Originally Posted by
cappuccino911
alcohol may help clean the rim surface for braking but I guess my question to you is do yo uhave trouble stopping your bike? regarding bar tape, I can't imagine it would come out looking very good. I would invest in padded gloves. Also if you are putting so much pressure on your hands as to make them that uncomfortable, perhaps you have a fit issue with your bike or just really crappy cheapo bar tape?
No real need to double up the bar tape, I just have the second roll and thought if one layer was nice and plush, 2 layers would be even better.
I got new pads and levers because I didn't have anywhere near enough stopping power fully loaded going down a hill with my old setup (old hardened shimano pads and cheapo dia-compe brakes with suicide levers), so I did have problems stopping, but hopefully I won't when I get my new brake cables run (switched to ergo levers and interupters). I just didn't know if cleaning the braking surface would help more while I'm doing everything else.
I have two rolls of (lightly used tape) because less than 100 miles before I decided I needed to rip everything apart to have a new braking setup, I had drop in bars which are extra long and needed two rolls to cover it all. Now I have new bars and stem, but thought I'd keep the tape because I liked the feel and it was hardly used. If doubling up won't make it feel supernice (yes I have padded gloves), then I don't need to do it.