Profile DesignCork Wrap

So this will be the second and third time i've bought this tape. I flip road bikes for extra cash and to keep myself ridding nice bikes and buying expensive parts for my personal bikes. The bike pictured is a 2010 Specialized Tarmac pro 5000.00 new. It was a bike I had intended to flip but decided to keep. So I don't want just any cheap junk on my bike. Now on the bikes i flip I try to be more price conscious than on my personal stuff. Last wrap that I've personally used is Specialized's own brand wrap on my Allez. which can cost 30 to 50$. I put over 4000m without issue And I personally love the stuff. Now planning to keep the Tarmac I decide to get some more of Specialized's wrap for it next time I have the cash. After spending several days and about 50 miles with this tape I struggle to find a difference in feel between the two. So as such am going to leave this on. I can't attest for the wraps lasting potential. But it definitely has an expensive feel to it. For an extremely affordable price. I'll update if quality becomes an issue.Now to address some of the complaints on the low reviews. First is that the friction style tape comes undone. i've ordered three times as i said earlier and have gotten both sticky and friction style when ordering. Also NEVER had an unwrapping issue. If your wrap is coming undone it's because you did it wrong. Bar tape needs to be applied directional depending on the side so as to not unwrap when gripping/ridding. Starting leave about half with over hang on the hole at the bottom of the bar. Push overhanging tape into hole put the plug in. Ok so the way we naturally hold the bars requires the wrap starting on the right side drop be applied in a clock wise rotation up to the strait. After passing the shifter and moving onto the strait of the bar change to counter clock wise. The left side would be the opposite of the right side you just did. Also be mindful not pull to hard I have snapped this stuff mid bar and had to buy more.Second is there is just enough to do the bars . Overlap to much and you won't have enough. I wrap overlapping about half the width of the tape and come out fine. With the sticky tape just make sure sticky stuff is always touching when wrapping. it ends up being about half width like it needs to be. I also didn't use the logo tape. Just didn't look right for me. I included pictures of this job. I do apologize about the blurry images. My regular camera just died.Hope this helps some of you out.UPDATE 2/25/18 After just about 1000m the springy feel of the tape has worn in the most used places on the bar. I have purchased and am waiting as I write this for my Specialized bar tape, which on my last bike is still holding up after over 4000m. For the price though I will still use this tape on my bike flips. But for my own personal use I'm just going to pony up the extra cash for the obviously better tape. I have lowered my score from 5 to 4 for the above stated complaint.

Great bar tape for a great deal. Only drawback is the finishing tape was poor quality, but I use electrical tape in any case where this is true. I like the stretchiness of the tape, very comfortable, nice style. No adhesive is good for anyone who tinkers with their handlebars or brake hoods, saves from having to replace it every time. Wrapped it tight and so far no issues with not having the adhesive back.

I've gone through too many rolls of bar tape on my bullhorn handlebars. Brooks leather tape looked awesome but didn't have much padding, was difficult to wrap, and was far too expensive to replace when I had a minor spill and tore it. Fizik Microtex was too slippery and also too thin. SRAM Supercork had just enough padding and texture, but the edges were annoyingly easy to peel back when changing my hand position.Finally, I tried the Profile Design Cork Wrap, which is almost identical to SRAM Supercork—medium padding, medium grippiness, and inexpensive—but also has tapered edges that don't peel back as easily. I'll stick with it.

The media could not be loaded.  These guys have been making bar tape for as long as I can remember, and it’s always a reliable choice. Profile Designs tape is soft, comfortable, and has enough stretch to allow you to get it exactly the way you like it without tearing it. It’s a pleasure to work with.Keep in mind, this particular tape does NOT have adhesive on the back, so be sure to choose the correct option on the item page if that is something you prefer.

Look up videos on how to install (the Park Tools one is my favorite). I love this tape. It doesn't have adhesive but if you do it correctly you don't need it (you will need electrical tape however). Use electrical tape instead of the finishing tape they supply - it just works.Padding, grip and looks of this tape is excellent. I highly recommend it! I like it so much I bought it twice.

