Commuting - Tape to protect my frame

Any of y'all ever tape up the frames of your bikes? I ride my bike everywhere, and tend to park it in racks and, beign a college student, go to college with a lot of college kids -- kids who don't care or don't know how beautiful and perfect a Surly Long Haul Trucker really is.
After only three weeks of riding to class and work, it's got nicks and dings in the fork and the chain stay.
So, I thought about protecting my frame with some tape. Any one ever do that? If so, what sort? Not duct tape, of course. But what about electrical tape, or maybe a nice smooth bar tape? Any thoughts.

What might be a neat idea is trying this cohesive electical splicing tape, it's a rubber non-adhesive tape you stretch as you wrap, and after a while under tension it fuses together. Doubt it would be difficult to take off, since it supposedly bonds only to itself. Though it is expensive. If you want to go the e-tape route, check out some of the fixie pics in our forum, plenty of examples there.

3M makes a clear paint protecting film for vehicles. Find more info here. (http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/_s.155/86661)

I was at Lowe's Home Improvement the other day and found some CLEAR duct tape. It was "mostly" clear as you could still see the reinforcing threads through it. I put some on my headtube where the shifter cables rub. So far so good. A roll was only like $3.00.

L8R

I do that with electrical tape. Buy several colors and make stripes! :)

I use old inner tubes, cut open and held on with electrical tape. Not the prettiest, but cheap and works great. Gives a little more protection than just tape.

Taping the bike is a good way to hide the bike, but not a good way to protect it. Typically, water will sneak in the protection and will stay there for a long time instead of drying quickly.

Two things to consider:

First of all, is it possible to get a beater bike from a thrift store for most of your utility riding? Let the beater get beaten.

Second is to avoid bike racks as much as possible. Is there any rule about where you park your bike on campus? If not, try to find light poles, trees, etc, that are away from the other bikes. Even if you have to walk a short distance, it's better than getting you bike beat up.

Thanks for all your help. It'd be great to get a beater, but at 6'6", Hawaii is not the place to pick up anything second hand that you intended to have fit your body. I avoid racks as much as possible, but there is a fascist law at my campus disallowing that sort of thing. In fact, they have leave to cut the lock and haul it away, as the blind might rely on light poles and trees for guidance. I thought that was funny when the security guard told me, until a blind girl actually complained to my teacher about my bike.
I think I'll go for the 3m option.

I love tape...I have a strip of red/white tape on the chain stays to hide some crash mark and add visibility. Then clear packing tape where the cables usually wear off the paint.