General Cycling Discussion - Electrical taping my bike

Today I bought my second road bike so I now decided to finally join you guys after months of lurking.
I have a 1980s Columbia road bike that is very rusty, chain jumps and brakes not so well.

I would like to tape the frame. How does one do this for decorative purposes? I have bare wires running on the frame so I am scared to do this. I have read a thread about this but it isn't so helpful.

I didn't know people taped frames for decorative purposes, to be honest. Electrical tape leaves a black goo that is hard to get off, if you ever change your mind.

Maybe fix it so the chain stops jumping, and the brakes work right, before you put the effort into decoration it?

Bare electrical wires (uninsulated) on the frame? Why?
Lots of reasons for not putting it on the frame, mostly because it gets nasty when it gets old.
But electrical tape is designed to work with wires.

Be sure to buy professional quality electrical tape. The cheap stuff will just set you up for disappointment.

Electrical tape is out. Blue painter's tape is in.

I take it by "wires" you are referring to the cables for brakes and/or shifters. If they are rusty they should be replaced. Spring for the stainless-steel ones so you won't have to worry about that.
Be sure to apply a little grease to the part that will be inside the housing; chances are if the cable is rusty the housing will not be in great shape.
As to the tape... Do you just intend this for cosmetic purposes? I have seen folks "camoflage" an expensive bike by wrapping the frame (and decals) with tape so it looks like a junker. Of course, the downside to this is that it looks.....
If you have some surface rust and paint chips on the frame, the easiest thing to do is just remove the surface rust (a wire wheel on a Dremel really works well) and then use a decent wax on the whole thing.
It won't look good but then again it won't look good wound with tape.
The bike is probably not worth re-painting, which is always way more involved than you think it would be.

I would suggest that you bring your bike to the local bike shop and have a discussion about how much it would cost to make it fir to ride. Then worry about the cosmetics!

Is the Columbia the new bike that might get electrical-taped?

Are you trying to increase the stealth factor like the guy did to the carbon fiber forks on the commuter I see at the train station?

I take it by "wires" you are referring to the cables for brakes and/or shifters. If they are rusty they should be replaced. Spring for the stainless-steel ones so you won't have to worry about that.
Be sure to apply a little grease to the part that will be inside the housing; chances are if the cable is rusty the housing will not be in great shape.
As to the tape... Do you just intend this for cosmetic purposes? I have seen folks "camoflage" an expensive bike by wrapping the frame (and decals) with tape so it looks like a junker. Of course, the downside to this is that it looks.....
If you have some surface rust and paint chips on the frame, the easiest thing to do is just remove the surface rust (a wire wheel on a Dremel really works well) and then use a decent wax on the whole thing.
It won't look good but then again it won't look good wound with tape.
The bike is probably not worth re-painting, which is always way more involved than you think it would be.

I did that with my bike, I used duct tape to change the color of my bike. It really doesn't look too bad. Don't they call that a "ghetto paint job"?

I did that with my bike, I used duct tape to change the color of my bike. It really doesn't look too bad. Don't they call that a "ghetto paint job"?

Got pics of that? Duct tape on the helmet would go well with the bike.