Thomas L. Hayes inquired:
> > Could someone please explain to me, and also to the group if others
>> might find it of equal value or, whether there is a trick, some arcane
> > 1950's method for wrapping handlebars with tape such as Benetto
Don Rogers replied:
>For Benotto tape, I start at the stem, use a little transparent tape
>to hold down the end, then start wrapping toward the end of the bar.
>The key is to pull *really* hard as you wrap; you need to really
>stretch the tape as you go both to make it un-slippy and to make it
>conform well to the curves of the bar. Leave 2 inches or so of tail at
>the end to tuck into the open bar end, then insert the bar plug to
>hold it tight.
>
>Works like a charm, but if you don't feel like you're fighting
>yourself all the way down, you're not pulling hard enough.
Absolutely correct, couldn't have said it better myself!
Stephan Andranian wrote:
> > Start at the bottom (bar end plugs), so that the tape "lays" the
>right way and so that the overlap is going in the right direction.
>Otherwise, you will get "curling", which is ugly...
Don Rogers replied:
>
>I find this matters greatly with cork-ish tape and its ilk, which due
>to its thickness really needs to be lapped from tips to stem. But thin
>tapes such as Benotto and the various cotton varieties seem to care
>not, in my limited experience, and when stretched tightly lay
>sufficiently flat against the bar that the lap direction doesn't
>matter.
I've always seen this not as a thick vs. thin issue, but as an adhesive vs. non-adhesive one.
I do adhesive-backed tape from the plugs upward, and non-adhesive tape from the stem downward.
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Sheldon " Hunt-Wilde" Brown Newtonville, Massachusetts +---------------------------------------------------+ | It is the province of knowledge to speak and | | it is the privilege of wisdom to listen. | | -- Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. | +---------------------------------------------------+
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