djb

If I were riding that in the winter winter, like what we get, ie salt and crap all over the place in abundance, I'd put some heavy grease combined with hockey tape, which is more cloth like, and withstands cold very well and doesnt fall off cuz the cold does weird stuff to both the adhesive and plastic electric tape sometimes.
I mention this about the tape because I use hockey stick tape on parts of my bike (brake levers, metal bar ends) so that when I ride in near freezing temps, my fingers dont get as cold from the bare metal. The hockey tape has stayed on for years and years, seems to me that it is better in very hot and very cold than electric tape.

my experience anyway.

skookum

I am happy that someone else is trying it, not me. Good luck with it.

Tourist in MSN

If colder than about 15 or 20 F above (about - 9 C to about -7 C), I do not ride the bike, if my ski gloves are not warm enough for me it is too cold for me to be biking that day. But thanks for the suggestion.

The purpose here was to keep any particulates from getting into the S&S threads. Electrical tape can stretch quite well which is important when trying to wrap around the S&S nuts. S&S specifies a special Teflon based grease, which I use sparingly due to exorbitant cost.

On some of my bikes I used old style cloth handlebar tape (similar to hockey tape) on my brake levers, not for cold but because it is less likely to be slippery when wet. A few hours ago I posted a photo on a different thread of one of my bike second stem set ups for my handlebar bag, that photo shows one of my brake levers with old style cloth handlebar tape. I repeated the photo here:

djb

ya, I was thinking more of putting some heavyish grease just along the outside of the couplings, so to stop gritty stuff actually getting in, more of a barrier. I'd want to put some sort of tape over it, and as you say, electric tape is great for that stretching and fitting to a given shape really well. Hockey tape too fits pretty good onto odd shaped parts, but I guess anything will work as long as it stays on, jsut to stop gunge from getting into the coupling threads, thats the main thing and common sense says to me thats the main thing you would want to avoid.

re less slippery, I found that also to be of a help with gloves, the brake levers were more grippy with the cloth tape on, so a added bonus on top of not touching cold metal. With thicker gloves on its perhaps not an issue, but when i just have thin polypro gloves on, not touching the cold metal was a nice change and I could feel the diff when i first tried cloth tape, many many years ago.

DropBarFan

Good grief, that's the Bees Knees!

djb

Re belts lasting 10k km , I imagine regular quick soap and water and some sort of brush to clash clean out dirt from the little crevices on both belt and front and back gears, would go a long way to extending the life of the drivetrain. Just like a chain, regular cleaning imo is the main factor of how long stuff lasts/wears.

Some sort of light small bristle brush would easily do the job, warm water and soap and a few minutes of scrubbing would be a really fast way to keep the "contact/friction points clean.
As with a chain, rider weight/power and shifting style probably play a part in a belts life too

DropBarFan

In the olden days some brake levers (like Mafac) had rubber lever covers--I guess they didn't look racy enough so they went away although now one can buy aftermarket lever covers. Handlebar tape works just as well I guess. An Arizonian who reviewed Lizard Skins lever covers noted that they also help when levers are in hot sun.