Lizard Skin's Bar Tape

A couple of week ago I finally changed the beat tape on the Cannondale's handle bars. The cork tape had been in use since 2008, it endured lots of washing and was beginning to loosen and slip.  

At a certain point white tape just doesn't come clean.

I looked at lizard skins tape for a while before I finally forked over the $35. I think that's a bit pricey for bar tape, but I expect it to last longer and clean up better than the cork tape I had which performed quite well. 

mustache handle bars with VibeWrap 2.0

                       

I highly recommend applying peel and stick foam tape to the handlebars before wrapping them. I think the foam pads on the Cannondale was made by Aztec. I put Vibe Wrap 2.0 on the Peugeot's mustache handle bars. The foam needs to be like a memory foam otherwise it just gets compressed under the bar tape losing all cushioning effect.

Vibewrap 2.0

Lizard Skins tape out of the box

Lizard Skins tape comes with everything you need to wrap your bars including some nice finishing tape that has the same texture as the bar tape. The instructions warn you not to stretch the tape when applying. I found the tape not to be really conducive to stretching anyway. I also don't like to stretch bar tape too much because it compresses the bar foam. I find cork tape to be much easier to install probably because you can stretch it more than the Lizard tape. In my opinion they should provide longer rolls of tape. I barely had enough to finish my rather small womens specific drop bars which are considerably narrower than the usual 42 cm drop bars.

The finished product

As you can see in the photo, the tape is textured. It has a cool,rubbery, grippy feel. So far they seem to stay cleaner than the cork tape, but its still early days.