Portis

I just did my first ever drop bar wrap on the road bike. Everything went pretty well but I am not thrilled with the end at the top of the bar. I followed the instructions at parktools but it wasn't clear to me exactly what was supposed to happen.

Is the final cut supposed to be tapered or what?

Banzai

I don't taper either cut. Once I quit trying to do things like that, my handlebar wraps started looking a LOT better.

Moose

Yeah, I cut a long taper so it ends up even at the end.

jsharr

Try this. Measure in advance how far from the stem you want the tape to end. Now wrap the bars past that point and temporarily tape the wrap in place. Now measure out wrapperd bar the distance you measured earliear and wrap a piece of masking tape over the wrap so that the edge is at the distance you want and parallel to your stem. Use a marker and draw a line on your wrap all the way around the bar at the edge of the masking tape. Now remove the masking tape unwrap the bars until you can cut the wrap on the line you just drew. Rewrap the bars and you should have a perfect taper. Hope this makes sense.

Moose

Here's an illustration I whipped up.

Don't laugh.

tape.jpg

Cut at the vertical line.

ephemeron

Personally, I've never been able to get the taper quite right, but a few wraps of electrical tape cover imperfections well enough.

cascade168

No reason to laugh. That's exactly what you are supposed to do. Nice job ;-)

Dave Moulton

Cord whipping, here's how to do it.

Stacey

Heat shrink tubing, it's available in a rainbow of colors.

DMF 

Fooey on all that trimmy stuff. I've taken to finishing the inner ends with tie wraps. Muy securo and looks surprisingly okay.


Stacey, I like your sig poem. Where's it from ?

Stacey

Thanks! It's from the greatest zombie movie evar made. Dellamorte, Dellamore (Cemetery Man). Never heard of it? Neither did I until I recently stumbled upon it on the Chiller channel.

https://imdb.com/title/tt0109592/

maddmaxx 

There are bar tape finishing rings available at Colorado Cyclist and on Ebay that clamp over the upper end of the bar tape with a single screw. They come with two cable exits for the undertape cables.

Portis

Thanks for the replies. Mine isn't perfect where they end but i did try to taper them. I covered most of the imperfection with the bontrager fancy tape. I might post a pic later, just depends on how boad i want to get grilled.

I do think that white bar tape is a cool retro look. I know it will get dirty quickly, but still i'm liking it.

Portis

Thanks for that image. That is the first time it has made sense. Park tool has an amazing way of wording and illustrating things that i can't get. Guess I am too dense.

cascade168

Nice job, Dave!

Anyone who has the latest Rivendell Paper catalog can find a very nice article, with pictures, about how to finish bar tape by whipping. It looks pretty much the same as what you are doing. Being an old school retrogrouch himself, Grant uses hemp twine and seals it with shellac.

Wil Davis

Here's how I did mine (from the Parktool site from what I remember…)

- Wil

froze

Thanks for posting that, I have a set of those on my bike but couldn't remember where I got them and couldn't find them anywhere! But they work way better then finishing or electrical tape. Although the cord whipping intrigues me.

sfrider 

I use a piece of electrical tape of the same color over a tapered cut. Looks great.

Zouf

I keep wrapping too far, put electrical tape (or the fancy tape/sticker provided with the tape) where I want the wrap to end, then cut off the excess with an Exacto. Faster, simpler than trying to cut a taper while maintaining the tension. Be careful not to scratch the bar with the Exacto blade, particularly if it's a carbon bar, tho.