Germany_chris

Before you roll your eyes, and type a heated response about my parentage give me a minute.

Cloth bar tape is top to bottom, modern is bottom to top for obvious reasons. Last night I ordered some Newbaums padded cloth bar tape which seems like it might me in-between, for those that have used the padded cloth do you wrap traditional or modern?

Classtime 

Cloth bar tape is not top to bottom according to my tradition. What is obvious to you is not obvious to me. And padded cloth is not traditional in any sense -- so whatever.

Narhay

I am usually pulling down at the drops and out to the sides rather than toward the middle. To this end, to stop the tape edges from furling upward I always wrap bottom to top.

bikemike73

Bottom to top is what I do.

In the 70s it was top to bottom. But it was with pretty thin bar tape. With the excess that could be pushed inside the bottom tube with the silver end piece

I use padded tape now

Love and need the cushion 🚲🚲🚲🚲🚲🚲

Germany_chris

With Newbaum padded bar tape or normal bar tape..I'm asking about a specific bar tape not a generally what do you do, I wrap bottom to top with anything conceived post 1985 too but this isn't that in spirit.

SJX426 

Lots of bar wrapping direction police but no law. You have the freedom to do what you want and accept full responsibility for your choice to you only. Be happy and enjoy the ride! Oh you are in Southern Germany I spent a year near there across the boarder in Austria. What is the tradition in that neck of the woods? Which way to \they wrap the alpen horns, bell to mouth or mouth to bell?

IsleRide 

I've done both but usually bottom to top finished with twine. I've actually started top and bottom when doing a harlequin design with two colors top and bottom and solid around the brakes tucking (and taping) the ends under the hoods. May not last as long (I'm easy on the bars) but it looks cool.

Before the police chime in, I've since moved the brake housings behind the bars. (although I can't say it's better)

79pmooney

I've taken to double wrapping my bars. Last round's cloth goes underneath. Since it is held in place by the next later, it doesn't need to be continuous so I just cout out the bad sections. I am going to try a first wrap if innertube strip next time. (This aging stuff sucks but I'll take it over the alternatives.)

gugie 

When Benotto was the tape of choice when I worked at a bike shop, we always started at the top and shoved whatever was left into the bars and capped them off. That works for thin tape.

Thicker tape doesn't work well that way, so I started at the bottom and finished off at the top with tape. At some point the tape would start to unfurl. A buddy of mine was doing the , so I started doing that. Twine has come undone for me, so I started shellacing, which locks everything in place, and it doesn't matter which way you roll from. It's the most labor intensive way to wrap a bar (leaving out the cool harlequin finish as shown above), but it's been the most durable for me.

I can't remember if I've ever done the "start from both ends and meet under the brake leve hood" method and leave off the shellac as a test. I should try that on my next bike. It would seem that the trick there is to make sure the wrap is very tight on the top so your hands won't unwind it.

IsleRide 

Raise your bars. Technomic is your friend.

79pmooney

??? Trashing my riding position to save my bar tape? Edit: Part if this is that I want a bigger bar to grab than I needed years ago. Besides I doubt Technomics come long enough.

thook

225mm isn't long enough? wow. do you use riser/dirt drop style quills, then?

i've tried inner tube wrapping on a friend's bike (he was in his 70's). i found it hard stretch or even get it to look good without bumps where it overlapped. double cork tape was easier and looked "normal"

Germany_chris

There's a tube under that tape..no bumps

non-fixie 

I am not acquainted with that particular Newbaum tape, but, FWIW, my findings are that top to bottom works well as long as the tape isn't too stretchy. With thicker tape, you'll need different caps to deal with that. They usually come with the tape.

If the tape is stretchy, it'll work loose if you wrap top to bottom, and the other way around works better. You will have to learn to live with finishing tape, though ...

A couple of examples. What happened when I wrapped thin stretchy tape top to bottom. It worked loose:



What happened to thick, padded non-stretchy tape wrapped top to bottom. Nothing:

Oldairhead

I am waiting for "rules for bar tape" or the "taping orthodoxy" posts to start.

Edit: I'm also wondering, if you do it "wrong" and it works just fine, is it still wrong?

randyjawa 

For cushion tape, I always wrap end to center...


For most cloth tape installation, I wrap center to end...


However, when using these Gaslo end caps on my sixties Torpado, I will wrap from end to center (gotta do it that way to hold the cap in place)...


The Galso end caps have four tabs each that fit on the outside of the handlebar ends...


The same goes for cloth tape and Barcons, end to center...

polymorphself 

My go to is Newbaums regular cloth: Top to bottom with no tape or twine (not needed with this)

I ordered their new padded tape thinking it would be the same, but it gave me ridges, so I did bottom to top instead. I think it's just a little too thick to do top to bottom and look clean imo.

Then I decided it was too thick looking for me anyways and got rid of it.

jon c. 

I've only recently learned there are rules. I've always gone bottom to top because that's what I've always done.

And if you use an Italian Road Bike mirror it seems like it would be harder to install going the other way.

gugie 

Definitely. You're clearly doing it wrong.

I'm wondering what the Velominati say on the subject...

;-)

IsleRide 

Instead of wrapping a tube like tape I was thinking of trying a section of tube sliced down the middle and then taping it on top of the bar then wrapping the cloth over it.
With careful placement I think you could avoid uneven bumps.

Anyway, with age, (72) I've given up the race posture but not drop bars. A higher bar means I don't need as much (or any) cushion. I like the feel of tight cloth on the bar.

veganbikes

On the real, tape however you want! When I last did Newbaums it was drops to center but that wasn't padded just harlequin wrapped before we figured out we needed 4 rolls total to do a 3 color wrap but it still came out nice though my side wasn't so good but for a first effort and being super nervous it turned out ok.

shelbyfv

OP, I get what you are asking. I think that since it will appear to be traditional cloth tape, you should first try wrapping it in the traditional method, top to bottom. If it's too thick to cleanly tuck the end, wrap it the modern way and maybe some twine.

canklecat

Both. Either. Depends on the bar wrap and whim. If I want to skip the look of tape, top to bottom and secure the ends with the bar end plug. Haven't encountered any problems with unraveling, peeling or the feel of the wrap when done carefully with the appropriate bar wrap.

79pmooney

I know Nitto calls the 225mm "length" but I call it "height". Length to me is either horizontal distance from center of bar to top of stem/centerline intersection (traditional Cinelli, etc.) or center of bar along the stem centerline to the steerer centerline (threadless stems). Those "225mm" stems don't come longer than 130mm horizontal. I have just two bikes that work with 130s. The rest are up to radically longer (along the horizontal).

thook

right. i suppose i could've said "tall" vs long.