Do I need special handle bars in-order to have my brake cable housing run under my tape. I have these brake levers here where that seems to be the idea. I know some bars have funny ridges and things.

Glad you started this topic cause I've been meaning to ask something similar...

What are those things called that snap over the bars where the housings depart the handlebar tape on their way to the brakes? I'd like to get a pair for my bike for a cleaner look. Saw 'em once...didn't get the item name, nor the brand or manu.

=8-)

It's a nice-to-have but not required. It makes for a cleaner look, a rounder bar, and easier housing placement. However, plenty of bikes came stock with hidden cables and no housing recess in the bar and it worked just fine. Don't worry about it.

You need no groove for the cables. They'll bulge the tape on the opposite side to where your palms are.
Electrical tape ideal for finishing the wrap at the inboard points.

You mean these bar tape clamps by Bike Ribbon?

https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...5&category=842

I have them on all of the road bikes in my stable now. I love them.

^It should be noted that those don't appear to be fully grooved and thus would not be suitable for non-grooved bars.

Very good point. You NEED grooved bars in order to be able to use these. And it follows that you need to install the clamps at a point along the bar where the groove still exists, or at least has not fully ended. This may mean not wrapping you bars as close to the bar clamp as was previously done (this was the case with all of my installs). I thought I'd miss the extra grip area but in practice, it doesn't bother me one bit.

One extra note: pay attention to the 26.0 vs. 31.8mm versions. I found out the hard way that there's a reason for the two different sizes. 31.8mm bars have the housing groove extended slightly into the bulged center section. The 31.8mm clamps have a larger OD to accommodate this. If you try to use the 26.0mm clamps, they'll need to be set very far outboard on the bars leaving little tape on the tops.

I've used them......they're grooved enough. A complete housing diameter will fit into the cutout that looks like a half round.

I don't quite get the purpose of those.

You're going to need to secure the housing to the bar with electrical tape anyhow, how is that superior to tape (or not?). It doesn't look lighter or more convenient and you end up with a giant thing at one end of the bar wrap.

Maxx. Same ones?
On the pictured ones, the cutout looks like a full housing diameter that doesn't extend the length of the cylinder.

Having wrapped two sets of bars recently with Cinelli tape I found that the end binding tape they supply sticks about as well your average glue stick (maybe not even that well). Electrical tape works but looks completely out of place next to cork/gel tape.

I found the perfect solution. It's called Friction Tape and I got some in the tape rack at Home Depot. It has a cloth like weave and is very sticky, more like duct tape. Worked great and complements the look of carbon bars and black cork tape.

got a link? is it like a double stick that goes under, or does it go on top of the bar tape? i am gonna redo my bars soon, but i dont want tape on my bars. i was thinking wrapping top-down.

"Giant"?
No.
https://www.dim.com/~ryoder/SomaPhotos/IMGP0015.jpg
I use them and like them.
They do need to be used with grooved bars.
A nice side effect is that they hold the cables in place so you don't need to tape them down prior to wrapping.

I think they are intended to be used instead of the finishing or electrical tape. And yeah, I agree that it would make for a big'ish lump. One of my packs of bar tape came with slip on ends similar to this instead of tape. They were really crude and got the deep six pronto. Same with the funky decorator tape that comes with other bar tape. The electrical tape may creep and get a little sticky over a few years but at least it can be stretched to fit nicely in the meantime.



To chico1st that started this. When I did my first couple of bars with no grooves the tape felt a little soft and pointy around the housing. So I padded it with sliced up old bar tape that was going into the trash anyway. I sliced it lenghways into halves and tucked the thick center part along either side of the housing. This actually worked out nicely for the final feel. It'll seem like you don't have enough hands to hold the cable in place along with the fillers and still tape it down but after some fumbling it's not as bad as it seems.

I too don't see the point of those clamps. It only takes a small piece of tape to hold the cable and tape in place and costs next to nothing.

It's just another type of tape but uses cloth as mentioned. It would go over the bar tape to finish the end. In the really old days it was actually used by electricians before the stretchy vinyl tape came along. These days one of the more common uses for it is taping the blades of hockey sticks and it can often be found in sporting stores as "sports tape" or similar. If the hardware stores don't have it try a sports store and ask for the stuff used on hockey sticks.

It doesn't stretch as well as vinyl tape by any means and it will still creep on you over time so be sure that the last 1/2 to 3/4 of the turn isn't stretched out at all to help reduce or avoid the issue. The edges also soon begin to fray and expose the glue if you ride while holding that area a lot. This is why the sports stores sell it by the 6 roll pack up here because the hockey players tape their stick blades every other game.

I haven't seen the term "top down" before. Can you explain what it means in this case? Thanks.

i think i may try double side tape then. i have hockey tape and it is not at all what i want. i don't want anything on the bar tap at the top if i can figure out how to do it.

and as for top down, i mean to wrap the bars starting at the top rather than the bottom. i've never done either, so i'm not too sure how it will work out.

I'm a fan of friction tape too. When I'm dialing in the fit of new bars/levers, I'll just leave this on. Then when I'm ready to put cork tape on, I"ll just put it right over the top.

In days of old, (eg when I was a kid with a Varsity), the tape was thin translucent plastic.
You started near the stem, made the first wrap over the cut end, then worked your way down to the bar end,
stuffing the excess into the bar, and pushing the plug in to secure it.

I was thinking that but dismissed it since that would put the edges pointed towards the typical push from the hands. I'm thinking this would quickly fold the edges up and make a mess with the foam "cork" tape we typically use these days.

Starting the foam cork from the tops neatly isn't a big deal. I already do this when starting at the base anyway. I cut a wedge off and then slice the thick center along the cut side of the wedge to a thining taper. The tape starts a little in from the desired end and in this case would turn towards the stem for the first turn or turn and a half and then come back to the desired bias angle for the run down to the other end. There's going to be a transition where the edge comes back on itself but with a little trial and error the cross over will be under the bars where you don't see it. Up top there would only be a nice looking tape edge. This is the normal method of course but slicing the tape thinner really helped me get a nice clean looking start.

Thank you very much...exactly what I was looking for...

=8-)

The point is to get rid of the external tape which can leave a sticky residue and come unstuck, especially on really hot, humid summer days. Nothing worse than feeling nasty from sweating only to add to it by getting tape adhesive on your fingers, or having your bar tape unravel due to the finishing tape coming undone. When using white bar tape, the sticky adhesive can create a mess very quickly that is not easy to remove. I use reinforced packaging tape to secure the cables underneath the bar tape and then finish the bar tape with the clamp only. The clamps are reusable and given their lack of adhesive residue make reusing bar tape more appealing.