Hi All...

I purchased a set of road bars for my Rodriguez and decided to add a little harlequin accent to the bar tops. A few folks have asked about this type of wrap so I decided to take some photos of the way I do it. Whether I'm doing a harlequin or a regular wrap, I always use cotton tape and always start near the stem and work toward the bar ends. With cotton tape pulled tight, this has always worked well. I've also worked out my own way to start the wrap that never loosens and does not require tape at either end.

Here it goes:

Edit: Now that I see how it was thumbnailed, start at the top row, left image.... oh well they're numbered.

Jim

Thanks, excellent pictures and easy to follow.

That is fantastic! Thanks!!!

I'm going to have to give cotton tape a try.

Thanks...

I got hooked on cotton tape a few years ago and never looked back. Traditionally, you'd shellac the tape after wrapping but I've never done that. Cotton tape will stretch ... a little ... but you have to apply much more force than you would with the popular foamy-stretchy whatever-it-is tape.

The trickiest part of doing the harlequin wrap is to get the second half of the bar to match the first. Making certain that the colors cross/intersect at the same spot does require some patience but I think it's worth it.

Good luck...

Jim

Awesome tutorial. Thanks.

Buddy on my mtb team had a similar "top secret" wrap. I can't wait to wrap mine just like his and show up grazie mille

We need more threads like this. Thanks jimv!

How about a final pic?

Are you not suposed to start the wrap at the bar end though?

Nice one Jim. We definitely need more step by step stuff.

i also like cotton tape more than the rubbery cork type tape, though it is a bit hard on the hands. this is a very cool tutorial, and makes me want to try it out -- though i have to ask where you get the cateye tape. my lbs only carries the black cloth tape, which is fine, but i would definitely love to add some color to my bars.

and do you shellac? my tape is 'salty' from riding in the ice and snow, and very possibly sweat from my hands. kind of helps to ghettofy my bike. anyway. if you do, what kind of shellac do you use?

oh, and i start at the top and work to the ends too -- that way you can just tuck the excess into the hole and plug it up.

Somebody should save and upload those tutorial pics onto www.uploadhouse.com and then post html links so the pics will display at full size in the thread by using "[img] "example image url" [/img]" tags............

Who here is bored and savvy enough to accept the challenge?
I don't have time right now, otherwise I would do it.....

I'll upload them on my webspace, hold on.

so this effectively doubles the layers of cotton tape? i bet that feels great. i think even with one color wrapped like this, the texture alone would create a pleasing look. that might look pretty sharp with benotto ribbon tape as well.

great tutorial jimv.

There you go:

Oops. Somebody beat me to it.

Nice. I bet Sheldon Brown would link to this if we could give him a stable URL.

man, that is sweet!

i've been using cloth hockey tape. i'm gonna try that tonight.

FYI you can just link to the attachment URLs since you've already uploaded them to BF (more stable, though costs Joe more money).

One of the best things about this tutorial is the great shots of Cateye tape. I've never seen it so close up...

Thanks to everyone who said nice things about this 'how-to'. I really enjoy figuring different ways to do things and doing a how-to is kinda' fun. I'm finally getting the hang of doing close-ups with my non-SLR digital camera and plan to do more how-to's. My main bicycle interest obviously lies in the area of coaster brakes for which there is limited interest. I almost didn't post this here because I feared the level of interest was even lower. I'm glad some have found this potentially useful and my thanks to ^oz for posting it (to wherever it is now) it does make it easier to view.

I hope some of you try it, I'd like to know if the directions are really useful in practice. Starting the wrap is probably the trickiest part and I'm sure there are other ways to do it. I also see no reason why the wrap couldn't begin at the bar end if one was so inclined.

Take care...

Jim

My pleasure. Forgot to tell you, great how-to. I'd love to try this sometime.

Good call, I just picked up a 20-yard roll of black adhesive hockey tape for $2 last week and wrapped my bars last night. I maybe used 1/3 of it and wrapped 'em pretty well. Stick it to the man!

Where do you buy hockey tape? Does it come in diffrent colors (other than black)?

Black, white, and clear (not sure if that had a texture though) at the local sports store I went to. Mine is Sportmart, a chain, I'm just not sure if they are nationwide. I think its something that most sports stores carry.

On a side note, what kind of large sports store doesn't have anything to lock a bike to out front? Are they trying to discourage fitness? I had to lock to a d@mn gutter.

how long will it take al5 to comment on the benefits of shellac?