug, 70s style.

With Fizik tape and the old Bike Ribbon, I wrap just past the end of the bar, then cut off the excess tape with scissors about 1/4" to 3/8" past the end, parallel to the bar end. Tuck this in just like cotton or plastic tape. It's a little fiddly, but not too bad. I haven't tried silicone tape, but I'd imagine the same technique will work fine.

Fat cushy wrap is going to be unfriendly to this method. I don't use cork tape myself, don't like the edges, but I have wrapped top down once or twice with it. Giant PITA. I'd definitely recommend the now standard wrap bottom up method. It's just too thick to tuck in. Might work with those old school chromed spring steel bar end plugs, but no one sells those anymore.

Salamandrine 

Indeed. Nice job on those.

I always needed to use glue or shellac to keep twined termination from loosening up over time.

Partly I like 70s top down style because I prefer the look of no termination at the top. Also it holds up slightly better for me. I think I tend to pull back on the bars slightly when climbing, so the whole shingle analogy is bassackwards.

Figures. At any rate if you look at old race pictures, say from the 70s, you'll see that most bikes are cotton tape, wrapped top down. A few, notably Eddy Merckx, were wrapped bottom up. It could be argued that there was never a right way, but IMO it would be more accurate to say that Eddy wrapped his the wrong way, because he preferred it. Eventually that became the 'correct' way.

canklecat

Yeah, Eddy Merckx was more influential than most cyclists. He was fastidious about how his bikes were set up, even supervising his mechanics in saddle adjustments. There's a scene in one documentary where he uses a level to check a saddle just set up by a team mechanic. And there are scenes showing Merckx and Hinault doing some of their own bike assembly and maintenance.

And, arguably, Merckx revolutionized the team approach to races, with a more organized and demanding training schedule than most GC contenders had done before.

So it wouldn't surprise me if some of our persistent notions about how bikes *should* be set up can be traced back to Merckx. If for no better reason than because his career was so thoroughly documented and filmed.

SurferRosa

The red one is. I have used blue, yellow, and white before. I normally just use black. For me, it has to be 9-10mm wide to look perfect. A couple of those above use embroidery thread.

Thanks. I'm done with twine. (Went through that phase.) But on the rare occasion I still use embroidery thread, I will keep it in place with clear nail polish.

Cycle Tourist

No brake hoods and you could buy a Velcro band that had gel in it. That was less than successful but better than nothing. I learned the figure eight with an extra loop around the brake levers. You had stretch the tape and not overlap too much or you wouldn't make it to the top and cut that strip to cover the gap in the figure eight as short as possible. It always seemed pretty easy to me but I always do it on the ground with the wheel between my legs while straddling the top tube.

Cycle Tourist

Simple. Just grab a hacksaw and........

-holiday76

wrapping bars is a lot like wrapping other things.

Just roll it on and get to pumping until you get to the end of the bar. Then shellac everything. Twine is optional.

arex

I used it on my Univega. For being a relatively soft rubber tape, it's not stretchy at all...it was hard to get a really tight wrap. Hard, but possible. It took a lot of work, but the end result was good.

smontanaro 

Newbaum's. My guess is that I'd have had no trouble with a Giro d'Italia bar - Lee's drop, shorter reach.

tiger1964 

A couple of days later, haven't even ridden the bike yet, and the black short adhesive strips that came with the Cinelli tape would not hold; started unraveling. So, I broke out electrical tape (3M's #700 Commercial Grade), used that, I have hopes that it will hold.

BrewsterII

I have never had the short adhesive strips stay attached properly, they always come loose. I always wrap from the top down now, and never have an issue.

canklecat

Should be fine. If not, Scotch Super 33+ will definitely do the trick. I cheaped out on tape for years and finally broke down and ponied up for the good stuff. Scotch 33+ has held perfectly. Huge difference from the dollar store and cheaper name brand stuff.

One trick I learned from watching YouTube tutorials by pros, including mechanics for pros, is to avoid stretching the electrical tape too much, and to avoid stretching it at all on the final wrap. It's less likely to pull away.

So when I wrapped my bars a few months ago I stretched the first two wraps just a little, and the third and final wrap without stretching. It held perfectly. When I had to remove the wrap from one bar the other day the Scotch 33+ was clinging so tenaciously it pulled the cork/foam bar wrap apart, yet the Scotch tape itself didn't tear, didn't leave any residue, and could actually be reused. So I reused it to hold the cables to the bar under the fresh wrap. A little more economical.

smontanaro 

Small bit of progress today. Managed to wrap the bars on my Frejus. I fudged a bit in a couple ways. One, I reused the blue tape which came on the bike. I liked the color and am a bit of a CSOB. I'd long ago washed it, then wrapped it today to expose the previously covered part. Two, I didn't see any way to get the Cinelli end caps over the tape, so I used some blue electrical tape an declared victory. Finally, since the old tape (must be 30 years old) had no adhesive left, I sprayed the bar tops and ramps with Scotch 77 adhesive. I've yet to find any suitable hoods (@iab gave me a lone reproduction Vittoria hood - anyone got its mate?)


I still haven't tried the Griffon's bar again. I'm still weighing my bar options. I might switch to a Giro d'Italia.

curbtender

Wrap the electrical tape tight, stretched, for two wraps and then one more wrap relaxed. Try to cut it so it finishes underneath the bars. Chain reaction has an inexpensive tape, lifeline, that has a silicone finish tape. It sticks to itself really tight.

tiger1964 

Thanks. So far, what I did w/3M tape is holding.

smontanaro 

When all else fails, blame the bars. I replaced the Campione del Mondo bars with Nitto Grand Bois Maes Parallel bars (25.4 ø). Et voila...