Bar Tape Thickness...
 

Do you have a preference as to how thick of bar tape you use? And why. I like running 3mm thick Fizik performance tape, as it offers the best blend of comfort and road feel for me.

I run lizard skins 3.2. It's nice, but it's loosening up, and I really think I'd like to try something thicker. I have sensitive hands and the roads around here are BAD.)

I wrapped and old tube under my bar tape.

ME? Trekking bars 2 layers of generic foam tape.


You? Drop bar Roadie? get the Fizik gel pad under tape Pad set. want other than Black?
buy the color of tape that floats your Boat, and the gel pads separately..

Screw Polls !:roflmao2:

2.5 lizard skins or the 3mms Fizik

I don't know how many millimeters thick it is. Light cushioning. Good grip.

Caleido handlebar tape, black*| Cinelli-USA

3.2mm Lizardskins DSP is tops for me, and I use lightly padded or unpadded gloves equally comfortably with it. I'm putting a new wrap of it on the Breezer for the season tomorrow, in fact; new bar tape day, when it comes to the DSP, is cause for real excitement! The stuff feels awesome!

thinner tapes are more aerodynamic, especially if you have external shift cable routing that you need to offset

Less is more. It is like with saddles. More padding is not always better.

I used to run really thick tape with gel padding under, but over the years I found that the right gloves and the right bars make all the difference. Now I wrap my bars in fi'zi:k performance classic tape.

I've cycled 100Kmiles. I've changed my tape view only the last few years watching my son's sports.
I used to wrap heavy squishy tape. I'd do 200 mile rides (Coast to Coast) and wear gloves. My hands were tired - so was I. I didn't think much more about it.

My kid is particularly good on cobbles. His first time he had gloves, thick tape with gel. After the Paris Roubaix cobble section his hands were blistered, all messed up. It looked bad.
Then later in the year he started rowing. Hand to oar is a very big deal. Rowers have winter gloves for with no covering on the palm it is so important. We started second thinking all this cushion that actually allows movement / rubbing / re-gripping.

This year we went to thin tape, generally glove-less and a more complaint bar (Ritchey SoloStreem). I actually think that is the right combo. My current thinking is the hand/bar contact should be as firm as practical . Thin tape and thin glove for dealing with crash protection. The shock absorbing should come from bar selection, fork, tire and tire pressure. Not bar tape and glove padding.

I use the 3mm Fizik because it's the only thing that stays white but I hate the feel of it, it's too thin. I tried Lizard Skin, it felt great but it doesn't stay white no matter how much cleaning you do after each and ever ride.

I generally prefer thin tape, but because of the way I grip the bars on the FG (which lacks hoods), there's a total of 5mm on those bars just to get a bigger diameter.

Perhaps, but Lizardskins 3.2 is good for 10 extra watts, so it more than offsets the aero penalty.

I ride with this as well but I have to admit that I would prefer thicker ones. It is not really about the thickness of the tape for me, it is more about the thickness of the bars. I wish that my bars were thicker. I bought some gel tape to put on the bars prior to wrapping them this time. It is squishy, which is not my favorite, but it did make my bars feel fatter.