chip1

My old tape wore out so I had it replaced. I like how the new tape feels, but I don't know if the mechanic wrapped it correctly. If you look at the picture, you can see he wrapped it over the hoods as well. I thought you skip the hoods and go around to the upper part of the handlebar. When I'm riding on hoods I definitely feel a bump that wasn't there before. When I mentioned this he said it's because the tape is new, which I assume he was referring to the cushion. He also wrapped it inwards (clockwise on left side, counter-clock on right side). I was told you wrap it outwards, but this isn't really a big deal to me. I'm mainly worried about the hoods as I'm not used to how it feels.

He was nice about it and told me I could bring the bike in for him to take a look, but before I do that I wanted to ask here first.

hairnet

No, normally the tape wraps over the intersection of the bar and shifter to hide the metal clamp and to look seemless when the hood isn't peeled back. I would never send a bike out wrapped like that unless the customer asked for more under the hood.

bt

that's trying too hard to cover everything.

take it back and ask if he'll remove the bulge, or do it yourself.

that rubber protrusion on the hood falls in to a slot on the shifter housing and it can't because it's covered with tape.

velociraptor

Agreed. They went too far up under the hood – as evidenced by the hood underside tab insert being covered up.

Ask them to have a more experienced tech redo the work. Not the summer temp.

BETTER YET...

Learn how to do it yourself

There are literally a bazillion YouTube videos – and it's one of the easiest places to start in learning how to take care of your ride

CliffordK

I'm puzzled at why you didn't do your own tape.

It appears as if the wrapping is around the brake lever body, but below the hoods. That looks very nice to me. However, it is a bit bulbous with the thicker tape. It would probably be ok with thinner cloth tape.

Are the mounting bolts for the brakes accessible? Is that peg I see sticking out on the hoods supposed to go into a hole into a hole in the brake body to help hold the hoods in place?

How does it feel when you roll the hoods back into place and ride the bike? Do the hoods feel secure?

As far as the direction of wrapping the tape.
I've found that if you wrap from the middle to the ends, and tuck the tape into the ends of the bars, then it looks pretty, but I find it unravels quite badly. So, I now do it from the ends of the bars to the middle, and try to keep it TIGHT.

I'm not sure if clockwise vs counterclockwise makes any difference. Perhaps my next wrap I'll try half and half and see which unravels first.

No doubt there could be quite some debate about the proper tape wrapping.

Personally if it is comfortable and the hoods feel secure, I'd try it for a couple thousand miles, then if you don't like it, replace it with a different wrapping technique.

carpediemracing 

If it were my shop I'd have the tape redone.

Sprinter della Casa: How To - Handlebar tape

velociraptor

Don't confuse the OP. His tape was wrapped incorrectly and we've already stated why.

And yes, there is pretty much only one correct way to wrap bar tape – no matter how badly some people may want it to be a subjective matter.

loimpact

Ya, it does look like they at least went "bottom-up" (thank God!). Because otherwise, whoever wrapped them would've had to have been properly prosecuted to the last letter of the law.

I've yet to re-wrap my own so I really can't speak to it, but I've certainly watched a few videos. For me, I think I'd wrap clockwise on the right handlebar and CCW on the left.....just cuz I tend to pronate vs supinate my wrists if I had to guess one or the other.

(shrug)

Lazyass

I don't know why everyone does it like that ^^^^^, but the short piece covering the clamp should be trimmed so it doesn't overlap the shifter housing. The ends should just touch the back edge of the housing. The only purpose of it is to cover up the clamp.

hairnet

I like to use the stubby piece to see how much I can stretch the tape before it rips :-p

carpediemracing 

On the inside it's short, mainly because the shifter actually moves in that spot for Campy, although I didn't take a picture of it. On the outer side there's a bit more to help hold the piece in place. It's frustrating if I have a very short piece which then moves a bit post-wrap, which has happened to me. I prefer to have a bit of tape going up under the hood so that it gets anchored in place. At an angle, with tapered tape, it's not intrusive.

I'm glad you didn't have any other notes/comments

Lazyass

I've never had it move on me. Just saying. Didn't mean to offend you or anything

carpediemracing 

All good. Life is a continual series of improvements. I do my best to take all constructive criticism into consideration.

I posted something about windshield wipers on Steve Tilford's blog. Another reader was like, dude, get a life (or something like that). I was thinking, "Oh, man, don't get me started on tubulars!"

chip1

Yeah, it just didn't seem right that the little rubber part forced itself to make a hole through the tape because it was covered up. The hoods actually feel solid and secure, but that slight bump felt little uncomfortable when riding. I would've done it myself but he offered to wrap it for free if I bought it so that was very nice of him.

Thanks for the help everyone. I'll definitely go back and ask to redo it.

RoadTire 

Once on a wrap I had the little piece too short and the wrap too wide causing it to gap a couple weeks later. So I pulled the wrap over the gap just enough and used super glue to hold the wraps together. Nobody knows I cheated until it was time for a re-wrap.

LesterOfPuppets

The best way is on right side of bar, from the end, clockwise up to levers, then switch to CCW up to bulge, then a nice electrical tape.

Opposite windings for left side of bar.

SpeshulEd 

Park Tool Co. » ParkTool Blog » Handlebar Tape Installation (drop bar)

rms13

There is no proper way, just opinions. Some like piece of tape behind hoods, some like figure 8, some would rather have bar showing behind to the hoods in order to avoid bulky wrap under the hoods. I have even seen people with more years experience than I've been alive who advocate wrapping top down. I've only paid a person to wrap bars once (just cause he was doing other work at the same time) and that mechanic asked me some very specific questions about how I wanted my bars wrapped before he did anything

CliffordK

If it works, then it is OK.

If it doesn't work, then re-wrap it. One can often re-wrap tape when it is nearly new without ill effects.
Not surprising, there is too much of a bulge which the OP doesn't like, so a re-wrap is in order, along with informing the mechanic that did it.

That wrapping would have looked nice with thinner tape, or perhaps with Weinmann brakes, or most of the non-integrated aero levers (if there wasn't the bulge. Of course, that is really only with the older bikes or low end bikes today.

bbattle

If I can wrap bartape acceptably, anyone can. It just takes a bit of patience and practice. If it doesn't look right, unwrap and try again.

macca33

Nothing wrong with that at all, but if not happy, you could always wrap it yourself.

cheers