Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - What is a "wrapped" frame

Hey,

I keep seeing people talk about how their frame is wrapped. What does this mean? How/why would one do this? Is it to protect the finish or something like that?

Thanks in advance for enlightening me... :rolleyes:

Hey,

I keep seeing people talk about how their frame is wrapped. What does this mean? How/why would one do this? Is it to protect the finish or something like that?

Thanks in advance for enlightening me... :rolleyes:

I believe it means that it's wrapped in electrician's tape. While this seems like a completely idiotic idea, it serves two purposes: it makes your frame butt-ugly, which decreases the chances of it being stolen, and it protects it from scratches and dings. Later you can unwrap it and sell it or whatever.

I don't know about anyone else, but I wrap my frame to cover up the ugly-ass logos. I've already paid for the bike, I'm not going to advertise for them too.
Tim

my ride is wrapped in old tubes to prevent scratches and dings form when it's locked up. Rant: I hate when I see guys leaning against or bumping into locked up bikes while they're talking on the phone.

My top tube is wrapped with an old innertube....keeps it from dinging the paint whilst leaning the bike/locking it

In NYC, people who ride stolen frames often wrap them, to make identification impossible.

i hate seeing wrapped frames...
if it's to keep your bike from being stolen, it serves almost no purpose... if i stole bikes, i could walk through my city speciffically steal only wrapped bikes and 9 times out of 10, they'd be really expensive bikes... cuz only the people with bikes worth a **** are doing it...
if you just don't want the logos then you could peel em off... or, eegad!, repaint it!
and if your using it to protect from dings in the paint, i have 2 complaints... 1) i don't think people should even own a bike if they're worried about the resale value... if you're willing to ride it, be willing to let it get a little beat up... and 2) you guys realize how fast paint fades? it might not fade a lot, but there can be a noticable difference after only 6 months in the sun, when compared to the original paint... so unless you wrap every painted surface of your bike, you're gonna end up wiht a 2 tone paint job...

sorry, i just find it all a little ridiculous...

On average, how many rolls of electrical tape does it take to wrap a road bike???

gally- listen up

your tirade against frame wrappers has a couple problems.

1. no one said anything about resale value

2. Dings/Dents/Scratches are very different than "paint fading"
A bad enough dent in the top tube will weaken the frame.
Enough scratches and you're riding rust not steel


"i hate seeing wrapped frames...
if it's to keep your bike from being stolen, it serves almost no purpose... if i stole bikes, i could walk through my city speciffically steal only wrapped bikes and 9 times out of 10, they'd be really expensive bikes... cuz only the people with bikes worth a **** are doing it...
if you just don't want the logos then you could peel em off... or, eegad!, repaint it!
and if your using it to protect from dings in the paint, i have 2 complaints... 1) i don't think people should even own a bike if they're worried about the resale value... if you're willing to ride it, be willing to let it get a little beat up... and 2) you guys realize how fast paint fades? it might not fade a lot, but there can be a noticable difference after only 6 months in the sun, when compared to the original paint... so unless you wrap every painted surface of your bike, you're gonna end up wiht a 2 tone paint job...

sorry, i just find it all a little ridiculous..."

captsteven - I use a tube to wrap so it only takes 2 strips of tape. I used to wrap with police caution tape.

gally- listen up

your tirade against frame wrappers has a couple problems.

1. no one said anything about resale value

2. Dings/Dents/Scratches are very different than "paint fading"
A bad enough dent in the top tube will weaken the frame.
Enough scratches and you're riding rust not steel

1. Posted by shrimpx: "Later you can unwrap it and sell it or whatever."
plus, i do in fact live in a city with a dense population of fixie riders, and i have been known on occasion to actually talk to them... sometimes my life outside of the internet is reflected in what i write on the internet... and i've talked to plenty of people who said they wrapped their bikes so they could resell them later... not that there's actually anything wrong with that, it just bugs me... it's like seeing a lifted truck with no mud on it...

