Originally Posted by
carleton
Take a trip to a well-stocked bike shop. Fizik, Bontrager, and Specialized all make around 3-4 different textures of grip tape.
I LOVE my Lizard Skins tape, but it is expensive. Some other tapes that I also love and will use on occaision:
- Specialized Roubaix tape. Grippy, spongy, and absorbs vibrations. I love the way this feels. Hard to describe the texture.
- Fizik Microtex in black or gray. It has a velvety yet grippy texture. Other colors don't have the velvety texture but are also called Microtex.
- Bontrager "Grippy" tape (actual name). It's similar to the Lizard Skins tape in the way it is tacky. Sort of hard to find, though. I've only seen it once in a shop. Maybe it sells out. There are 2 versions: One with normal padding and one without padding for use on aerobars and aerobar extensions where padding isn't necessary.
-- Not Scrod
Interesting, thanks. More than grippiness(which I haven't had any issues on my non-grippy cork tape), I'm just concerned with padding. Additional grip is cool, but not at the cost of comfort. LizardSkins is obviously a higher quality tape, and I'm willing to pay the premium if it will prove to be more durable and more comfortable.
Unfortunately, we don't have any real well stocked bike shops around here. Most of them are pretty small, and thus only carry a few brands exclusively, with the ability to order the other 90% of things they don't have. REI is about as well-stocked as it gets - cycling in Michigan sucks.