Honey Badger Ultra: How to change your bar tape

The other day, we had to order a derailleur hanger from specialized, so of course I took the opportunity to buy some vanity equipment - matching water bottle cages and some silver S-works bar tape.

I have never installed bar tape, so Henri showed me how to on the first half, and I did the second half.

Before pic:

Then we removed the old tape by cutting the center (blue) tape and unraveling the rest, pulling the hoods back as we went.

Specialized puts this gelatinous stuff on the handlebars to decrease road vibrations.

Really, bar phat is what happens when you bike has too many bagels.

Then you start wrapping the new tape at the end of the bars at a slightly parallel angle. Wrap the tape so that the piece in your hands goes over the top of the bar towards the center.

Leave a little bit at the end to go under the bar plug.

Be careful to pull the tape snug enough so that the edges can't be budged my your hand movement, but not so tight that the tape breaks. As you move up the curve of the bars, wrap the tape on the outside of the curve tighter than on the inside to avoid slack.

When you get get to the hoods, it's just trial and error. We found that it was best to cut a little extra 10 cm strip by itself to go around the bars where the hoods are, then feel out the rest of the hood wrap with the longer piece.

When you get near the center, continue wrapping at an angle. When you get to where you want to stop, cut the tape in a line perpendicular to the bars. It's best to use a razor blade to make a line, then cut with scissors.

Then wrap the border with some high quality electrical tape. You can do 2 or 3 wraps, just try not to increase the width of the tape coverage.

There should be some black tape with your bar tape kit. Use this to hide the white tape and the border between the bar and bar tape.

Carefully cut any of the remaining white tape with an exacto blade, so you have a pretty border.

Now you need to shove the bar plugs in. We found it's easiest to use a few pieces of tape to shove the bar tape in, followed by the bar plugs. Bonus points if you get the symbol right side up.