Cork or Foam?
 

Which bar tape is better? For all-weather riding? Comfortable, long lasting, etc?

I'm a fan of cork myself. I can't stand foam as I have a tendancy to squeeze it too tighly. Plus cork is much better looking. I don't know about long lasting though, I think foam would win there. My mom has foam grips on her bike that I'm pretty sure are older than I am.

Foam comes apart fast once it gets wet, and it breaks down in sunlight and heat too. Cork lasts forever if its wrapped right.

By foam do you mean gel? Most cork wraps are mostly gel anyway, with bits of cork. And some with some of them the cork bits can actually generate weak spots as they're stretched during wrapping.

I have Serfas ICS gel without cork on one bike and Planet Bike gel/cork on another. So far so good with both.

By foam do you mean gel? Most cork wraps are mostly gel anyway, with bits of cork. And some with some of them the cork bits can actually generate weak spots as they're stretched during wrapping.

I have Serfas ICS gel without cork on one bike and Planet Bike gel/cork on another. So far so good with both.

No tape and full finger gloves is what I use ... riding under 30 miles a leg.

Cinelli Gel Cork, I accept no less. I don't use gloves though....if I found a pair of gloves that didn't suck, I would go for regular cork.

Well whatever deda bar tape is, it's great.

Is cork tape genuine cork?

No, it's a closed-cell foam (not Gel), with cork particles added to it.

Gel cork tape has a Gel layer under the closed-cell foam.

Old school cloth tape wrapped over a very thin wrap of synthetic cork tape works for me.

Well nashbar had some gel/foam tape on sale for $5 so I bought that ;). If it sucks, I didn't waste much money on it. This is my first time using bar tape so I didn't want to blow a bunch of money.

How's it compare to grips? Basically my project bike had vaguely mustache-bar-shaped handlebars with grips. I'm going to flip 'em, probably leave the brake levers where they were (out at the ends), but figured if I wrapped 'em all the way with tape I would have another good hand position out at the front.

Prince puts out a great wrap for tennis racquets. Has anybody given it a try?