My debut attempt at bar wrap:


Grade?

It looks fine to me!

perfect works!

Looks good!

Great job! My first attempt years ago didn't come close to that.

I have built many bikes. I have rebuilt many bikes. I cannot, for my life, wrap handlebars. The last bike I built I brought to my LBS and had them wrap the bars. A man has to know his limitations.

You did a fine job.


-Kedosto

That looks a lot better than my first 5 or so attempts.
Then again, my brother refers to my gift wrapping skills as "taking the gift hostage".

Check back in 6 months... to see if it has opened up gaps or come loose too soon.

hi

ride it and test it that she how it works.

When I read the title, I thought 'your second attempt will be better,' but that's pretty darn good.

Looks pretty clean. True test would be after a few hundred miles, if gaps open up at the bends. Just eyeballing it, if you spend a lot of time on the tops or hoods, my guess is that you're going to have a gap at the bends at the tops unless that tape is really tight with some really good adhesive.

Grade: A

Thanks Tom!


When I had it flipped over, working on the dish/truing the rear wheel I noticed a small gap (about 3 mm) under the brake lever mounting point, you don't really put your hands there, so I chose NOT to re-wrap and instead to color over the aluminum with a black felt-tipped pen!

Thanks everyone! Here's what I think helped:
1. I watched and followed the Park Tool video on YouTube. VERY helpful
2. I reused the wrap which came with the bars on the donor bike I got. The seller told me he just had them professionally wrapped recently so I "saved" the old wrap. Reason being: it looked in good shape and I figured if I messed it up, it would not cost me anything. This had the added bonus of showing me the wrap angle by where the wrap was already "squished" down.
3. I kept it INCREDIBLY tight. So tight that I wound up with 6" extra tape on both sides.
4. I used electrical taped flipped upside down as and adhesive underlay. This is a very cheap way to boost confidence that it won't come unraveled, especially if you have stop and let go part way

That's true wisdom, right there.

I wrapped it as tight as possible without breaking ... I used upside down electrical tape as a an adhesive base.


I will post in this thread when the bike is done and I have commuted on it for a few weeks.


(Note- this is my 1st drop-bar bike too so totally uncharted territory for this flat bar man)

Looks like a very neat job.

The bar tops appear to have the wrap wound towards the cockpit though. Your hands' natural tendency is to roll forward on the tops, this action can loosen the tape if it is wound in the opposite direction. Since you wrapped it very tightly and used an adhesive base it may be okay but remember next time when you come off the transition from the levers to situate the winding in the tops so it is wrapped away from the cockpit of the bike.

Same thing with the drops...should wind away from the stem so when your gripping them bar the wrap is in the direction that would tighten with the natural movement of your hand, which appears to be the way you did it.

Good call - I am not sure the bad pics bear it out but on the drops and the upper parts of the bar, I did wrap it in such a way that the natural torque created by use is going 'with' the wrap, not against the exposed edges. I started on the bottom and reversed (up and over technique) when I got to the hoods

Welcome to BF!

Bar tape looks good, we need to talk about your choices in reading material though.

davei1980 I think you peaked on your first bar wrap. I see no room for improvement, so there's nowhere to go but "less perfect" on your next one.

This is debatable of course - I wrap in the direction of my thumb when my hand's in that position - so over and inbound at the drops; over and rearward on the tops. The natural tendency for my hand is to twist toward my thumbs, not away.

I'm glad I earned my wrapping chops back when bar tape was 99¢/roll.

OP's grade:

1. Tight and even spacing: A+
2. Bar end tidiness: A
3. Stem end tidiness: A
4. Under the brake lever coverage and neatness: B

If it were my bike, I'd put some red finishing tape on it - a little wider than the black stuff on there now.

Good point! My natural tendency is the opposite of yours so I guess this technique should be tailored to the specifics of the rider.

I know I found out the hard way and had my bars unwrapping on me during a tour. Once I started wrapping in the direction that my hands tended to twist, never has my wrap come loose.