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Video: How to tape your handlebar fastAG2R Fizik handlebar tape video.png

Video: How to tape your handlebar fast

This AG2R team mechanic does a very neat job in under two minutes
by Mat Brett
Thu, Jul 07, 2016 16:00
9

Professionals usually make things look easy, and that certainly applies to this AG2R La Mondiale team mechanic and his handlebar taping skills.

As we’ve discovered when we’ve run similar videos in the past, there’s no such thing as a standard way of taping your handlebar.

Some people wrap the tape from outside to in over the top of the handlebar, others do the opposite; some people criss-cross around the shifters, others don’t bother; some people use short lengths of bar tape to cover the shifter clamps, others don’t feel the need… 

Then you’ve got people who prefer a second layer of handlebar tape and there are even crazy mavericks who start at the centre and work to the ends of the handlebar rather than vice versa. Those people are out of control. 

Anyhow, this team mechanic has his system down pat and he gets an ultra-neat finish in the time it takes most of us to find a pair of scissors.

shifter
Handlebar tape
Bar tape
how to
Fizik
Mat Brett

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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9 comments

Avatar
PhilRuss | 8 years ago
1 like

[[[[[ About the same speed as me---and I assumed I was slow. And at the end he says "Quick, huh?" Non, pas vite monsieur mechanic---pas de tout.  Just average, je pense.

Avatar
J90 | 8 years ago
0 likes

French coolness at the end. I don't really care, hand me my wine.

Avatar
Paul_C | 8 years ago
3 likes
Quote:

crazy mavericks who start at the centre and work to the ends of the handlebar rather than vice versa.

that's how I do it, you can tuck the end in and hide it with the end plug. And no need for insulation tape to finish it off either...

Avatar
Dnnnnnn replied to Paul_C | 8 years ago
2 likes

Paul_C wrote:
Quote:

crazy mavericks who start at the centre and work to the ends of the handlebar rather than vice versa.

that's how I do it, you can tuck the end in and hide it with the end plug. And no need for insulation tape to finish it off either...

Me too. I thought I was a bad person.

Avatar
matthewn5 replied to Dnnnnnn | 8 years ago
2 likes

Duncann wrote:

Paul_C wrote:
Quote:

crazy mavericks who start at the centre and work to the ends of the handlebar rather than vice versa.

that's how I do it, you can tuck the end in and hide it with the end plug. And no need for insulation tape to finish it off either...

Me too. I thought I was a bad person.

Makes a neater job in the middle where people look, neater at the ends because the plugs hold it. It's the old school way, as we learnt back in the 70s.

Avatar
tritecommentbot replied to matthewn5 | 8 years ago
0 likes

matthewn5 wrote:

Duncann wrote:

Paul_C wrote:
Quote:

crazy mavericks who start at the centre and work to the ends of the handlebar rather than vice versa.

that's how I do it, you can tuck the end in and hide it with the end plug. And no need for insulation tape to finish it off either...

Me too. I thought I was a bad person.

Makes a neater job in the middle where people look, neater at the ends because the plugs hold it. It's the old school way, as we learnt back in the 70s.

 

Never tried it, why the switch to doing it the other way if  it's neater though? Easier to do? Or was there a tendency fot it to unravel or fray at the tops?

Avatar
Morat | 8 years ago
2 likes

By the time he's finished I would still be looking at youtube videos....

Avatar
Chris | 8 years ago
6 likes

Takes me longer than that to open the packet

Avatar
Dnnnnnn | 8 years ago
1 like

Call that fast??yes

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