Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - cloth bar tape

Is it best to start wrapping cloth bar tape the same as cork tape by starting from the bottom of the bars or best to start from the top working down seeing how no electrical tape is needed to secure the tape at the top? Thanks.

i know i do this backwards, but...

i do cloth from the stem outward, and since the tape is thinner than cloth i tuck it into my barends and put plugs in to keep it from moving.

'best' is subjective

life is not inherently complicated; we choose to make it so.

The problem with starting from the top is that the overlaps will be facing up instead of down, meaning that when your hands slip down the bars they will tend to lift the tape up. However, tape all the way up with no electrical tape to finish looks killer. I compromise and wrap the tops going down from the top, the bottoms going up from the bottom, and get behind the brake levers with two or three loose pieces that just go straight across. The whole thing then gets shellaced. This looks and works great with hockey tape, and i bet any other cotton tape would go on fine with this technique.

true, as your hands move along the bars they do flip up the edges. i compromise this by pulling the tape extremely tight when i'm putting it on and overlapping as much of the tape as i can. i think the tighter the pull on the tape, the less room for the edges to get turned up there is.

i wrap from the stem out. i also barely overlap the tape so that i can use 1 roll per side. i've not had any problem with the edges rolling...i use no electrical tape and stick a little of the tape in the bar end then stick a wine cork in there.

I've always wrapped from the stem out, with whatever kind of tape i'm using.

'best' is subjective

life is not inherently complicated; we choose to make it so.


You sir, are a sage.

Thanks everyone. I think I'll give top down a try and wrap tight.

I harlequin wrap, so no problems with lifting up tape. Especially after I shellac.