2. full on dents are one thing... but one layer of electrical tape is gonna do nothing against one... inner tubes might, but not tape...
and dings and scratches need to go all the way through the paint (which is often harder said than done) before doing any damage... and even then a little clear nail polish will completely take care of it...

the **** i wrote in here isn't necesarrily directed at anyone on these boards... in my experience as far as talking to other fixed riders on the street, the two most common reasons given for wrapping a frame is 1) so theives won't know it's a nice bike, and 2) too keep it lookin pretty so i can sell it...

again, not picking on anyone here, it's just one of those things that bugs me... there's a whole lot of hipster fixie riders, and a lot of them seem to jump on the latest trend that the fixie guy with the prettiest hair discovered, regardless of how pointless it is...

and a lot of them seem to jump on the latest trend that the fixie guy with the prettiest hair discovered, regardless of how pointless it is...
I prefer the 'fixie gals with the prettiest hair' and will follow their every whim and fancy to the grave. When it comes down to it, screw everyone. I do what it takes to get my ass back and forth 24miles to work/home. I wrap my frame with an inner tube to keep **** off it, not to follow some trend.
Things change gally99 and so will the trendy people. They will move on to full-squish tandems or recumbant bikes or some other latest craze (like wrapped-bike bashing), so let them enjoy their fixie fix. I plan on continuing to stick around until they give up and then grab their frames from the dumpsters.

it just bugs me... it's like seeing a lifted truck with no mud on it...

Here is where you show just how nearsighted you are. And I've been to your town, I've lived there..and I know it rather well.

I have a lifted "truck" and it will not see mud if I can absolutely help it. It's all about the rocks..

i hate seeing wrapped frames...
if it's to keep your bike from being stolen, it serves almost no purpose... if i stole bikes, i could walk through my city speciffically steal only wrapped bikes and 9 times out of 10, they'd be really expensive bikes... cuz only the people with bikes worth a **** are doing it...
if you just don't want the logos then you could peel em off... or, eegad!, repaint it!
and if your using it to protect from dings in the paint, i have 2 complaints... 1) i don't think people should even own a bike if they're worried about the resale value... if you're willing to ride it, be willing to let it get a little beat up... and 2) you guys realize how fast paint fades? it might not fade a lot, but there can be a noticable difference after only 6 months in the sun, when compared to the original paint... so unless you wrap every painted surface of your bike, you're gonna end up wiht a 2 tone paint job...

sorry, i just find it all a little ridiculous...

Kind of makes me want to wrap the frame to spite you. :D

But I'll stick with my cheapo paint job that I done all by my self and looks awesome...



















from 15 feet away with out glasses and foggy.

Would you ride this unwrapped? :D

wow... i didn't think was gonna bum everyone out...
William Karsten, i don't see how living in my town has any relevance to what you said... and maybe this is a better analogy than the trucks with mud: a 4wd truck with 22" rims... hows that? i just hate seeing things sitting on a shelf looking pretty... i drive a 50 year old truck, and love the hell out of it and take great care of it, but i also actually drive the thing... and the parts on it, or the way it looks actually serve a purpose (namely going fast)...

which goes back to the prettiness part of my problem with wrapping frames... i think bikes should be ridden, not put under glass...

if you actually have a valid reason for wrapping your bike, then more power to you...

and if there is a trend of hating wrapped frames, then i would like to meet some of these trendsetters, cuz so far i haven't...

electrical tape is just another form of customization to me.
my bike is like my clothes, I can't stand having them look like I just bought them. I haven't painted it yet b/c I am planning to get a better fitting bike soon and I want to be able to get some money out of this one. otherwise it'd be spraypainted flat black.

and if there is a trend of hating wrapped frames, then i would like to meet some of these trendsetters, cuz so far i haven't...
maybe you should look for that guy with the cool hair or whatever you said...maybe he can help you.
:D

Would you ride this unwrapped? :D
HELL NO...that thing is crying out for a wrappin'...but first I gotta put gel in my hair.
:lol:

again, not picking on anyone here, it's just one of those things that bugs me... there's a whole lot of hipster fixie riders, and a lot of them seem to jump on the latest trend that the fixie guy with the prettiest hair discovered, regardless of how pointless it is...


