Aside from the saddle, one of the most intimate and tell-tale parts of a bike are the handlebars. Not only do they mount the “brains” of the transmission (the shifters,) but they are always wrapped in some sort of ribbon like material that gives away some key parts of the rider's personality. Is the rider single-mindedly obsessed with speed or is comfort a concern? Are aesthetics an important part of their values? Where does cleaning and neatness fit into their persona? If you stop to think about it, bar tape is an expression of ourselves as riders, as well as your bike's way of telling stories. No part of the bike is more visibly affected by daily use and the moments, both good and bad, that stand out in a season's worth of riding.
What's in the tape?
Day in, day out, ride after ride we lay our hands on the tightly wound tape that covers our bars and set off on our adventures, rarely giving thought to what we're grasping until something draws our attention to it. Usually something that goes wrong with our bars or tape gets our attention. But once in a great while, usually when it comes time to freshen up the bike (or clean it, or just replace wear items like bar tape,) we get the chance to stop and listen to the talesour tape tells.
Take a moment and look at your handlebars. What do they look like? After the past year of riding and racing, they are probably still tightly bound by a tired wrap of bar tape, maybe celeste Cinelli cork or red Fizik Microtex. In reality, it doesn't matter what brand the tape is, but that it tells a host of tales about what you and your bike have been through over the past season. It will expound on the story of your long day together at Battenkill, where sweat and dust mingled and suffering abounded. It has borne witness to that unfortunate chain drop that forced you (and the group ride) to a halt, and still has the grease stains to prove it. It even recounts the injuries you both suffered when a late season crash left you both bloody and scarred. These are just the high (or low) points; your tape doesn't hardly bother discussing the couple of times you were caught out in the rain, the dozens of uneventful races, the hundreds of hours in the sun, the thousands of training miles or the millions of droplets of sweat you've shared together.
A clean slate
The old adage of “out with the old, in with the new” is sort of like a rebirth for you, your bike and your ambitions for the coming season. As you unwind the finishing tape, your successes are committed to that place in your memory where you immortalize your victories. As you tear away the tape, your defeats are stripped from your mind, leaving behind lessons to be learned and heeded. A blast of Goo-Gone and a quick scrub removes the remaining adhesive, leaving both your bars and your season with a clean slate. That first new wrap of tape begins paving the way for a new season of successes, with each further wrap waiting for another chapter to be played out upon it's cushioned surface. A couple strips of finishing tape and bar end plugs put the final touches on your wrap job, and signify the beginning of a new relationship.
You'll have to build a new series of memories with this new tape, much like you do with a new friend. There will be the initial phase of “getting to know each other,” where things feel a little awkward. Eventually, over the course of a couple hundred miles, you begin to feel each other out, settle into a sense of security and begin to write your own history together. There will be success and failure, dirt, sweat and grease. There may even be blood, tears and road rash. Nobody can predict for sure what the future will hold, two things are certain: you'll be experiencing it together and in a year, the whole process will be repeated again. Old tape will tell its tales as it yields to a new season, new tape and a new relationship.
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