PRO Sport Comfort Tape, Black

Product Information

The thread that pulls all those situations together is rough roads and long days. Having the best bar tape can be a surprisingly big upgrade in those situations. The right gravel specific bar tape will last a long time, provide tons of cushion, and feel good on your hands. It doesn't hurt that there's tonnes of options for style to match the best gravel handlebars and the best gravel bikes. Also, this is an upgrade that won't break the bank. Finally the Kinesis bar tap also comes with adjustable plugs; the kind you’d normally expect to buy separately as an upgrade and a far cry from the basic push-in plugs you normally get with bar tape at this price point. Best handlebar tape: How to choose your bar tape If you want to bling up your bike with a colour-matched style, look for synthetic tape available in various colours. It’s grippy regardless of whether you have gloves or not, or whether it’s raining or not. That embossed ENVE logo on the tape really does provide superb grip and a very secure connection between you and the bars, which gives plenty of confidence when moving around the bars descending nasty trails, even in the wet. The vibration-damping silicone strip works like a charm and helps to reduce trail buzz better than any other tape I’ve used.” No bar tape guide is complete without a traditional cork offering. If you’re of a certain age there’s a good chance that cork tape is all you knew for many years, after it superseded cotton and vinyl in both performance and comfort after its invention in 1983. In this instance we’ve gone for SRAM’s Supercork.

To do its job well, handlebar tape has to be comfortable, hard-wearing and grippy, and it doesn't hurt if it looks good. We've wrapped scores of handlebars and ridden thousands of miles or Tarmac and gravel to bring you the best bar tapes you can buy.

If you're old school, you can still buy Velox cloth rim tape for just two quid per side and there's still some uncushioned Benotto tape out there too. If you prioritise style over everything, then the best bar tape for you might be cotton or leather, since it offers a retro aesthetic. Kinesis’s 4 Seasons tape may look pretty ordinary but there’s plenty of detail here that make it worthy of this best handlebar tape guide.

La Spirale still makes Bike Ribbon in their small factory in Carate Brianza, north of Milan where Ermanno and Rosita's son Stefano is now at the helm. The guys at CyclingTips did a nice interview with him a few years ago.Watch the gap: As you wrap, always stay alert for any gaps in the tape. Not only is this unsightly and unprofessional it could also lead to a less than secure finish. He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history. Bar tapes are made from a fairly wide range of materials, with lots of variation in the details; it's the materials and how they're used that determines how the tape will feel under your hands. Bar tape can be made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), poly(ethylene-vinyl acetate) foam (EVA), polyurethane (PU), polyester microfibre, silicone, or leather, often blended and bonded to get the feel the designers are aiming for. Brooks Cambium Rubber Tape, for example, has a polyurethane coating over a polyester and EVA mixture, while cork tape combines tiny bits of cork with an EVA matrix (an idea claimed by Antonio Colombo of Cinelli). You might also run across the abbreviation TNT which stands for the Italian Tessuto Non Tessuto. That indicates there's a nonwoven fabric somewhere in the mix and not that your handlebar tape is in any danger of exploding. Brooks Leather bar tape caters perfectly for those seeking a retro feel or a bar tape that matches their faithful Brooks saddle.