What is the cheapest bar tape?

None at all. Maybe hockey tape. Good old cork is pretty cheap, as is cloth.

It really depends on what you're trying to do. What kind of look are you going for?

.89 cents @ Home Depot, OSH and Lowes...

=8-)

cutting open used inner-tubes.

I've found great looking splashy two color tape with bar end caps for under $4/set delivered to USA from Chinese sellers on feebay.

Anyone ever use tennis racket tape? Not sure if it might be cheaper, but it could be an option if one wnats something with more tack.

Chombi

I have some tennis racket tape awaiting just such a fate. Mine, however, is the leather I took off a couple of broken rackets.

+1

Not sure what your purpose is, but bar-tape is not a place I'd cheap out. It's the thing your hands touch all the time. You want something decent. Personally I prefer Bontrager Gel Tape which goes for about $15 at the LBS.

just make sure you plug the ends with something.
Open bar ends are a good way to get corked, aka impaled.

profile designs. cheap and ****ty

Yeah. bad place to cheap out... but if you insist, hockey tape is better than nothing. Giver' two wraps because it is so thin. It might wind up being a little sticky and not last too long... or be a permanent ugle lumpy part of the bike after a few years.

Some shops still have older plastic tape - it is thin and slippery and terrible and cheap, but cheap.
There also might be some padded plastic tape around... a little more money, but marginally nice feel.
Cheap faux-cork tape is about $10 per set (two rolls) and it is decent.

Profile Designs. Cheap, durable and comfortable. No adhesive on most of the rolls i've used so it goes on easy and rewraps if needed but doesn't slip.

Apparently our experiences with it are different.

Cheapest leather bar wrap - Go to the second hand store and pick up an old leather jacket for $15-20 in your color of choice.

Rip the lining and use a straight edge and a razor to cut 1" strips. If you need longer strips you can overlap & glue them with 5 minute epoxy. Use contact cement to apply to the bars. Maintain with occasional Kiwi Mink Oil applications.

This is the way I am going for now on. I don't need padded tape (my gloves have padding). Leather looks cool and lasts.

On a couple of occasions, I've bought the really cheap foam tape, generic or some brand I can't remember, from Performance and/or Nashbar. I've always been satisfied. You can also find pretty good prices on name brand Deda tape at places like Pro Bike Kit and other online sellers.

Dumpster dive behind your LBS.

Cheap electrical tape from the local dollar store.

I bought an old bike (cheap) from a guy that used duct tape for bar tape. He had applied several layers. It was a major PITA to remove. I would have just tossed the bars, but they were nice Centurion branded bars from the late 1970s.

For flips, I wait for sales, typically I will load up when Nashbar puts theirs on sale for anything under $5.

I would just let it soak in some light oil for about a week. That should dissolve all of the adhesive and should allow that stuff to slide right off.

Yep. I'm on Profile Design stuff and it's pretty great. Just the right amount of grip, good vibration dampening and seems to be durable. No complaints here.

Using a product like "goo gone" or mineral spirits or alcohol soaked in a rag, just wrap the soaked rag around the bars, let it sit for about 10 minutes, and then rub the softened adhesive off with the same or a different rag. Should take a maximum of 20 minutes and a little elbow grease.

Maybe you can just wet the adhesive with this stuff to soak it, but the key is to give it a good soak with the solvent (the universal principle for dissolving/softening anything that you're trying to clean - like setting dishes in water before scrubbing them), and the saturated rag, wrapped around the bar, will probably do that better than just trying to wet the bar and watching the solvent drip off.

Light oil will probably work too, but the above I know from experience will work. You'd probaby have to clean up the oil with some other solvent (citrus?) before wrapping and using them anyway.

In Europe, cork tape from Decathlon is the cheapest I´ve found (€5).

I used Cinelli tape on my Olmo though (nothing but the best for the garage queen) and it has a significantly nicer feel.



On my daily commuter I use old inner tubes cut into strips as an under-wrap, and cheap black cork tape on the top. Makes the grip circumference a little greater and more comfortable for my hands.

pavement_nyc, For cheap I've used Sampson brand 'bar tape. Worked well on a bike that was likely to get soaked in the rain. A medium priced tape I'm trying on the touring bike is Salsa.

Brad

Sunlite sells some decent tape, it's thick, comfy, includes plugsw and retails for under $8

REI had non-adhesive backed Profile Tape recently for $11. I'd guess tennis racket tape being the cheapest form of ,, a leather wrapping. It depends if you wear gloves or not too.