Is there something that works better than electrical tape...

Boyd Speerschneider said:

... for taping down handlebar tape near the stem? Here in the hot, muggy summers in Florida, I must
replace this stuff at least every other week. It seems the adhesive on the sticky side of the tape
just melts and gets all over my hands. Any advice / recommendations appreciated.

TIA,

- Boyd S.

You could try heat shrink tubing. You will need to strip the bars to pre-place it at the center
before wrapping. Then wrap, tack the tape down, and pull the heat shrink over and use the heat gun
to pull it taut.

There's all qualities of electrical tape; try the 3M/Scotch if you're using a cheaper brand.
There's a huge difference in its adhesion, though I don't know whether it would suffice for your
purposes or not.

Anyway you need to try more than one electrical tape to decide they're all not suitable.
--
Ron Hardin [email hidden]

On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Boyd Speerschneider <[email hidden]> wrote:
: ... for taping down handlebar tape near the stem? Here in the hot, muggy summers in Florida, I
: must replace this stuff at least every other week. It seems the adhesive on the sticky side of the
: tape just melts and gets all over my hands. Any advice / recommendations appreciated.

: TIA,

: - Boyd S.

I use hot melt glue to glue the ends cleanly. Use a small soldering Iron to melt the glue if you
need to remove the tape and re-use. Try to terminate the end of the tape in a position that is comfy
to your hands.

--------------------------------
Bob Masse' [email hidden]
--------------------------------

In article <[email hidden]>, Boyd says...

Quoted message said:

... for taping down handlebar tape near the stem? Here in the hot, muggy summers in Florida, I must
replace this stuff at least every other week. It seems the adhesive on the sticky side of the tape
just melts and gets all over my hands. Any advice / recommendations appreciated.

Try to find some Scotch 130C rubber splicing tape. Sailors use it a lot, so you might find it (or
something like it) at a boating store. The stuff is self fusing, or self amalgamating, and forms a
solid layer with no sticky adhesive. Fantastic for finishing off handlebar tape, or holding down
computer wires.

Steve Christensen

Boyd Speerschneider said:

... for taping down handlebar tape near the stem? Here in the hot, muggy summers in Florida, I
must replace this stuff at least every other week. It seems the adhesive on the sticky side of the
tape just melts and gets all over my hands.

Superglue! Just use a few little spots if don't want to spoil the bars too much and to help
future removal.

Alternatively, superglue the ends of the electrical tape (or whatever extra tape) to secure
that. This should result in less adhesive seepage as the ends of the tape won't peel up and
release the gunk.

~PB

"Boyd Speerschneider" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

... for taping down handlebar tape near the stem? Here in the hot, muggy summers in Florida, I
must replace this stuff at least every other week. It seems the adhesive on the sticky side of the
tape just melts and gets all over my hands. Any advice / recommendations appreciated.

TIA,

- Boyd S.

Plastic clips - aka "bike ribbon bar tape rings".

I'm using several sets of these that came with the bar tape and plugs as a kit. Colorado Cyclist
sell them separately too - part number BKCLJX1 - but at the ridiculous price of $9.99

See here...

coloradocyclist.comdisplayproductlist v2.cfmOpen ↗
RFNBR=597&CRPCGNBR=597&TextMode=0&CI=1,225,485

Hi, Boyd, I have always STARTED my wrap up by the stem and tucked a little into the ends of the bar,
so that the 'end plug' will hold it.

I never had any problems that way.

Lewis.

****************************

Boyd Speerschneider <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

... for taping down handlebar tape near the stem? Here in the hot, muggy summers in Florida, I
must replace this stuff at least every other week. It seems the adhesive on the sticky side of the
tape just melts and gets all over my hands. Any advice / recommendations appreciated.

TIA,

- Boyd S.

Boyd Speerschneider said:

... for taping down handlebar tape near the stem? Here in the hot, muggy summers in Florida, I must
replace this stuff at least every other week. It seems the adhesive on the sticky side of the tape
just melts and gets all over my hands. Any advice / recommendations appreciated.

Don't use any tape. A smear of Crazy Glue will hold tape fine.

Or, you slide a piece of innertube up on the bar far enough so that about an inch in above where
tape is to end. Fold the innertube over the end of the tape.

Great idea!

Quoted message said:

I use hot melt glue to glue the ends cleanly. Use a small soldering Iron to melt the glue if you
need to remove the tape and re-use. Try to terminate the end of the tape in a position that is
comfy to your hands.

