Glad Randy mentioned this: wrapping from the bar-center will have your hands pressing into the exposed edge of the tape, which in my experience makes it lift up, roll, fray. Shellacing may prevent this and keep the edge down but I haven't wrapped from the center for a long time for this reason.
The original question referred to normal sized bars--remember when cloth tape was in common use the normal sized bar was a 38cm and a 42 was a huge bar.
--Mitch
On 7/16/08, randy dugan <rsdugan@yahoo.com> wrote:
> sean mentions starting at the sleeve and wrapping your way down... this
> would eliminate the need to finish with electrical tape, but in my
> experience, wrapping in that direction leaves the exposed edge of the tape
> on the upper edge, so it tends to roll down and expose the bars as you ride
> the bike. sean, do you have a trick for preventing this?
>
> on his site, ray dobbins recommends washing cloth tape in the clothes washer
> prior to wrapping, and wrapping the bars while it's still slightly wet. i
> tried it with my last tape job and was very happy with the results.
>
> finally, wilson bicycle sales sometimes has cat-eye tape, if your LBS will
> order it from them.
>
> randy dugan
> van nuys, ca usa