what, you mean like when a bunch of messengers started riding fixed gears on the street?

unless you invented the **** then you need to shut it about how you were doing it when it was cool and now all the hipsters are stealing your cool idea that you stole from someone else.



wow... i didn't think was gonna bum everyone out...


and stop all the hating... every single post you've made in this thread has been about how much you hate it when someone else does something that's got nothing to do with you. and you're suprised that people are getting bummed or defensive? you tell me you hate something that i do (without knowing me, or why i do it, or how i do it) and i'm either gonna get bummed or tell ya to shut yer trap. don't be hatin'...

I use a tube to wrap so it only takes 2 strips of tape. I used to wrap with police caution tape.


What a great idea!!!!

I almost missed it with all the "F"-ing whining going on.

wow... i didn't think was gonna bum everyone out...
William Karsten, i don't see how living in my town has any relevance to what you said... ..
There aren't that many lifted trucks in the city. And a good deal of wrapped frames. There isn't much sun fade to anything in the city. (what with fog, and buildings, and etc). Beyond that I think you're making a baseless generalization.... that you devised over coffee somewhere on markette street, perhaps at the DKNY store. (Having overheard some comments similar there).

Me living there explains why I have the perspective of understanding..

HELL NO...that thing is crying out for a wrappin'...but first I gotta put gel in my hair.
:lol:
But it's fixed! So it's gotta gotta be cool!

Wish I had hair to put gel in. Guess I'm not cool with my remington #1 over all shave!

Reminds me of the"Poser War" that is probably still raging in the skateboarding world. I remember when I first started I was called a poser by many. Time passed, my skills improved, many who would have called me poser moved on to other things. I finally stopped posing at the age of 27 when I discovered bikes are better fashion accessories. I started riding bikes after I couldn't skate any more. After a few years (just a month or two ago) I discovered fixed gear. I am posing. I will continue to pose for many years to come. I know I shouldn't ride with Headphones on but I do it anyway. I go to the park everyday and ride a mile or two while listening to Right Said Fred's modern classic, "I'm too Sexy"

Haha, man... I'd never realized tube wrapping is such a sensitive issue. It's almost up there with helmets.

Anyway, if you ask me, wrapping a frame is just stupid, unless you do it for the look. And I tend to think that most people do it for the look. It looks badass, city warrior fighting the elements, unwilling to give power to the man by showing the decals, etc. I even heard a guy refer to it as "city armor." It all stems from messenger (and street track) culture, where one approaches the city as something that needs to be defeated, (or fought against, for survival) with the bike being "urban weaponry."

But anyway, ultimately, why the hell would you want to be stressing out about other people wrapping their frames? Let them do it, whatever their reason may be.

Shrimpx brings up an interesting point, although a bit off topic. In my days of hiking in the woods and whitewater kayaking, I learned that the river, nature, ect. was something that you had to work with, not against. If you try to dominate the river, you're going to get thrashed. So at first the idea of "defeating" the city was foreign and seemed wrong. But it makes more sense when I think of it as a human construct. Where as in nature, things work together in harmony to accomplish something, the man-made world is a place of coinflict and competition in which you must do battle with others on a momentary basis. So, in conclusion, until mankind can reach the stage in evolution where it finds it unneccessary to dominate and subvert the world aound it, I will continue to don my "city armor" of black and red electrical tape before going forth to do battle on the streets of the mean city.

Tim
p.s. that innertube wrap sounds good too.

My God!

are you all going to really let this thread die? we have so much more we could talk about. and what happened to gally? Did you decide to wrap your frame in defeat and shame? just joking. regardless of how silly threads like this are they're fun to read in disbelief. oh by the way wrapping your frame doesn't do jack when an acura hits you head on.

mkrg: are you sure the boarders weren't making fun of your tunes?

ride safe

I wrapped my frame once to simply mask the generic name brand. Now, I just throw some paint on it...