Quoted message said:

--------------------------------
Bob Masse' [email hidden]
--------------------------------

--

Tp

-------- __o ----- -\<. ------ __o --- ( ) / ( ) ---- -\<. ----------------- ( ) / ( )
---------------------------------------------

Freedom is not free; Free men are not equal; Equal men are not free.

(Chris Zacho 'The Wheelman') said:

Duct tape. It's waterproof, so the humidity shouldn't affect it. You could also try rewrapping the
handlebars too ;-3)

No, gaffer tape. Much better than duct tape.[1]

(And so the duct tape/gaffer tape holy wars begin anew..)

Jasper

[1] Note: that's my opinion. Others prefer duct.

In <[email hidden]>, Boyd Speerschneider <[email hidden]> opined:

Quoted message said:

... for taping down handlebar tape near the stem?

Hey, I like that inner tube idea, and it's what I'll do if I ever need to...

But I've always put my tape on "backwards", starting the wraps near the stem and working my way to
the open ends. Yeah, after a couple of years of riding the edges will start to curl, but after a
couple of years it's probably time to replace the tape anyway.

--
Dave Salovesh [email hidden]

[email hidden] (Lewis Campbell) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hi, Boyd, I have always STARTED my wrap up by the stem and tucked a little into the ends of the
bar, so that the 'end plug' will hold it.

I never had any problems that way.

Lewis.

****************************

Same here.

What is the rationale for wrapping bar tape the other way (most new bikes seem to go from the bar
ends to the centre)?

Andrew Webster

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (Lewis Campbell) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hi, Boyd, I have always STARTED my wrap up by the stem and tucked a little into the ends of the
bar, so that the 'end plug' will hold it.

I never had any problems that way.

Lewis.

****************************

Same here.

What is the rationale for wrapping bar tape the other way (most new bikes seem to go from the bar
ends to the centre)?

Andrew Webster

As you ride, the tendency is to push from the center out, so the natural result would be for you to
open up the seems of the tape if wrapped from top to bottom. Difficult to explain simply. However,
in real world example, not many people will cause this to happen. My personal opinion is that it
makes little to no difference, and I happen to like the clean look of no tape or clip on the inside
edge. Just wrap tightly and smoothly and use the bar end plugs to seal off the job.

--

Remove NOT from email address to reply. AntiSpam in action.

Lewis Campbell wroge

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Hi, Boyd, I have always STARTED my wrap up by the stem and tucked a little into the ends of the
bar, so that the 'end plug' will hold it.

This is the best way to go for thin plastic non-adhesive tape, such as=20 Benotto, Hunt-Wilde,
Dare, etc.

Andrew Webster asked:

Quoted message said:

What is the rationale for wrapping bar tape the other way (most new bikes seem to go from the bar
ends to the centre)?

The rational is that on the upper bends of the bars, where the tape is=20 most likely to get pushed
out of position, the layers overlap like the=20 shingles of a roof if you start from the ends and
work inward.

With most tapes that have adhesive backing, going from the inside out=20 will leave the open edges
pointing upward, where they can be rolled=20 backward, and the tape can easily slip down.

Here's a tip: I mostly use Cinelli Cork tape, but before installing it=20 I run a single strip of
old-style cloth tape down the upper/rear side of =

the bars from near the stem to just above the brake levers. This=20 provides improved traction
for the actual tape, and prevents "creep."=20 Also provides a wee bit more cush where it does the
most good.

One of these days I'll do a detailed article on handlebar taping, but I=20 need to make some good
photos firs...

Sheldon "Outside In" Brown +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| The secrets of flight will not be mastered within our lifetime=85 |
| =85not within a thousand years =96Wilbur Wright, 1901 |=

+-------------------------------------------------------------------+ Harris Cyclery, West Newton,
Massachusetts Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041 harriscyclery.comharriscyclery.comOpen ↗ Hard-to-find parts
shipped Worldwide captainbike.comcaptainbike.comOpen ↗ sheldonbrown.comsheldonbrown.comOpen ↗

Boyd Speerschneider said:

... for taping down handlebar tape near the stem? Here in the hot, muggy summers in Florida, I
must replace this stuff at least every other week. It seems the adhesive on the sticky side of the
tape just melts and gets all over my hands.

