Road Cycling - Handle Bar Padding

Hi

Over the past few months, there has been a few posts on padding the handle bars. Has anyone tried using the rubber from inner tubes (old or new)??

The inner tube is usually butly rubber and soft. Also easy to cut and fasten with electrical tape. Also cheap even if you use a new tube for the softest rubber ($3.50 at WalMart for a lot of material).

Seems on can layer it up since it is quite thin (approx. 1.2 mm thick). The one post stated wraping the padding material on the parts of the bar you will contact in order to keep the overall diameter down. This makes sense and actually helps as it gives the tape a metal gripng surface.

So has anyone used the rubber from inner tubes for handle bar padding??

TIA

John Hawrylak
Woodstown NJ

Full wrap with rubber like an old rubber inner tube would look too shabby and would probably make your hands stink. The ultra grip might irritate your hands for long rides.

I have used old inner-tubes UNDERNEATH thin plastic wrapping on some of my vintage road bikes.

What I do is cut strips of rubber inner tube and layer two strips on top of the bar where I put my hands most. Then, I wrap over the bars and the rubber with some nice, but thin plastic tape like Benotto bar tape from the 1970's/1980's.

I think if you used better quality modern foam or cork tape WITH the rubber, it would be almost too thick.

Mike

Thanks for the reply.

I forgot to say I would put cork tape over the inner tube material.

Your idea of the thin plastic tape would also work and the choice of colors is much wider.

Thanks

John Hawrylak
Woodstown NJ

I just double wrapped my bar. I have large hands, and found a single wrapping of cork tape is just to small for me. I haven’t put much miles with the new wrap, but you sure can tell the difference when the road gets rough! As of right now, i doubt i will go back to a single wrapped bar.

I am with Joe, all 3 of my bikes have two layers of cork wrap comfortable for long rides
catfish

This custom wrapping sounds like a great idea. I might try it out. I've yet to put the cork on my handlebars and I might put a layer of tube down first to beef it up a little.

Dave

Originally posted by Dwagenheim
This custom wrapping sounds like a great idea. I might try it out. I've yet to put the cork on my handlebars and I might put a layer of tube down first to beef it up a little.

Dave

In my above post, I mentioned that I have used layers of old tubing under the wrap. HOWEVER, an even better solution is to add layers of old cork or foam wrap to the bars underneath the new wrapping.

Joe, when you use two layers of wrap, does it take more than one pack of bar tape to do the second layer?

mike
I know you asked joe but iLL jump in here as i just finished wraping a set of bars this morning NO it takes just one pack for the first and one pack for the second layer do a good neat , tight job of wrapping. The extra comfort i get is great actually the set I wraped this morning i used the original wrap that was on the bars allready for the first layer and added a second layer of new stuff
catfish

I had the same results as catfish :) The only thing i changed when wrapping, was taping the first wrap at the end of the bar, and tucking and pluging the 2nd wrap.