Originally Posted by
Mr IGH
Tape holds H2O vapor and causes corrosion over many years time. I only use rubber strips now....
It's Friday! Tell us another one
A bicycle wheel is hardly air tight. Any moisture that got in there would get out just as easily independent of what you were using as a rim strip. The fabric
might absorb a small amount of moisture but with the pressure of the tube/tire pressing on it, anything it could absorb would be minimal. If you are using a double wall rim, the amount of moisture that the empty space is going to be far greater than what a fabric tape could hold, too.
And, finally, most rims are made of aluminum which doesn't corrode in the presence of water all that easily. A little salt in the water would increase the corrosion but the type of rim tape isn't going to have any influence on that at all.
cvcman: Fabric tape. Velox. Purchase it at your local bike shop. It's cheap and can even be reused. The cheap rubber strip that comes with most bikes degrades over time and, as rydabent and xenologer say, it can be pushed down into the spoke holes and lead to flats . Don't go changing the rim strip to just be changing, however. Change it when you get a flat or when you change tires. There's no need to rush out and change it right now.