Realize I’m being persnickety.
Built up my grail bike…crashed in a road race with like 500km on the bike. Only care because I think it’s such a pretty build.
I am wondering if I should try to shorten the wrap by taking some off the middle, to get rid of the crap on the end.
by arsenalastronaut
6 Comments
The wrap needs to go from one end to the other, continually. You won’t be able to take any off of the middle.
You could remove the wrap and cut a few inches off the end and then rewrap. You’ll either have to stretch it a bit more or lose some off of the flat end.
I wouldn’t worry about that. If it were me, I’d electric tape over the rashed part to protect it from falling apart.
Reason being, re-wrapping tape that isn’t new never really comes out the same. I’d rather use fresh wrap.
Are those carbon bars? Have they been inspected?
I would say get a new tape if you are re-wrapping it.
I think Calvin Jones suggests wrapping first with an electrical tape with a sticky side facing out and then with a regular tape. Then the regular tape will stick to the electrical tape in case of a crash. I am not a racer and have never tried it myself.
You can do that if you want.. but then it will be more spread out and overlapping less which means it won’t be as cushy as the other side. Personally I’d probably ride it as is for a while but if you’re nit picky about the way it looks, just know that it will also look and feel slightly different than the other side if you cut and spread it out. So maybe just get new tape
I’d look for a closer matching color electrical tape rather than black but yes I’d also put on a few turns and that’s that.
I wouldn’t bother. Sure, cosmetically it sucks, but I’d only bother dealing with it if I used the drops all the time and it irritated my hand. I doubt I’d bother taping it up or anything because hey, if it falls apart, great, now I _have_ to replace it and make it all pretty again, shucks.
I had exactly this debate with myself a couple years ago, and I ended up going a couple years with a torn chunk in my tape before this year’s winter break finally compelled me to replace the tape while also revisiting my bar and brifter angles.
Get new tape, duh.