canklecat

I'm a 61 year old man wearing skin tight shorts and a jersey with a pattern only a drunk frat boy at Panama City spring break might wear. My shoes sound like high heels but with the heel on the wrong end of the shoe so I look like I'm tiptoeing on gravel while I walk. I have a plastic mushroom on my head.

Bar wrap patterns are the least of my public embarrassments.

BRB, going to hardware store for manly man's garnet sandpaper to use as bar wrap.

Hondo Gravel

I just put some new bar tape on my gravel grinder this afternoon. Do it yourself it is easy. I clean the bars with rubbing alcohol so the tape sticks better. I always use black it goes with everything.

wipekitty

Exactly this.

Even if it's a bicycle primarily used while riding street clothes, nobody other than another cyclist is going to notice or care one bit about the bar tape. If it's the Supercaz stuff, they'll give it a thumbs up.

Dr.Lou

Koyote

$60? Even if that included the cost of the tape, it’s bonkers. I’ve never paid more than $15 for tape and I wrap it myself. Watch an online video and you can do it too.

canklecat

The most expensive bar wrap I've used is Arundel Synth Gecko. Retails for $30, but I bought a roll of hi-vis yellow for half price because nobody wanted it and the LBS wasn't carrying that particular product anymore. It's available only in a few solid colors, no patterns.

After trying it I can see why it could be worth $30. It's 100% silicone, very tough stuff, can be reused many times, and can be cleaned with dish soap or other household cleanser that's effective on greasy grime. I used Dawn to remove some chain gunk that got on my hands, then on the yellow bar wrap.

Synth Gecko has no adhesive. When reasonably clean it's self-sticking -- the way any pliable rubber or latex sticks to itself. If you prefer to wrap without electrical tape, you can start at the stem and wrap toward the bar ends, using plugs to hold it in place. And if wrapped carefully this works okay. But it tends to look odd.

It resists taking a set and tends to return to its as-new neutral state. Very handy if part of it is damaged and you want to rewrap it the other direction so the damaged area is covered. That's tougher to do with most foam "cork" wraps because those do tend to take a set and hold a directional coil, and develop rippled edges.

It's also the most comfortable bar wrap I've used -- grippy, even when wet and with sweaty mitts (my hands feel soapy from sweat when I've been drinking electrolytes) -- and tames road vibration on chipseal.

Only downside is it's thick and heavy. It's difficult to wrap flat and tends to look like the metal tubes on gooseneck lamps and articulating metal conduit. Or, basically, like sausage. It's probably twice as heavy as most foam "cork" wrap, so weight weenies won't like it. And it will tend to cut or nick if a typical simple bar end plug is used -- it mashes the end of the wrap against the bar end which acts like a cookie cutter. So next time I rewrap I'll get some fancypants bar ends with bolts and wedge or similar doodads to hold the wrap without cutting it.

But, yeah, it's probably worth $30 if you want bar wrap to last a long time and you tend to redo your bar and stem often.

Viich

My last wrap bar for myself (I put new wrap on a bike I was selling, only considerate) I did cotton, tried harlequin on the tops. Looks OK, even if I didn't get both sides the same. I hate to pay $20 for tape, and really don't like the expensive sticky stuff. If I want more padding I use an old inner tube underneath. Or just the old inner tube for my snow/ice commuting.

mstateglfr 

Bar tape has no gender, but it would be silly and obtuse to pretend or claim some colors aren't socially associated with one gender or the other.

As for gender being a silly construct...there is simply no reason to bring this into a discussion on the color of bar tape.
But since you did...gender, while popularly called a social construct right now, is simply biological gender. Mammals being Male or female in gender.
The social construct is actually the expectations and norms certain societies place on genders. And sure, the expectations societies place on gender are fluid and ever changing, so I could see someone viewing said expectations as silly.

Gender expectations = silly
Gender = biology

But I get that all I said isn't in line with currently popular gender theory.

Teamprovicycle

I got some cinelli stiky stuff it good for me I tell you what

southpier

go cloth, twine, & shellac, or stay home!

https://www.rivbike.com/pages/handle...d-twine-finish

veganbikes

Yes some people still believe that certain colors are somehow gendered but there are people who believe that the Earth is flat, Elvis is alive working at a Denny's in Fresno and George Washington defeated the red coats at LAX (it was LaGuardia).

The reason I brought up the silly construct of gender is because someone decided that a pattern is "girly" which is ridiculous. Same thing with the whole binary everyone has to conform to male or female check the box wham bam thank you either sir or mam no exceptions. It is a thing that just doesn't matter. Be who you are and that is all that really matters. I see no need to check a box or make things so rigid except maybe around the bottom bracket area where you want to combat flex while pedaling.

Also if we are going to stick with rigid definitions for gender what about Male seahorses? If throughout biology females have babies why is it that in this particular instance seahorse biology is different from everyone else?

02Giant 

I'm with you. Not a fan, regardless of the quality.

My favorite tape is Specialized S-Wrap HD.

downhillmaster

This.

Kedosto

Alright now, nobody likes a show off. Looks like you used some kind of laser guided unicorn magic on there.


-Kedosto
*jealous*

Kedosto

HEY! ANYBODY LOOKIN’ FOR A SIG LINE?


-Kedosto
*resemble that remark*

308jerry

Irenicus, please be who you want to be, as long as it fits into veganbikes social constructs.
Most here knew exactly what you were referring to. Heck if you would have said the bar tape the "gal " at the bike shop put on didn't match your new lacquer fingernails and that the tape still looked to girly, most here still would have been okay... me included.
You couldn't state that it looked like shart or arse, the mods would have shut it down. They might anyway.
But I'm sure I wouldn't want stars on my bar tape. But that's just me. I've never thought "girly" was a derogatory term and never will.


Peace, out......

mstateglfr 

Yes, agreed- we all should be who we are because that is all that matters.
Using that line of thinking, if someone is the type of person that doesn't want their bike to look like a bike that they think many women would enjoy, then that person should be who they are and not make their bike look that way(girly).

My wife doesn't like to dress how my mom dresses, even though both are female. It's because within gender there lies many preferences in how to display yourself for others to see. It's absolutely a spectrum and there is to 'right's or 'wrong' place to fall on that spectrum. There is also nothing wrong with seeing trends and tendencies, then identifying said trends and tendencies within that spectrum as 'womanly', 'girly', or 'manly'. That's simply identifying what you see happening in front of you.
Labels are how we naturally categorize. That isn't dangerous or even bad, in and of its own. When people are treated differently based on the labels thrust upon them, that's when there is an issue to discuss.


As for seahorses...I know they aren't mammals(what I mentioned). Beyond that, I don't know much about them. I can say that nature often has exceptions too though.

hcgaloi

I buy either profile design or sram bar tape from Amazon for around $15 Then watch GCN video on YouTube for how to


Good luck