im not much for super squishy either. i like a bit harder grip, because i always wear gloves.
anywho here is my set up....i have two kinds of tape mainly out of necessity...a friend gave me one of two rolls of brooks leather tape he didn't need, so i wrapped the brooks as far as it could go then finished with simple cheapo cloth tape i bought from rivendel bike shop.

The brooks leather tape is great because its not super squishy but feels nice, also when you wrap it creates these natural finger grooves. its pricey though, like 80 bucks for 2 rolls. i wouldnt have used it if i didn't get the one roll for free.

the cloth tape is another good option for hard tape. its super cheap, easy to wrap with since it has a tacky but not super sticky backing, and is probably the most minimal amount of cushioning.
also, something you can do to cloth tape (learned about on rivendel's blog)....get some shellac and paint it on the cloth tape a few coats, and it makes it waterproof, more resilient/durable, and sort of solidifies the tape onto the bars so you know it wont be unwrapping on you.....yet is still not too hard to remove once you want to change things up.





ps apparently my bars remind someone of a dog's red rocket LOLOLOL

that and/or grip.

Red Rocket, Red Rocket!

^ Let me point out, I really dig your wrap job. It's very unique and looks cool as can be. Cartman is just too funny and the episode that the pic is from fits your bars nickname!

If you want nice cloth buy hockey tape... seriously.

It has a high thread count, adhesive backing (that is easy to remove), is tough as hell, and with a few coats of shellac will last indefinitely.



The drop bars that were on my old Pug also still look as good as the day 1 which was over 20,000 km ago and cleaning up the bars is easy as grease and grime just wipe right off... just avoid spilling alcohol on your bars as this is the solvent in shellac.

Not realllly true.

Yea, someone else pointed out the grippiness factor. I've never used bare bars, and I like bar tape for the squishiness, so that didn't occur to me. Oops.

JESUS



oh and just to make this a not completely irrelevant post, i concur about the hockey tape. i used it on my road bike just for taping the ends, but it worked well and thought hockey tape could work well for the full handlebars. basically the same as cloth tape....actually thinner and probably higher thread count.

Hahahahahaha.

I wrapped leather tape over my old crappy cloth tape to give it a little more "pad". I haven't been riding on it long so the jury's still out, but I like it so far.

When I see people riding with bare bars my first thought is "newb".

Hahahahahahahaha

I like it so much that I'm putting in my sig. It's so oddly compelling; I can't stop looking at it.

I just bought a couple rolls of Newbaum's bar tape. I guess it's a new cloth bar tape company and they have a **** ton of colors.

I have the Velo Orange leather stitch on, on my RB021's awesome if you like to ride bare handed but most of the time I ride with gloves so I switched Bars to O8 Bullhorns and grips to the long O8 rubber grips....much more plush. I know that tape is more traditional but I just like the feel of wearing gloves on rubber grips besides I can wear unpadded gloves and not have sore hands

same here. that or trend humping hipster.
ive never understood why people do it...its sort of a pet peeve of mine really.

the only real reason i have gotten close to receiving why people do it (rather, dont do it....ie tape their bars) is looks.

now, ill be the first to admit, for many of us (myself definitely included) part of building up a fixed gear bike is the aesthetics. a big part. However, bikes are about function. So for me, function is first, looks a close second. Once looks come before function, i think you have lost the point of building a fixed gear bike or any bike for that matter....and some people could care less about the aesthetics and function trumps everything, more power to them.

Not taping your bars, unless someone can give me a good functional reason as to why, is purely aesthetic while being incredibly impractical. yet i see them more and more everyday.
oh well.

Soooo, now I know who to go to for bizarro banana related GIFs.

What's this brake lever?

Have you used it?

My lady does.

i rock grippy, padded gloves and no tape... works fine. when i have bars taped, i cant feel my bike. the gloves are a nice happy medium. when i have the money to spend on some nice leather tape, i'll probably invest...

is that a fyxation on you rear? if so how do you like it?

dia-compe shot lever

yes! i really like everything about fyxation tires except for one thing: the size. they are all 700x28c.....but run more like a 32c.
i originally intended the tire for the front, but my fork can only take up to 28c tires. other 28c tires work on my fork, but not fyxations.

sucks because i would have two fyxations on my build for sure if the fork could take them. have even thought about buying another fork just for that reason, but thats a little extreme ;p

thats some hardcore rocking.