Stills taken from the comprehensive 90-min 'Road Bike Set up and Maintenance' DVD - which is available from our ebay shop

INTRODUCTION

Wrapping some new tape around you handlebars seems to hold some sort of mystical-get-a-man-in-to-do-it status for many people....but its actually a very easy job, just so long as you follow the simple steps below. I hope you find it useful.

BEFORE YOU START

• To make life easier for yourself it's a good idea to have the bike held firmly in a stand or trainer. A strap around the downtube and the front wheel rim also helps to stop the handlebars flapping around whilst your working.
• Make sure that the bar tape is warm before fitting (especially if its cold weather) as this makes it easier to work with, and gives a tighter fit when on the bars.
• So whilst the bar tape is on the radiator or in the airing cupboard you can use the opportunity to remove the old tape, clean the bars, and inspect for cracks, corrosion, or stress. If you do see any signs of wear - replace them because bars breaking on you when you are stonking out of the saddle can be very messy.

PREPARING THE BARS

• The first thing to do is to secure the brake and shift cables with some electrical tape. Campag ergo levers have the shift cables routed around the front of the bars and the brake cables around the back . Shimano STi levers only have the brake cables concealed under the bar tape, and these are routed around the front of the bars.
• Some bar tape is adhesive and some isn't. You can tell if it's adhesive by the backing strip which you need to pull off before wrapping the tape (but only do this as you go along, rather than all in one go!). For non-adhesive tape put a little glue stick on the outside bends of the bar to stop the tape moving once fitted.

FITTING

• When you get the tape out of the box you will see you get two very long strips of tape and two very short strips. The long bits are obviously for wrapping around each side of the bar and the short bits are for the back of the levers.
• To fit the short pieces just peel back the lever hoods, remove any adhesive backing from the tape and place the strip horizontally around the back of the lever. The idea is that when you wrap the main tape around the levers the little strips cover the inevitable gap. Its a good idea to do a 'dry run' first (with the backing strip still on) to make sure you get everything in exactly the right place.
• Next, grab a long strip of tape and remove a small amount of backing tape. Always start from the bar-end and set off from the inside out (i.e. as you look down the hole of the bar-end the tape would be wrapping in a clockwise direction)
• Make sure there is an overlap of about half an inch at the bar end. The bar end plug will then push in later
• Now, you want to pull the tape tightly enough to get a snug fit, but obviously not so tight that you break the tape - you will just have to judge this.
• As you wrap around overlap the tape by about a third of its width - this amount of overlap should be enough so the tape covers up to three inches from the stem. This will obviously depend on the length of the tape and the size of your bars. Again, its worth doing a 'dry run' with the backing tape on to get used to how it will cover
• The only slightly tricky bit is wrapping around the brake levers - the aim being not to have any bar showing
• Carry on until the tape runs out then secure it with a few turns of electrical tape, and for neatness break the electrical tape so it ends under the bar
• Finally, push the bar end plugs in - making sure it pushes the overlapping tape into the bar for a snug fit. If the plugs seems to be a bit loose wrap some electrical tape around them first to achieve a better fit...............and your done!!!

I hope you found the above guide useful. If you did, please take a couple of seconds to vote below - thanks!

Stills taken from the comprehensive 90-min 'Road Bike Set up and Maintenance' DVD - which is available from our ebay store - just click on the link below.

click here to go to our ebay store