pcb 

Thanks! Shifting in the stand doesn't seem all that touchy, but the road ain't the stand. Hopefully it's tolerable.

The top-/downtube tape is to provide extra protection from handlebar hits to the top tube, and brake caliper hits to the down tube.

Top tubes are especially vulnerable. Top tube dents from handlebar hits are pretty common, especially on track bikes that don't usually have front calipers that might prevent the handlebar from hitting the top tube. A pretty high percentage of FS ads I see for used track frames have handlebar top tube dents. Sometimes road bikes, too. Thinner tubing is more easily dented than thicker tubing, fwiw.

There were higher-end shops back in the day that routinely did top tube tape wraps, and there are currently aftermarket bumpers/cushions made specifically for top tube protection. The Kashimax Five Gold top tube protector was the standard, now evidently out of production. Just google "track bike top tube protector" and you'll find tons of hits.

I can't recall seeing any down tube dents from caliper hits on road bikes, but I've seen plenty of scrapes and damaged paint there. With your typical sidepull or dual-pivot, the problem is on the drive side, because the drive-side arm is the one that sticks up high. Sometimes with centerpulls there's an issue on the underside of the down tube.

Much more of a problem with dt shifters, which leaves the drive side unprotected when the lever is pulled back. With bar-cons or brifters, depending on the size/shape of the brake arm, the shifter casing can often be enough of a buffer.

I use self-sealing teflon tape, a couple/few wraps. Easy to apply, pretty cushiony, leaves no residue when removed.

Note that if you raise/lower your bars, even by just a little bit, the top tube hit point can change, so using something that's easy to remove/reapply is a plus.