Lizard Skins DSP Handlebar Tape

This year over a hundred cyclists have walked through our doors, dropping in to visit while on a long distance bike tour, and they've all opened our doors by grabbing onto our handlebar door handles.

We re-wrap new bar tape on our door handles each year, and traditionally, we have gone with a cork tape, featuring various colors and designs. For the 2011 touring season, we decided to try something new: DSP bar tape from Lizard Skins.

The tape is made from DuraSoft Polymer, hence the DSP name, and has a tacky texture that maintains excellent grip in both wet and dry conditions. Another appealing feature of the material is that it cleans off very nicely -- a problem we had with the cork tape, especially towards the end of the season. While this is completely an aesthetic issue, it is nice to keep brightly colored bar tape bright for more than a few weeks of riding.

For touring, I definitely recommend the thicker 2.5mm tape over the 1.8mm tape, which offers a little better padding. You are also given 82 inches of bar tape, so you can overlap your wrapping quite a bit for additional padding, without running out of material towards the top of the bars.

These retail for around $23, which is a little bit on the expensive end of bar tape, but it does have great longevity, and feels great.

Photo by Josh Tack

--

TOURING GEAR AND TIPS is written by Joshua Tack of Adventure Cycling's member services department. It appears weekly, highlighting technical aspects of bicycle touring and advice to help better prepare you for the journey ahead.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2011/07/lizard-skins-dsp-handlebar-tape.html

tour de france route live tour de france