Originally Posted by
urbanknight
The reason behind the method recommended everywhere you look is to have the natural pressure from your grip tighten the tape instead of loosen it. I'm a little too young to know much about cloth tape (it came on my first track bike and I ditched it for cork), but this might not be a concern with it. Does it have an adhesive back?
It has an adhesive back and I want to keep the bike as original as possible so I'll stick with the tape (hehe, stick with the tape).
Originally Posted by
San Rensho
Always start at the bottom and tape in the direction that your fingers curl with your hands on the drops. The left and right sides therefore are taped in opposite directions. This has always been the way to do it, even with cloth tape. If you did it otherwise with cloth tape, the tape would fray and curl over on itself.
Well, the tape
was applied like I described ... I think I need to mention that handlebar plugs are used too.
The original way of applying mad the tape lock itself at the stem (the tape wraps around the starting point) and it is held in place at the end by the bar plugs. I also found this topic in the archives of the forum:
http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/in.../t-652282.html
Uzz2050
06-10-10, 07:48 PM: It depends on what kind of tape above all else, and to a lesser extent what kind of shifters. If you have STI, or downtube I suppose, and you happen to be using either a synthetic tape, or cloth tape, you're pretty much free to wrap from the stem down. As long as you wrap them tightly, they don't really curl at the edges, and you get the pretty no tape look. 'Natural' cork tape is pickier, but as long as you do a nice tight wrap, you can usually get away with either direction. By the time it's started to peel, it's usually time to replace it anyway
I think I'll stick with the tape and the original way of taping
That will give me this (I have the same handlebar that makes it all flush):
http://www.raydobbins.com/molteni_replica/photo12.jpg
Thanks for the quick responses!