I always wrap from the stem down, standing in front of the bike. I start the tape on the bottom of bars going under the bars, towards me and then over the bars. I get a lot of leverage on the tape this way and I like the look. I remove the Campy levers but leave the mounting clips in place. Prior to taping, I don't hold them in place with electrical tape but mark their position on the bars with a pencil or Sharpie. I then tape the mounting clips in place. I'm not really sure how I do this but I never get gaps and always have plenty of tape left over. The most important thing is constant hard pulling on the tape. I use Velox or GB plugs but don't tuck the tape in the end of the bars anymore. I cheat. I get to the end of the bars, cut the tape gracefully so it finishes on the bottom of the bars and is flush with the plug and then apply a liberal portion of gel-style Crazy Glue. Once it dries, I apply a second coat of Mankind's greatest invention. Then I'm done. You just have one problem, you don't have Campy levers. You're stuck with the Weinmann levers which don't lend themselves nearly as well to the "take the brake levers off taping technique". You may have to leave the levers on and pull the hoods up to get the tape under. The stock white Carlton hoods are much stiffer and less prone to tearing than the Campy ones. But they also much stiffer and thus harder to pull up. Good luck!
George Allen Lexington, Ky
At 04:34 AM 5/26/2006, Chris Kulczycki wrote:
>I think the Singer method is by far the cleanest way to wrap tape,
>even without shellac. It allows one to replace just the top section
>of tape when it gets dirty, it requires no electrical tape or twine,
>and the tape does not curl.
>
>I wrote this description of how I do my tape Singer-style:
>
>http://velo-orange.blogspot.com/2006/03/wrapping-handlebars-alex-singer-style.html
>
>Chris
>
>
>Chris Kulczycki
> Velo Orange
> 109 Colonial Avenue
> Annapolis, MD 21401