Rim Tape

In article said:

I need to re-tape my rims. My friends tell me that electrical tape will work just fine. I'm new to
this, so I don't know. Can you give me pros and cons?

Electrical tape can be cut by the spoke holes in the rim bed, I don't recommend it. As long as it
doesn't get a cut it should work OK. If you install to many layers of it you may have tire fit
problems - you will need to be sparing with it.

I like cloth rim tape (eg, Velox) or one of the slightly stretchy plastic ones.

--Paul

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Paul Southworth

BIn article said:

I need to re-tape my rims. My friends tell me that electrical tape will work just fine. I'm new to
this, so I don't know. Can you give me pros and cons?

Electrical tape can be cut by the spoke holes in the rim bed, I don't recommend it. As long as it
doesn't get a cut it should work OK. If you install to many layers of it you may have tire fit
problems - you will need to be sparing with it.

I like cloth rim tape (eg, Velox) or one of the slightly stretchy plastic ones.

--Paul [/B]

I agree, cloth tape is a much better option than electrical tape - Velox cloth tape is fairly thick. This means that just one layer will be sufficient to protect your tube from spoke intrusion and it is light enough not to have any real impact. I put Velox on my hybrid rims and have run up over 7000km in 18 months and the tape is still pristine. The other problem with electrical tape is that it usually leaves a sticky residue when you remove it - this can be a pain to clean off when it is time to reapply the tape.
😉

I doubt that electrical tape would work. At least not for very long. I've never tried it though.
Cloth handlebar tape will work fine, I've used it in an emergency (my LBS didn't have any rim tape).
Never did have to take it off.

However, why not just use Velox? It's not expensive.

May you have the wind at your back. And a really low gear for the hills! Chris

Chris'Z Corner "The Website for the Common Bicyclist": geocities.comczcornerOpen ↗

watson10 said:

I need to re-tape my rims. My friends tell me that electrical tape will work just fine. I'm new to
this, so I don't know. Can you give me pros and cons?

I use Velox cloth tape. It lasts forever. Once, in a pinch, when I had nothing else, I used packing
tape (the kind with the threads in it) on my Dad's cruiser rim. I don't recommend the one-piece
plastic strips; I had one crack and allow the tube to blow out into the spoke holes.

Tom Watson said:

I need to re-tape my rims. My friends tell me that electrical tape will work just fine. I'm new to
this, so I don't know. Can you give me pros and cons?

No, you cannot use electrical tape because it is plastic especially to form around wire joints ant
the like. It will stretch and break out into any hollow section rim with time and cause an internal
tube failure, air escaping from the spoke nipples and stem hole. You need a tape that is either too
tough to stretch like electrical tape, or a cloth tape like Velox.

Velox tape has the disadvantage that, after being in place for some time, it cannot easily be lifted
to replace a spoke nipple in the event of a spoke failure at the nipple. Today this is not so much a
problem as it was in the days of yore when spoke stress relieving was unknown.

Use Velox and be done with it. Kool-Stop makes a good plastic easily removable one but then I don't
know if your bicycle shop carries it.

koolstop.comaccessories.htmlOpen ↗

see Rim Guard tape. It lasts for years and many rims. I've used it from back in the days of frequent
spoke replacements.

Jobst Brandt [email hidden] Palo Alto CA

"watson10" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I need to re-tape my rims. My friends tell me that electrical tape will work just fine. I'm new to
this, so I don't know. Can you give me pros and cons?

Cheers,

Tom

I used to run electrical tape as a cost saving option. Being a broke college student needing that
$6.00 for a pitcher of beer will do that...

I found that you need 3 or so layers of tape to keep it from expanding too far into the eyelets
(Mavic rims).

Wouldn't really recommend it, but if you wanna experiment, go for it. The packing tape mentioned in
this thread somewhere else is a better choice.

One of the things I've started doing on my low spoke count wheels is cutting 2" strips of Velox
and only covering the spoke holes. I figure bare rim isn't going to flat my tubes... Seems to work
just fine.

Mike

"watson10" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I need to re-tape my rims. My friends tell me that electrical tape will work just fine. I'm new to
this, so I don't know. Can you give me pros and cons?

