I did my first tri yesterday, and they had us put race number stickers on our bike helmet and top tube. Although I didn't stick them on very hard, they still did not come off easily and left a big mess of shredded paper and tacky adhesive, especially the one on the top tube.

Is there any way to avoid this in the future? Can I use a zip tie for the top tube sticker? I'd hate to have to use Goo Gone or scrape the remnants off with my fingernail after each race.

My last tri gave us TT stickers that wrapped around the tube and the adhesive was to paper. It formed like a sleeve with a handle if you will.

Perhaps you could fab something similar? A "sleeve" of paper (and perhaps a piece of tape to keep it in one place, that comes off easily) could be the mount for your TT sticker. Prevents sticking things directly to the bike.

I still have sticker residue on my lid though...

Try medical alcohol wipes - they take off pretty much anything.

Whatever, now you have a new hobby (removing stickers). It could be worse.

Who cares what it looks like, that area of your bike should almost always be covered up with a sticker anyway. If it isn't, you're doing it wrong.

We cut a sheet of 8-1/2"x11" paper to cover the middle portion of the sticker (the part which wraps around the top tube), which leaves only the ends of the sticker to attach/stick to one another and results in no residue on the top tube. We also forgo the helmet sticker.

To remove adhesive try a product called Goo-be-gone...or maybe its Glue-be-gone...i use it on rmoving stickes from widsheilds etc and it works perfectly