I've always used electrical tape. In fact, I use a lot of it. That way, I have some if some odd need
should arise on the road. It comes in handy.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | I don't believe you, you've got the whole damn thing all wrong. _`\(,_ | He's not the kind
you have to wind-up on Sundays. --Ian (_)/ (_) | Anderson

Steve Christensen may have said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Boyd says...

Quoted message said:

... for taping down handlebar tape near the stem? Here in the hot, muggy summers in Florida, I
must replace this stuff at least every other week. It seems the adhesive on the sticky side of the
tape just melts and gets all over my hands. Any advice / recommendations appreciated.

Try to find some Scotch 130C rubber splicing tape. Sailors use it a lot, so you might find it (or
something like it) at a boating store. The stuff is self fusing, or self amalgamating, and forms a
solid layer with no sticky adhesive. Fantastic for finishing off handlebar tape, or holding down
computer wires.

Also common at electrical and electronics supply houses; occasionally seen at places like Home
Depot. (If you live where there's a Fry's Electronics, they have had it.) It has better weather
resistance than most tapes in my experience, and it *does not* unravel. You have to cut it to
get it off.

---
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.

Yes, I have a killfile. If I don't respond to something, it's also possible that I'm busy.

Boyd Speerschneider <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

... for taping down handlebar tape near the stem? Here in the hot, muggy summers in Florida, I
must replace this stuff at least every other week. It seems the adhesive on the sticky side of the
tape just melts and gets all over my hands. Any advice / recommendations appreciated.

TIA,

- Boyd S.

I use cloth tape. The kind used for wrapping tennis rackets and hockey stick handles. It is usually
sold at sporting goods stores and even Wal-mart. It is not as slick as electrical tape which gives
you more grip in that area on climbs.

Earn the Burn....Reap the Gain !

Rick in Tennessee

Boyd Speerschneider said:

... for taping down handlebar tape near the stem? Here in the hot, muggy summers in Florida, I must
replace this stuff at least every other week.

You get what you pay for. People who recommend that you start taping at the bar-plugs and tape up
towards the stem, are, imho, misinformed.

Sloan's book of bicycle maintenance teaches us that the correct way to tape handlebars is to start
at the top of the bars with a single revolution (and if need be, use cloth first-aid gauze tape to
anchor the handlebar tape to the bar), and then tape downards, stretching the tape very taught to
avoid any 'unravelling' on the curves.

This advice was written in the days of plastic and cloth handlebar tape. Your mileage with more
fragile cork tape may vary.

- Don Gillies San Diego, CA

--------------020903030404040504060405 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Werehatrack said:

Quoted message said:

Try to find some Scotch 130C rubber splicing tape. Sailors use it a lot, so you might find it (or
something like it) at a boating store. The stuff is self fusing, or self amalgamating, and forms a
solid layer with no sticky adhesive. Fantastic for finishing off handlebar tape, or holding down
computer wires.

Also common at electrical and electronics supply houses; occasionally seen at places like Home
Depot. (If you live where there's a Fry's Electronics, they have had it.) It has better weather
resistance than most tapes in my experience, and it *does not* unravel. You have to cut it to
get it off.

Radio Shack also carries a silicone self-fusing electrical wrap, which color-coordinates nicely with
KoolStop salmon compound brake shoes.

Quoted message said:

--------------020903030404040504060405 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta
http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> </head> <body>
<br> <br> Werehatrack wrote:<br> <blockquote type="cite"
cite="[email hidden]"> <pre wrap=""> </pre> <blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap=""> Try to find some Scotch 130C rubber splicing tape. Sailors use it a lot, so you might
find it (or something like it) at a boating store. The stuff is self fusing, or self amalgamating,
and forms a solid layer with no sticky adhesive. Fantastic for finishing off handlebar tape, or
holding down computer wires. </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""><!----> Also common at electrical and
electronics supply houses; occasionally seen at places like Home Depot. (If you live where there's a
Fry's Electronics, they have had it.) It has better weather resistance than most tapes in my
experience, and it *does not* unravel. You have to cut it to get it off. </pre> </blockquote> Radio
Shack also carries a silicone self-fusing electrical wrap, which color-coordinates nicely with
KoolStop salmon compound brake shoes. <blockquote type="cite"
cite="[email hidden]"> <pre wrap=""> </pre> </blockquote> <br>
</body> </html>

--------------020903030404040504060405--