Cheers,

Tom

I tried the electrical tape idea and it didn't work. Like others here have suggested velox
works the best.

Fredzep
--
"Gravity is a harsh misstress" The Tick

I am sure that in far provinces of China, or a dusty town in Afghanistan or perhaps villages deep in
the Amazon basin, electrical tape has sometimes been the best available rim tape.

If you are reading this message, you have Internet access. And a computer. And electricity. Most
likely indoor plumbing and a local McDonalds. Perhaps even a Starbucks. And - best of all - you are
near genuine bicycle rim tape.

Go. Get some. Put it on your wheel.

"watson10" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I need to re-tape my rims. My friends tell me that electrical tape will work just fine. I'm new to
this, so I don't know. Can you give me pros and cons?

Ok, what works good on single wall rims?

They all seem to come with the ubiquitious rubber strip, which works well until it dries out
and tears.

I tried to apply tape to one of these rims, but the tape won't seat well due to the spoke nipples in
the bed of the rim. It appears that pressure from the tube would cause the tape to tear around the
nipple, as there is some slack there.

Do the plastic rim liners work well on these rims? Something else?

Ed Chait

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

Quoted message said:

I need to re-tape my rims. My friends tell me that electrical tape will work just fine. I'm new to
this, so I don't know. Can you give me pros and cons?

pros - none thtat I can think of cons - your tires will go through the tape and then
eventually fail.

Get real rim tape. I recommend good old velox cloth rim tape.
-----------------
Alex __O _-\<,_ (_)/ (_)

On Wed, 04 Jun 2003 23:47:27 GMT, [email hidden] wrote:

Going off on a tangent..

Quoted message said:

Velox tape has the disadvantage that, after being in place for some time, it cannot easily be
lifted to replace a spoke nipple in the event of a spoke failure at the nipple. Today this is not
so much a problem as it was in the days of yore when spoke stress relieving was unknown.

So if a wheel is not properly stress relieved, that's when it can break spokes at the nipple? I've
almost never seen that happen, I think. Back when I made my first wheel, I do remember that it
snapped spokes like crazy and I eventually had the LBS do it over from scratch. Partially it must
have been that I used a used, bent rim, partially, that I didn't really know what I was doing (some
would argue that is still the case), and partially that I set up a bit on the tight side. I think
they were mostly failing from being too close to the snapping point, and snapping under relatively
light loads. However, even on that wheel, most if not all went on the heads.

I wonder if there's a WAV or mp3 somewhere with various tones on it to compare to spoke strummings.

Jasper

Jasper Janssen said:

So if a wheel is not properly stress relieved, that's when it can break spokes at the nipple? I've
almost never seen that happen, I think.

Only time I've had it happen was with a rear wheel that I built with almost no dish. It had to be
clamped in the dropouts at a bit of an angle to clear the brakepads. Lasted for quite a few thousand
miles but then started repeatedly breaking spokes - all were at the nipple on the non-drive side.

Quoted message said:

Tom Watson said:

I need to re-tape my rims. My friends tell me that electrical tape will work just fine. I'm new
to this, so I don't know. Can you give me pros and cons?

Quoted message said:

You need a tape that is either too tough to stretch like electrical tape, or a cloth tape
like Velox.

I usually use Velox tape on my wheels, but on one of my wheels, the rim/tire fit is very tight
making tire removal/installation nearly impossible with plastic levers. (Ritchey OCR Comp/Avocet
City 1.5) To increase the depth of the rim bed, I have removed the relatively thick Velox tape and
installed one layer of gaffer's tape. I've managed 500 flat-free miles on this setup, not enough to
draw conclusions, but enough to suggest that this might be a viable alternative.

--
Bill Bushnell

"Ed Chait" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Ok, what works good on single wall rims?

They all seem to come with the ubiquitious rubber strip, which works well until it dries out
and tears.

I tried to apply tape to one of these rims, but the tape won't seat well

due

Quoted message said:

to the spoke nipples in the bed of the rim. It appears that pressure from the tube would cause the
tape to tear around the nipple, as there is some slack there.

