Tape Handlebar Tape

Reader Ronan converted a bike recently and in an attempt to save some money, ended up using tape for handlebar tape. I might want to contact Roland in a few months to see how this hack stands up to the test of time.  In my experience with tape, it eventually begins to separate and the sticky adhesive might then be, well, sticky on the hands.  Others who have employed a similar hack are welcome to comment.

Take it away Ronan . . . .

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I recently converted an old Claud Butler 10 speed hybrid road bike into a single speed bike.  After spending nearly £200 on paint and parts for the bike I have finally finished.

But I had forgotten to buy myself some handlebar grips for my bike, so being the every resourceful person that I am I decided to try and not spend any money on the handlebar grips, so I used some black electrical tape wound round the bars as the grips.

The tape offers a very very very grippy surface to hold on to and even better than that they are very comfy little grips for less that 50 pence a side. I will be using more electrical tape handlebar grips in the future.

Comments

[Josh]

Yea I've tried this too before. Not only does it not have much (if any) cushion but it does get sticky in the heat and it's not grippy (which I strangely like my grips to be) The flip side is if he likes it and it gets him on a bike go for it!

[Kevin Wilson]

I concur PVC electrical tape goes sticky and messy pretty quick.
Self Amalgamating tape would work and be very grippy. But that is £8 a roll so not a cheap alternative. I just use it to finish off the ends of cork tape.
My budget solution was to hit up ebay and wait for a roll of synthetic H/bar tape. At £3 delivered, that was worth the wait.

[alfredk]

I usually use cork tape but I once used hockey stick blade tape for the grips on my go-fast. It looked good, worked and wore well, and was VERY grippy but left big black sticky marks on my gloves. In hindsight hockey grip tape probably would have worked better. Anyone tried this?
As far as electrical tape goes, IMHO, it's great for lots of bicycle realated hacks but I'm with the other posters and suggest using something else.