steve-in-kville 

I've looked over many of the picture threads here and noticed that many bars have no bar tape. Why is that?

Seriously.... there's got to be some solid reasoning behind it. Do tell.

Sixty Fiver

When your bicycle is a fashion accessory you don't need bar tape... and it looks cooler when you are walking past Starbucks.

cobrabyte

It started as a bike messenger...thing

you could argue they are hard on their bikes and the bar tape would get all roughed up quickly anyways so why bother

but, like ripped jeans, it's fashion masked as a result of function

steve-in-kville 

So if I actually *commute* on my bikes, its okay to have my bars wrapped? Makes sense.

Mumonkan

its up to you what you wanna do with your things

people do stupid **** all the time doesnt mean we should all follow suit

hockeyteeth

No, you should leave your bars untaped and slippery, but make sure you use a top tube protector to keep your frame from getting scratched. Don't forget your Chrome mess bag.

Not paying attention to bicycle trends will alleviate any further confusion. Most of it is rooted in stupidity.

MNTC

You'd be surprised.

Honkylips

Same thing happening in the motorcycle world. Much like FG/SS, much of the appeal to choppers is the simplistic nature of them. Taking everything off that isnt needed to make the bike stop or go quicker is generally the goal. If a stripped down bike is cool, then a really stripped down bike is even cooler. Bar tape isn't technically "needed", so stip that **** off and look like billy bad ass! lol

europa

I see a lot of bikes on the picture threads I wouldn't ride, let alone own (some because I physically couldn't I'll admit).

Despite what we tell others, if we're honest with ourselves, we all do stuff for purely fashion reasons. The trick is to match your inner desires with the required function. A bigger trick is to spot that you're not doing this and usually the best indication is doing stuff because someone else said it was cool.

Dixie Gentleman

less weight, more aerodynamic.

Coluber42

If it's a bike that actually gets beat up around town, maybe it fell off and they were too cheap/lazy to replace it? No nekkid bars here. My commuter bike and touring bike have regular bartape, and my long distance fixie has double-wrapped bars. It also has fenders, lights, and sometimes a large saddlebag and a handlebar bag. So "messenger-chic" be damned.

GENESTARWIND

ive crashed my bike a couple times and my tape gets torn up but is still intact although looks torn up and im replacing it soon... no bar tape is hipster bull****.

Huffandstuff

Yup, my roommate refuses to wrap his tarck drops because his logic is "Im just going to ride withgloves on anyways." bare metal + Portland rain just seems like a terrible time.

He's all about the hipness.

mconlonx

Because wrapping tape on track bars with no brake/shifter levers to worry about is so dang hard...

bones_mcbones

I like feel the road through my bike without the rubber feel of bar tape. Same reason why I don't use condoms.

Nagrom_

Stop jerkin your bars.

Try different bar tape.

bones_mcbones

yeah, I'm being a jackass. I use brooks leather bar tape, super grippy

mconlonx

Leather tape?

I'll just assume you go this way for the other product you mentioned:

bones_mcbones

Huffandstuff

I even offered to give him a roll of my lizard skin to tape it but he denied cause he needs that street credit.

GMJ

Ok, I'll bite.
I am running naked bars on one of my bikes.

I'm trying a new setup, and before spending the money to buy tape and wrap them up, I want to make sure I like them. This is my first setup with an anatomic grip and its... weird, for me. If I don't end up keeping the bars on there, I don't want to have wasted a perfectly good roll of tape on bars I don't plan on using. It also doesn't have plugs. Sue me, its a beater.

Also, if I am running drop bars without hoods, I never tape tape the tops. When I grip there, I grip and pull backwards (think motorcycle throttle motion). If you wrapped them properly and so they tighten when you grip and turn your wrists outwards in the drops, it will do the opposite up top. It looks like **** and will start to loosen.

GENESTARWIND

Lol what. Never had that problem get better at wrapping? Out wrap in the other direction

europa

Two points.
It's not hard to rewrap bars and modern tapes will take a lot of re-wrapping. There's also nothing wrong with experimenting with setups in the first few hundred miles and then, when you finally think you've got it right, replace the tape with nice new tape (thereby guaranteeing you'll want to change your set-up so I tend not to bother).

Re-wrapping ain't no issue.

Second point: You wrap your bars to suit the way you grip the bars - if you're twisting the tape off, wrap in the opposite direction. Do what suits you, not what people tell you to do (yes, I know this is heresy, but genuine individuals tend to be heretics)

This isn't having a shot at you for riding naked bars - as I said, do what suits you, not what suits me.

GENESTARWIND

You're right but you should be taking a shot at his naked bars.

Just wrap in opposite direction like we both said, when you twist on it, it will get tighter.

europa

I was trying to be reasonable. If we all just bluntly stated the bleedingly friggen obvious, Scrod would be out of a job