At 09:17 AM 25/03/2009 -0500, John Hurley wrote:
>Warning: Do not look at the photo of the
>back side of the package, as it shows wrapping the tape in the "wrong"
>direction, starting at the center and working toward the end. I
>wouldn't want to be guilty of re-igniting that debate.
In fact, back in the day, that's the way bars were wrapped from the factory or bike shop in most cases. It's a lot quicker and easier to do it that way and doesn't really make any difference with plastic tape. However, when using cloth or the rubberized cork tape, hand pressure does cause the tape to roll or shift. I only learned the "proper" way about 20 years ago. As for how to anchor it when finishing at the top, the tape was usually supplied with a couple of strips of coloured tape with stripes or the manufacturer's logo for this purpose. I never found these strips much good at holding the ends of the bar tape in place, so I'd use superglue for that and use the strips for decoration. Ofen the finishing tape supplied was not very good or wrinkled, so just the superglue had to suffice, maybe with sone electrical tape. I never trust electrical tape alone because it creeps and leaves a sticky mess.
John Betmanis
Woodstock, Ontario
Canada