wearyourtruth

i see a lot of bikes on here and on FGG with no bar tape or grips... is there an advantage to this? the best i've read is "i prefer the feel of bare chrome on my hands" but i have read it maybe 2 or 3 times, hardly constituting the lot i've run across.

maybe gloves are a better fashion statement? but heck, i'll ride gloves and a wrap.

salmonchild

aesthetics

mattface 

I like the feel of bare chrome on my hands, but not enough to give up the grip and long term comfort of tape.

Other reasons might be because it just looks badass, and/or folks are just too cheap to spring six bucks for tape.

jessefive

You know what, that is a pretty silly trend. I did it for awhile, because I was just too lazy to get the tape. But tape makes life better. Or Oury grips. With gloves too.

Unless you have some wildly colored powder coated insanity. Then it would make sense.

sherbert tights

because there is nothing like naked bars. ICY HOT!

zelah

pose

junioroverlord

I rock naked bars because I didn't like the look of tape on them. I would get grips but I'm too lazy. C'mon folks. What the reasons we do anything to our bikes? Because either it looks cooler or...actually that's about it.

onetwentyeight 

i only cloth wrapped the bottom of my bars for a while, but while it looked snazzy I found it too slippery on the shoulders, even with gloves. got some grips on the shoulders now, much better.

jamey

this is one point that doesn't and never will make sense to me. fashion over function seriously needs to end here.

ImOnCrank

Wait, naked bars? Where?

mattface 

Those bars are safe-sexy crank.

summerinside

naked bars suck hard - at least that's what my wrists tell me when I try them.

thurstonboise

Naked bars look slick, but the ends have to be plugged. I can't stand seeing any bike with the ends of the bars open.

I can't stand to ride them, I need the bulk cork tape adds.

oharescrubs

im straight up bad at wrapping bars, and i like changing bars and cant afford new stems to interchange... plus im sorta lazy, and in debt in general and that effects alot.

$0.00/Gal

Naked bars look retawded. Grips in the drops look classy, as does tape. I'm not a fan of completely wrapped bars, but they do look better than naked ones.

chicagoamdream

I am so with you on this.

schloe mo

i've been using naked drops with cloth ends for a while, which suited me fine and looked snazzy IMHO.

then, i raced the very bumpy Monstertrack, and my wrists still remember. time to get some grips.

efarrar

One day after my cork fell off I realized I didn't need it, so I stopped wrapping my bars. I am not anti-wrap, but I am very unmotivated to go buy some.

astrx

+1 on the lack of motivation to buy something new.
also, ive gone down at least once a month doing stupid isht. i use electrical tape in teh winter so my hands dont freeze, but everytime i go down i would have to rewrap

fmshades

bare bars look sweet, for sure, but it's hard on the hands, even with gloves.

and they can be super slippery! there's been times when i've hit potholes and almost bit it hard cuz my hand slipped off the bars.

so for that reason, i wrap part or all of the bars.

queerpunk

when my bars were bare, my palms developed some serious pain.

teiaperigosa

MTB grips are tight

eddiebrannan

scantily dressed is more alluring. nekkid ain't bad though

drac_vamp

oh man, i opened this thinking it was about "bear bars"... those places are intense.

koyman

I like the slim feel of barebars, and so when adorning them use cotton tape or somesuch non-fatty solution. I hate fat things.