Bar tape

Muckers

Hi all

Any advantages as to whether you should wrap bar tape on drop bars starting from the top or the bottom. Most online videos show starting from the bottom, but i've seen a few bikes recently where the tape was wrapped starting from the top, and it looked neater imo.

delynet

Better overlap starting from the bottom up I find, harder for dirt\water to get under the tape.

07Lapierre

If you start from the top, the overlap will be on the wrong side and your hands will eventually "roll" the tape back.

Lumen

Starting at the top gives you much more fiddly work to do when you recable.

Also, if you need to make room for changes in "cockpit" e.g. adding lights for winter, it's much easier to do if you ended there.

So start at the bottom.

cdaly_

I start from the top, wrapping forward and reverse direction at the shifters. I end up with no 'finishing' tape at the top and hope never to re-cable...

kenmc

if you start at the top, how do you know how far from the stem to start to still leave yourself with enough to get to the end of the drops and tucked into the end of the bars?

Also, does water not run down the drops and into the tape though when going from top, as the overlaps are inverted, rather than like slates?

happytramp

The only person to ever wrap from the top down was Eddy Merckx...... It's possible that it may have been the secret to his success.

Hmmzis

Always have wrapped tape from the top. Just find it nicer without the finishing tape. The only tricky bit is cutting the tape properly at the end to tuck it in the bar ends.

Regarding water ingress, not sure, haven't really noticed any. Every time I've unwrapped the tape(s) haven't seen any moisture underneath.

cdaly_

kenmc wrote: »

if you start at the top, how do you know how far from the stem to start to still leave yourself with enough to get to the end of the drops and tucked into the end of the bars?

Guesswork...

happytramp wrote: »

The only person to ever wrap from the top down was Eddy Merckx...... It's possible that it may have been the secret to his success.

Me and Eddy. Like that we were, like that...

Muckers

Thanks all for the replies. Just got myself a fixie for some real cycling and I removed the tape to fit proper drop bar brake levers, and I noticed the tape was wrapped from the top to the bottom. I've always done it from the bottom up for reasons already mentioned in this thread. It does look tidier from the top down, but logic says start at the bottom.