From: jbrandt@hpl.hp.com (Jobst Brandt)
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech
Subject: Re: Wrapping cork bar tape
Date: 29 Aug 2000 23:25:03 GMT

Scott Sowders writes:

> Question on how to do it.  Directions say to start at the plug end
> and wrap it toward the center post, but if you do that, how do you
> end it up so that it does not come un-done.

You start half way off the bar, curl the overstand into the bar and
insert the plug.  Then you wrap all the way up the bar over the short
U-strip that covers the brake lever clamp and end at the step in bar
diameter, cutting the end diagonally so it finishes flush.  Then you
use the black "C" tape in the package to wrap around the tape end.
Basta!

> OTOH, if you start at the post end, you can get a nice starting wrap
> overlap, nice and tight, and end up at the plug end nice and tight.
> But the seams seem to go the wrong way.

The reason you don't want that is because the layers have the edges
facing the wrong way, like roofing shingles laid from top to bottom,
edges up.  You hands tend to slide forward on the shoulders of the
bars and with the tape starting at the stem, its layers will curl.
That's why I wrap from the brake grip out so that the hooks are also
down slope.  Always wrap in the direction the thumbs point when
grasping the bar in cycling to prevent uncurl.

Jobst Brandt      <jbrandt@hpl.hp.com>