![\"Bloody](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/bloody-taoe-300x227.jpg\" "\\"Bloody")
<\/a>Take a moment and look at your handlebars. \u00a0What do they look like? \u00a0After 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. \u00a0In 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. \u00a0It will expound on the story of your long day together at Battenkill, where sweat and dust mingled and suffering abounded. \u00a0It 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. \u00a0It even recounts the injuries you both suffered when a late season crash left you both bloody and scarred. \u00a0These 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\u00a0training miles or the millions of droplets of sweat you've shared together.<\/p>\nA clean slate<\/h3>\n
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. \u00a0As you unwind the finishing tape, your successes are committed to that place in your memory where you immortalize your victories. \u00a0As you tear away the tape, your defeats are stripped from your mind, leaving behind lessons to be learned and heeded. \u00a0A blast of Goo-Gone and a quick scrub removes the remaining adhesive, leaving both your bars and your season with a clean slate. \u00a0That 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. \u00a0A 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.<\/p>\n
You'll have to build a new series of memories with this new tape, much like you do with a new friend. \u00a0There will be the initial phase of “getting to know each other,” where things feel a little awkward. \u00a0Eventually, 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. \u00a0There will be success and failure, dirt, sweat and grease. \u00a0There may even be blood, tears and road rash. \u00a0Nobody can predict for sure what the future will hold, two things are certain: \u00a0you'll be experiencing it together and in a year, the whole process will be repeated again. \u00a0Old tape will tell its tales as it yields to a new season, new tape and a new relationship.<\/p>\n
Comments? \u00a0Start the discussion below by leaving your thoughts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aside from the saddle, one of the most intimate and tell-tale parts of a bike are the handlebars. \u00a0Not 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. \u00a0Is the rider single-mindedly obsessed with speed or is comfort a concern? \u00a0Are aesthetics an important part of their values? \u00a0Where does cleaning and neatness fit into their persona? \u00a0If 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. \u00a0No 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,21],"tags":[55,59,67,170],"yst_prominent_words":[3142,3134,401,3136,1213,3143,3135,3144,3141,3138,3139,3137,3146,222,272,3147,3145,3140],"wppr_data":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11000,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752\/revisions\/11000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Dirty](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/dirtycxtape.jpg\" "\\"Dirty")
<\/a>Aside from the saddle, one of the most intimate and tell-tale parts of a bike are the handlebars. \u00a0Not 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. \u00a0Is the rider single-mindedly obsessed with speed or is comfort a concern? \u00a0Are aesthetics an important part of their values? \u00a0Where does cleaning and neatness fit into their persona? \u00a0If 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. \u00a0No 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.<\/p>\n