grecinos

Hey folks,

I'm going to buy a new Trek Emonda SL 7 road bike. I want to protect areas of the bike prone to scratches such as the top tube, chain stays, downtube, seat tube, fork and crankset.

Can you please give me recommendations for the material and where to buy them? I'm looking for clear tape. Matte for the crankset and and glossy for the frame. Also, tutorials on how to apply them would be grateful too.

TIA.

MoAlpha

There’s a nice product called Racer Tape, which can stretch enough to cover compound curves smoothly. It’s trivially easy to apply. Haven’t seen a matte version though.

Troul 

3M sells various thicknesses & finishes. The thicker stuff is harder to work with, but protects better & comes off with less "pieces", but I would think a road purposed bicycle wouldn't need it so thick.

Camilo

Just go to an auto parts store, online or Ebay, and find 3M body protective film. Various widths, and usually available in custom amounts. No magic bike product needed.

grecinos

Thanks for the tips. Much appreciated!

There are some 3M protective film available at Amazon of various sizes. In regard to the width / length, I'll have to do the numbers when I receive the bike.

In regard to the thickness, would 6 mil suffice for a road bicycle? Or should I go with something thicker or thinner?

williamskg6

I've seen the stuff advertised as "Helicopter Tape". I'm not certain why exactly they call it that, but searching for helicopter tape brings up a lot of results.

MoAlpha

Used to protect the leading edges of helo rotors.

scottfsmith

I looked into this awhile back and settled on 3M 8681HS helicopter tape which you can buy chunks of on eBay (people cut up big pieces and re-sell). This may be thicker than you need but I would say no harm in being a bit thick based on hits my bike has taken on the road. In general any 3M helicopter tape should be good, there are many different part numbers differing in ways that may not matter for you... 8671HS, 8663, etc etc.

t2p

decades ago - we used clear ‘contact paper’ to protect surfaces

self adhesive contact paper - also referred to as shelf paper ... to cover or line shelves and drawers etc ... stuff you could get at a hardware store

we often placed it on dirt bike fuel tanks (when tanks were metal) to protect them from being scratched / gouged and prevent paint wear ... knee pads / cups would quickly wear through the finish .., the paper would not stay adhered to the plastic fuel tanks of the later bikes (fuel vapors)

Mtracer

I've used a 3M tape resold as by VViVid. I think they cut the 3M rolls to width.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1

It seems to work perfect for me. I like to cover contact points like under my top-tube bag, around the seat post where my saddle bag straps rides. I even put a piece inside the frame near the left side dropout becasue I kept scratching it with the wheel brake rotor putting the wheel back in.

To the OP, I get wanting to keep all parts of your bike like new. But trying to protect everything would be a bit much for me. It's like putting furniture covers on the good furniture. So, instead of enjoying the look of it, all you see is the covering.

If you really want to go all-out like that, look at getting a wrap kit. I can't remember who makes them, but they provide custom cut pieces for almost every major bike. It's like the wraps used on cars. You won't scratch your finish, but then again, you'll also never see the finish until you take the wrap off.

For me, I don't want my bike to get worn, in easily identified places (mentioned above), but things will happen and if you ride a lot, things will wear. I look at it as patina that shows a bike well used.

grecinos

Thanks for the link. I will definitely keep things to a minimum. I'm basing the areas to be covered on my previous bike. Of all the tubes, the top tube exhibited the most damage to the paint. I'll have to decide how much protective tape to use on it. The other areas will be minimal. I was thinking of doing the crankset as well as my previous bike had scratches from dropping the chain and such.

Edit: In terms of thickness, what would you recommend?

ynggrsshppr

Don't get the Amazon vivid stuff. Get 3M Scotchgard Pro from Ebay. It's the newer, better version. I bought enough to nearly wrap the entire bike for under $20 (item #265339667754 if you are interested).

Garfield Cat

Yes, and if you live near an airport, then most likely there are mechanics there who use that kind of tape. It's easier to go there, ask a mechanic for a sheet of that tape and give him a few bucks for his "expertise".

I'm not talking about an international airport like Chicago's O'Hare. I'm talking about a small airport where you can reach out easily.

masi61

Looks like nice stuff. Any special tricks for applying it? I would like to cover an entire crank spider with it & hope to have it have no bubbles or wrinkles.

kwb377 

Find Your Bike - RideWrap United States (US)

Iride01 

I remember that more than a few friends of my parents back in the 60's and 70's that had all their furniture in clear vinyl protective covers. Most in rooms that were never even used. They just took new friends in there to look at their expensive furniture that now looked crappy with the protective stuff on them so everyone could make swooning comments about how great that furniture was that never got used.

Then after the comments, we all would go to the rooms with the comfortable and well used furniture that didn't have such covers on it.

But I guess you are going to use your bike. So the above really doesn't apply. Just consider that you gave me a chance to post a memory. But I am going to ask why you think scratch or two is going to matter. To me those things are character and tell that there might be some interesting stories behind them.

ynggrsshppr

It's basically the standard way of applying any type of protection film. Spray bottle with soapy water, something to squeegee the water and air bubbles out. I've also seen people apply heat to the film to get it to conform to tight corners. The pain in the butt part is cutting everything to size. I don't think you need to apply it to the entire spider, maybe just the crank arm if anything.

masi61

if you saw the Mavic Starfish triple crank from my other active thread - you might realize how much real estate of polished aluminum that is there that wants to be protected from scratches.

grecinos

That was my plan. Aside from the bike frame, I'd like to apply the protective tape on the crank arms only. I've seen YouTube videos of people applying protective tape to the crank arms. Quite honestly, it doesn't seem visually detracting. One guy used a piece of thick paper and traced the crank arm on it. He used that as a template to cut out the shape on the protective tape. It worked like a charm. On another note, the crankset (on my new bike) appears matte in finish, so I'm guessing I'll have to match it with matte protective tape.

daviddavieboy

I found that gorilla makes a similar product to the 3M tape. It is greatly cheaper comparatively but it is only about 2 " wide.