I apologize in advance if this topic has been posted before but I looked and didn't find much that helped me. Does anyone have any advice on how to wrap track drops for instance Deda pista drops
do I need a specific length of tape how do those plugs work and will I have to buy them separate from the tape.

Anything helps thanks.

Its just like wrapping any other bar.

However you want?

I take it this is your first try at wrapping. Tape the whole bar.

+1

LOTS of videos to help you: https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+wrap+handlebars

ah thank you for the link greatly appreciated first time wrapping bars. I will give this a go on my new drops my LBS said to go with cork due to the fact that it has a little more grip. Not sure if that is good or bad since this is my first time riding drops.

the good news is that bar tape is relatively cheap, and most of it can be reused if you screw it up. plenty of youtube vids about bar wrapping, but until you do it the first time, you just dont know. take your time, dont be afraid to take it off and re-wrap if you dont like the way it comes out the first or second time.

If you take your time wrapping it and keeping a little bit of tension on the tape while wrapping the bars, you shouldn't have much issue. Also avoid doing any thing like a harlequin wrap until you have some more time wrapping bars. After the first couple of times, it will get easier. I learned via trial by fire, wrapping the bar on my bianchi with brooks leather bar tape.

So I bit the bullet and tried to wrap my bars with the videos but all those videos show people wrapping the tape around brake hoods.

Thus the direction of the tape self tightens with your grip. I don't know if that makes any sense like the bottom half runs one direction to your hoods then you flip it for the top so when you grip the top it runs the opposite way you grip. but I just wrapped it tight cause there are no hoods and I don't want it to unravel.

When I asked my friend about it he said that most people don't even wrap the top. Is this a thing are you not supposed to wrap the top of drop bars?

I assume the track drops are going in your sw8 fixay, in which you'll probably only hold the bars by the stem. I'd wrap them all the way.

that's what I did but I wrapped the whole bar in one direction instead of reversing direction at the hoods.

That's how it's done. You're fine.

In real track racing, people are always on the drop parts of their bars when they're racing. For that reason, track bikes usually just have the bottom part wrapped. For a bike you're going to ride on the streets it's fine to wrap up to the top. People that ride on the streets and wrap only the bottoms do it for fashion. It's a good idea to wrap the tops because you'll probably be using them frequently and it sucks to have unpadded and/or cold bars.

As for the unraveling thing with the hoods, I don't know the work around other than just wrapping it tight and making sure you get a tape with adhesive backing.

Ok cool yeah I wrapped them fairly tight, I normally ride with risers but thought Id change it up and use some drops to see how they ride.