EDIT 11/11/13: I just had to bump this up to 5 stars. After a few thousand miles on this tape, it has become my absolute favorite! I love the way it feels; I love the amount of cushioning; and it still looks and feels like it's brand-new. I'll be sticking with this, exclusively!As others have said: This is a very nice quality tape and at a great price- comfortable and good-looking; stretchable and very easy to apply/allows do-overs. The only complaint I have is that the rolls are a little short. If you like to do a figure-8 around your brifters, you'll come up short if you have wide bars. On my narrowish bars, I just BARELY made it to the end- nothing left to cut.They do provide those little strips to tape on around the back of your brifters [I still do the fig-8, even if I use the strips), as well as nice shiny end-caps and finishing tape with the Profile Design logo on it.C'mon, Profile Design- just give us a few more inches, and you'll win a lot more customers! (And it's not me- with other brands, I always have a lot left over)

I'm no expert when it comes to doing a handlebar wrap, as I usually do it only once every couple of years. The Profile Design wrap comes in a non-adhesive version, which means you can wrap and then re-wrap the bar if you don't get it right the first time. I've never had an issue with the wrap coming loose or undone, even though it doesn't have an adhesive backing. Also, when it does come time to replace it you don't have to deal with a sticky mess on your handlebars and cables left over from the old adhesive.The wrap has good cushioning and it holds up well, I usually get a couple of years of use. It comes in lots of colors, but I stick with basic black, which shows the least wear over time.Highly recommended, especially for those who don't wrap bars often.

The tape looks and feels great - the finishing tape is HORRIBLE.

Great, did the job for covering bike handles

Un très bon ruban: le fait qu’il soit sans adhésif rend l’installation beaucoup plus facile. On peut ajuster ou reprendre l’installation plusieurs fois si nécessaire.Le résultat est confortable, le seul défaut est que la longueur est un peu juste — bien que suffisante. Nous avons fait l’installation sur un guidon FSA Omega et il restait à peine quelques centimètres à la fin avant de couper.Comme le ruban est épais, il faut faire un changement de côté au niveau du levier de frein sans gaspiller le matériel — oubliez le « figure 8 », vous n’aurez sans doute pas assez de longueur et le résultat sera de toute façon trop encombrant.Je suggère le tutoriel de Calvin Jones de Park Tools pour la bonne méthode!Encore une fois, comme il n’y a pas d’adhésif on peut reprendre la pose à volonté jusqu’à l’obtention du résultat désiré.Très bon achat!

This was my first time using handle wrap/tape and it went very well I think.The box includes two rolls of tape, two caps that are pretty nice looking compared to the silver ones, some backing pieces for drop bars and two short pieces of finishing tape with the company's logo all over.I didn't use the finishing tape because I thought it wouldn't be long enough and I didn't really like how busy it looked with all the text over it. Decent quality electrical tape worked fine for me.I have somewhat unconventional handles now on my bike and I think the area to cover was much shorter than on drop bars, yet I really didn't have a lot of tape left at the end. Maybe I wrapped the handles with too much overlap but to me it feels like I would have had trouble covering larger handles.The fact that they are non-sticky also makes them very forgiving. I had to redo both handles because I got a bad start on them and the tape didn't really care. I was able to redo it and get a very solid result without any trouble on the second time.When riding, the feel the handle tape is somewhat firm and yet hand fitting. It's strange to describe but you really feel like you're holding something solid but it has enough compression to not hurt even when putting a lot of weight on them. It's a great upgrade from the very weak rubber grips I used to have.

Buen producto, la textura se siente bien, la calidad va desacuerdo con el precio, tiene un poco de puntos cafes en la cinta negra, al parecer son pequeñas porciones de corcho, en realidad yo la utilice para cubrir el cuadro de mi bici, tengo un candado que se transporta en el cuadro y en mi anterior bici había dañado la pintura, en mi nueva bici no quería que pasara esto, por lo que la cinta sirve muy bien a este propósito.