Do the plastic rim liners work well on these rims? Something else?

The proper width rubber rim liner is best. We do not commonly see "dried out" rubber rim liners,
even on older bikes. They seem to go twenty years or so.

Kool Stop and Panasonic used to make a series of polyurethane liners for solid rims, notably for
that danmed Weinmann A124 which required a special narrow size. I think they are discontinued. The
new (2002) Velox product like them ( the white one) is horrid - tears across the nipples.

"Proper width" means sufficient to cover the nipples without occluding the bead seat.
--
Andrew Muzi yellowjersey.orgyellowjersey.orgOpen ↗ Open every day since 1 April 1971

You need to have the right tools for the job always. You wouldn't think of using a drill and drill
bit to cut sheetrock... Do it right,and do it well, and your efforts will pay off for a long time.
It's just too easy to do it right. I had 5 flats on a public ride of 50 miles in 1990 from a
spoke-through punture... Anything less than Velox (including the crackable plastic as it gets old)
is a mistake in my non-professional opinion.

My2c, NS

In article said:

Quoted message said:

Tom Watson said:

I need to re-tape my rims. My friends tell me that electrical tape will work just fine. I'm new
to this, so I don't know. Can you give me pros and cons?

Quoted message said:

You need a tape that is either too tough to stretch like electrical tape, or a cloth tape
like Velox.

I usually use Velox tape on my wheels, but on one of my wheels, the rim/tire fit is very tight
making tire removal/installation nearly impossible with plastic levers. (Ritchey OCR Comp/Avocet
City 1.5) To increase the depth of the rim bed, I have removed the relatively thick Velox tape and
installed one layer of gaffer's tape. I've managed 500 flat-free miles on this setup, not enough to
draw conclusions, but enough to suggest that this might be a viable alternative.

We had problems like this with the very early Bontrager cut-down MA-40 rims as well. The thinnest
stuff I know of to put in there is fiber tape, barely takes any of it to work. Pain in the ass to
remove too.

--Paul

In article <[email hidden]>, Ed Chait

Quoted message said:

Ok, what works good on single wall rims?

They all seem to come with the ubiquitious rubber strip, which works well until it dries out
and tears.

Those rimstrips can squirm around because they aren't tight enough, it's easy to have an intact
rubber rimstrip and still get a flat from tube against spoke nipple.

Quoted message said:

I tried to apply tape to one of these rims, but the tape won't seat well due to the spoke nipples
in the bed of the rim. It appears that pressure from the tube would cause the tape to tear around
the nipple, as there is some slack there.

Use narrow Velox and adhere it to the rim with a thin film of contact cement. Otherwise it will not
stick well, especially if it's a new wheel with lube around the nipples.

--Paul

Nobody has mentioned my favorite -- fiberglass reinforced packing tape. A roll (almost a lifetime
supply) will run you about two bucks. It comes in
3/4 inch width and can easily be torn to a narrower width. About two passes of this around a rim and
the problem is solved. I just use an xacto knife to cut the stem hole open. I have NEVER had a
spoke end flat using this tape.

[censored] Peterson

"Alex Rodriguez" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

[email hidden]

Quoted message said:

says...

Quoted message said:

I need to re-tape my rims. My friends tell me that electrical tape will work just fine. I'm new
to this, so I don't know. Can you give me pros and cons?

pros - none thtat I can think of cons - your tires will go through the tape and then
eventually fail.

Get real rim tape. I recommend good old velox cloth rim tape.
-----------------
Alex __O _-\<,_ (_)/ (_)

"I need to re-tape my rims. My friends tell me that electrical tape will work just fine. I'm new to
this, so I don't know. Can you give me pros and cons?"

what kinda pressure? i've used strapping tape w/ the MTB & 35-psi but it sucks w/ high pressure
tire. i'd pass the electical, gaffers & other tapes unless an emergency. you don't know what F'd
is until you start getting the mystery flats in Fum Buck Nowhere. i'll echo the recomendations
for Velox & plastic rim bands but if you've on a tight budget or just a cheapskate, a couple of
wraps of adhesive tape from the drugstore is the only alternative i'd consider.