There seems to be a lot of debate on the comments of YouTube videos that I've been looking at. Which direction should the wrap go? Starting from the bottom of the bar, should you wrap up and over the bar TOWARDS the center or AWAY from the center?

Park Tool had a pretty good tutorial on handlebar wrapping. They explain why they wrap the direction the do in it (so that it doesn't loosen etc.)

https://parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=71

Start at bottom. viewed from the rear, clockwise on the right and anticlockwise on the left. Reverse direction when you pass the brake levers.

I like to wrap away from the center at the bottom and reverse at the brake levers.

wrap in the same direction your thumbs wrap around the bars: top and bottom, left and right.

In the first series of pictures they're wrapping in the wrong direction, and the completed wrap jobs are laughably bad.

AndrewP got it right, but I don't think it's necessary to "reverse direction" at the levers. Just do a figure-8 wrap there and continue on.

The figure eight reverses the direction. Wrap from the bar ends to the stem. Otherwise the tape will eventually curl and peel at the hoods.

Above the brake lever, wrap front to rear. Below, wrap inside to outside.

I start at the top and wrap outward finishing at the bottom.

Reasoning:

Wrapping outwards - You are pushing with your hands away from you so the pressure is in this direction. This way the tape gets tighter.

Start at the top, center of the handlebars - When you wrap towards the bottom, the side of the bar tape facing the rider is covered by the next wrap and there is no peeling up. If you wrap from the bottom up, then the edge of the tape facing the rider is covered by the next wrap and your hands as you grip and push forward, the tape starts to peel up.

I wrap starting at the bottom, when viewed from the rear ccw on the right, cw on the left (over the top from outside to inside). When I reach the top I am wrapping front-to-back over the top.

I think most people agree on wrapping bottom to top and securing with electrical tape. Most people also reccomend wrapping front to back on the bar top. To accomplish a front-to-back wrap over the top, unless you flip it around at the lever, you need to be wrapping outside-to-inside on the flats.

However, a lot of people do it differently and all of them claim their tape never loosens - my tape used to chronically loosen when I wrapped top to bottom, so I have trouble believeing them... but since you need to be changing tape very so often anyway, try whatever makes the most sense to you and see how it works. Consider getting non-adhesive tape so it is easier to unwrap if you don't like your pattern.

Based on the responses so far, there is no consensus. Starting at the center of the bars is most often considered to be incorrect because the edges will be more likely to curl up.

I wrap from the ends and go in the opposite direction that Park suggests - CW on the right, CCW on the left, looking at the bar ends.

With Campy levers, there is no need for figure 8s or any reversal of direction. Keep going the same way as you go around the brake hoods.

If you tend to rotate your hands to the back, while on the tops, my wrapping would cause the tape to loosen. I've never had a problem with loosening tape.

I'm with DaveSSS, Wrap upward and finish with tape.

It used to be that you wrapped outward and used plugs to finish, but no one uses plugs to secure the tape anymore so I wrap bottom to top the same way you tile a roof so the tape is shingled in the right direction to prevent curling. It's also easier to wrap in that direction with cables under the tape because you're working toward the free end of the cable.

Tape doesn't move if it's wrapped tightly enough, so it really doesn't matter which way other than preference.

On other peoples bikes, or bikes I plan to sell, I do it the conventional way, start at the ends and finish with tape at the stem. On my own bikes, I start at the stem and finish with plugs or a bar end mirror, simply because I think the tape looks crude. One old farts opinion.

I just checked my bike and both are wrapped opposite of the park tool one-directional method. I've probably been doing it that way for a long time but I don't know for sure. But I also have problems with the tape on the tops of the bars slipping around. I've tried adhesive on the bars, I've tried double-sided tape, hasn't helped. I'll try the Park method next and see if it works better.

Now what wrap should I use- Cinelli cork or Profile synthetic cork? (I've been using Profile Wrap but I didn't know it was what they called "cork".)

This is easy. The wrap goes in the opposite direction from the way you did it first.

I usually wrap from stem and finish with plugs. It's just the esthetics - I don't like finishing with electrical tape. If it is wrapped tight it works fine either way. I've had tape on a bike for several years that way.

Chacun à son goût - I see it as a nice place to add some style.

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.

center out.

Wrapping from the centre out causes the tape to eventually curl no matter how tight you stretch it, so I put double-sided tape along the edge that would otherwise be curled - it lasts heaps longer.

I also cut an angle off the end of the tape so there's only a minimal bulge where I start wrapping it.

I start from the stem. because the handlebars are three piece like the photo above (3ttt paris roubaix) and the tape is flush with the center part that holds the side parts of the handlebars.

An advantage of wrapping from plugs is that when it rains, water will slope like on a roof top with tiles. But I don't ride on rain, and even if it rains it' only occasional and also a tape wrapped from stem still lasts long enough for me.. I usually change it when it's too dirty, teared from a spill, or I get bored of it, and this usually comes first before coming loose.

Thats how I do it.

you are wrapping in the wrong direction.

I think you may be mistaken... those bars were clearly wrapped bottom-to-top... the wraps closer to the top are on top of the wraps closer to the bottom, meaning that the top part was wrapped after the bottom.


.... unless I am mistaken about what I am seeing in the picture.

No. You are totally right; that is bottom up. But I don't know how they finished it off so nice. And without electrical tape. Anyone able to enlighten us?