sjh - mountain biking running linux vegan geek spice - mtb / vegan / running / linux / canberra / cycling / etc

Steven Hanley hackergotchi picture Steven
Hanley

About

email: sjh@svana.org

web: https://svana.org/sjh
twitter: https://twitter.com/sjhmtb
instagram: https://instagram.com/sjhmtb

Other online diaries:

Aaron Broughton,
Andrew Pollock,
Anthony Towns,
Chris Yeoh,
Martijn van Oosterhout,
Michael Davies,
Michael Still,
Tony Breeds,

Links:

Linux Weekly News,
XKCD,
Girl Genius,
Planet Linux Australia,
Bilbys,
CORC,

Canberra Weather: forecast, radar.

Subscribe: rss, rss2.0, atom

December
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
 
22
     

2009
Months
Dec

Categories:

Archive by month:

Tue, 22 Dec 2009

Pretty average bar tape, a 7 month report. - 14:06
My new road bike, a 2008 model Kona Kapu in Orange I purchased in April, came with white bar tape wrapped up to just past the brake hoods. The bar is one of the new flat topped ergo style bars. Though as it is aluminium rather than carbon it will feel quite cold on chilly mornings. Due to my firm belief that white bar tape is almost as wrong as white knicks and the fact I did not want to get chilly hands on the bare aluminium I decided to get new bar tape for the bike.

I searched around trying to find orange coloured tape for a while and found the Lizard Skins tape in a good shade of orange at a shop here. The Lizard Skins tape had some good reviews for the tacky grip feel and seemed alright, though it was around twice the price of most traditional cork or synthetic cork tape. Now 7 months after purchasing the grip tape and putting it on the bike I have discovered the two major problems with it are that it gets dirty and the packaging recommended against using any cleaning agent other than plain water on it as it may deteriorate the grip. I can deal with this as it is sort of in the nature of grip tape to become dirty over time.

My bigger gripe is that I noticed the last few days that after only 7 months the grip tape is wearing out on some of the points I have my hands in contact with the bars the most often. Previously I have had grip tape last for 3 or 4 years before wearing out enough to require replacing so I am definitely disappointed in this and in the next few days will pull off the tape and put on some much cheaper cork tape in orange from a different brand.

[/mtb/gear] link


home, email, rss, rss2.0, atom