Bar tape tips/tricks - just keep unraveling on me

burts josh

New Member
I have tried wrapping end to center and center to end, and neither seem to work. I just really pull on the bars on uphills and the tape eventually unravels.
Does anyone else experience this?
If so, have you figured out a cure?
I use lizard skins 2.8, if that matters.
I also tried a golf grip trick which was to wrap the drops in carpet tape, worked a little bit but eventually pulled away...
thanks
 

Frito Bandito

Zen MBB Master
I don't know if it will work or if this is what you meant by carpet tape, but speaking of golf you might want to try golf tape on the bars first and then bar tape. Or, you could just do what I did and cut the butt off some golf grips, trim the grips to your preferred size and use water based gel (or golf grip tape) to slide on the golf grips. Some of the golf grips have thin cotton cords woven into the grip which are made out of harder rubber and helps with wet weather grip, but there are some other softer grips such as Golf Pride CP2 Pro Jumbo size (or mid size) that are softer. They aren't the easiest things to get on but they will with a bit of elbow grease.
 

CruzRider

Active Member
Try wrapping away from the seat?
My LBS wraps towards the seat, and I tend to twist it off. I have started wrapping away, and it stays put much longer.
 
Wrap like Bob
 

ratz

Wielder of the Rubber Mallet
Learn with cork tape it’s cheap. Like video above, do a 50% overlap, and practice pulling it tight without stretching it, that’s trickier than you think. And use screw-in end caps. Cork can usually be re-wrapped. When you are good doing cork, then (if you can get it) move on to the thin stuff from Silca.cc (currently out of stock); when you can't get Silca fallback to the thinnest Lizardskin but that stuff you really can’t stretch so again have you cork technique down. Once you are good with the thin stuff, you can go to the thicker-colored stuff. (If you can get 1.8 thickness that's the best to learn on. I always use cork until the bike is dialed in. In the builds the final "pretty" wrap is usually done two or three days after the build is done; I am usually just hiding that from you because I hold the pictures back a few days as I document it's really time lapse. It is too expensive to use the fancy stuff until you are sure everything else is correct. I’ll expose that in the new build for a little more transparency

If you still struggle buy 3M brand window film tape (only 3m because you can remove it) wrap the bars in a coil of 3M tape then bar tape over the top. The extra stick usually solves the problem

watch lots of videos on wrapping the brifters because we have to do it in reverse and the cork pays lots of dividends for practicing. have I mentioned cheap cork wrap?. When your wrap sucks re-wrap it because if you know there‘s a gap, you will pick at it until it unravels; just rewrap it and accept your failure; the wrap will end up lasting not as long but longer than if you pick at it.

Edited because version 1 was unreadable.
 
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rfneep

Well-Known Member
I think I used the 35mm size. It will depend a bit on what kind and how many layers of regular grip tape you put under it. I usually wrap two layers of generic grip tape down first and then secure it with the rod grip shrink tubing.
 
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