I can think of two quotes that describe the act of having opinions:
A) "Opinions are to the vast apparatus of social existence what oil is to machines: one does not go up to a turbine and pour machine oil over it; one applies a little to hidden spindles and joints that one has to know" -Walter Benjamin
B) "Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one" -Bumper Sticker
I like to think my clever little ideas fall into the former category, not the latter, but don't we all.
Something that I feel very strongly about is the importance of a good bar tape wrap job. Learning how to wrap bar tape is easy, but mastering requires time, tools, and the accumulation of separate skills that all work together to create a good-looking and long-lasting final product.
So I have grading system that I use to assess my own wrappings. It's based of the noise I make when I step back and look at my work:
Sure.:
There's no bare metal poking out.
It's comfortable.
Oh Yeah:
The bar tape spirals a different direction on both sides of the handlebar.
There is an equal number of wraps on each side of the bar.
The tape ends at roughly the same distance from the stem on each side.
The finishing tape is roughly the same width on each side and not too wide or sloppy.
There is no bare metal showing through even after 100 miles of riding.
The job doesn't unravel for at least a month, even in the rain.
The bar-end plugs face up (in the UK they call them bar-bungs, tee hee).
This is What I'm Talkin' About:
Everything from above plus the angle of the tape job is the same (though opposite) on each side.
The tape ends at exactly the same distance from the stem, but also the finishing tape is the same width and the final spiral goes into the tape at the exact same point on each side.
Excellent:
Using a calipers, ruler, and angle-finder each side of the handlebar is exactly symmetrical to the other and the individual wraps are of the same width all the way up the bar (excluding curves).
Perfection is a measure of symmetry and consistency. A perfect bar tape job looks like it was done by a computer on one side, then mirrored for the other.
A lot of bike shops can't really afford to do an excellent job. Taking the time to measure each wrap with calipers and make one side symmetrical to the other is not too cost effective when the most you can charge is $30, even if it took an hour to do.
Below is a quick video of me doing an Oh Yeah job on my personal bike. .
The best bar tapers on the planet that I've seen all seem to hail from the far east where bikes are assembled. I assume they have workers that just do bar tape, all day every day, because I've seen some mighty fine bar tape on stock bikes, fresh out of the box from Taiwan.
Here's another bar tape video I like. The guy's doing a thing called a harlequin wrap, where you use two different tapes to make a diamond shape. I've done it once just for fun. It took some time to get it right. This guy makes it look easy, believe:
Lastly, Team Sky's mechanic shows a basic, reliable way to wrap bars like a shop mechanic. He's fast, and his finishing tape looks good.
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