StupidHurts

I had a problem finding a good description online on how to tape road bike bars properly. Luckily I know how to tape bars already so I decided to write my own.

Step One:

First off flip your rubber brake hoods up and out of the way. Then find the two short strips of bar tape in your package, or cut two three inch pieces of tape. Place each of the short pieces of tape over the brackets on the rear of each brake lever.

Step Two:

Starting at the bottom of the handle bar, wrap a full loop around once and leave a little tape hanging over the end of the handle bar. Then work your way up to the bottom of the brake lever in nice tight circles. Check frequently to make sure each loop overlaps the previous loops by about half. This is so you don’t have any wrinkles or bulges near the edges.

The key here is to stretch the tape as you wrap so that it clings to the bar very tightly.

Step Three:

Now this is the important part. The part that results in a nice neat looking tape job with no handle bar showing.

You are aiming to create a figure 8 around the brakes. So first you go out underneath the brake lever like in the picture below .

And then wrap the tape up over the top of the brake lever like here.

Step 4:

A proper figure 8 will leave tape going up one side of the brake lever, and down the other side without any bulges or gaps. You don’t want any handlebar showing inside of the curve. Next you should continue wrapping nice and tight loops like before until you get within 1 to 2 inches of your stem.

Step 5:
Once you wrap the tape near your stem trim the end at an angle so it lines up flat with the loop of tape below it.

Now wrap a piece of electrical tape around the end of the bar tape and the handle bar to keep them in place.

Insert your bar plugs into the holes on the end or your handle bars making sure to tuck in the little bit of overhanging tape you left inside of the holes first.

Then repeat the process on the other side of your bars.