[Closed] Roadies - comfortable bar tape (plus gel pads?)

I would suggest a decent stem and handlebars will remove more road buzz, especially if you're currently running stock.

I haven't had great experience with the cinelli gel insert, I think you'd be better off double wrapping normal tape.

I think it’s the higher frequency impacts from the terrible road surfaces that’s to blame.

I think it may be more a fit issue than tape. However, assuming you've had a proper bike fit (Because you have, haven't you...) Lizard Skins or Spesh Roubaix tape are bot excellent. Spesh also do the Body Geometry Bar Phat which, IIRC, comes with the stick on gel pads.

I haven’t had great experience with the cinelli gel insert

Conversely I really like my Fizik gel pads. Been using the same ones on my winter/commute bike for about 10 years. Having said that double wrapped on my summer bike feels good too.

I'm genuinely baffled as to why a stem and bar would reduce road buzz. Most upgrade bars/stems are sold on weight loss and increased stiffness. I just don't see how road buzz would be improved.

I didn't ride much for quite a while and am now back to 140+ miles per week. Really struggled with numb hands when first back but now no issue - I think you sort of get used to it and bit like breaking your arse back into being on a bike. But as the Captain said, bike fit is also a factor in comfortable hands.

Have you considered double wrapping? Just done it myself, and I love it.

You can relax your grip a bit, which I find much more comfy.

I found the Lizard Skin DSP tape to be not very durable - one winter and it started peeling apart.

I've double wrapped bars with gel tape - just use a whole bars worth each side.

Also look at bars with an aero top profile as it spreads the load a lot more evenly.

However, the biggest improvement in comfort would be running 35mm tyres at 40psi with barely any reduction in speed.

Thick gel tape (I use lizard skins). Shock Stop stem and decent gloves.

I use specialized BG gel gloves in summer and at the moment am using the Galibier barrier deep winter ones.

Both have lots of padding around the ulna nerve area. Higher volume tyres too.

I really like the Evans FWE bar tape I have on my road bike
Like Lizard Skins DSP but a fraction of the price so you can double wrap it much cheaper

Apparently the lizard skins stuff peeling happens if you stretch it when wrapping. If you don't stretch it then it's not really long enough if you have wide bars.

I have Specialized BG gloves for summer and they help as they have very thick padding. My winter gloves don't have such thick padding so the problem is worse this time of year.

I can't have aero bars due to my wrist injury as I can't bend it enough to hold a flat surface. I currently have Ritchey bars which have a slight backsweep on the tops that I like so I'm not looking to change.

I haven't had bike fit but I'm not generally uncomfortable, I've been riding for my whole life so I know this has come from the injury. Also I'm 6'5" so I'm never going to have any real upright riding position. I ride a Canyon roadlite, with old fashioned brakes I can't get away with much bigger tyres, currently on 25c

found the Lizard Skin DSP tape to be not very durable – one winter and it started peeling apart.

I find it less durable some, bit worth it for the comfort.

I've had problems with my hands. I recently put tri bars on. Now when I'm on the tri bars I'm almost on the same position as when I'm on the drops but all the weight is on my elbows.

I also put my hands on the tri bar pads when climbing to vary my position.

Its got me wondering, do I really need drop bars but I'd miss the hoods. Bar ends are just not the same.

With mtb bars you could fit ergo grips or similar which seem to work for you off road.

Double wrapping on the tops and a layered build up on the drops made a big difference to me. Didnt double wrap the drops because it felt too bulky.

The point about wide tyres is a good one.

Are you on a rim brake bike and limited to 25mm tyres?

If so, you'll get a huge benefit from going disc and using 30mm or bigger tyres.

I'm only on 28mm but they are waaaay better than my old 25s.

Spesh Roubaix tape gets the nod from me. Carbon bars help abit too.

Same sort of thing here OP, same sort of height, also had people telling me it's down to fit and not the injury! TiReD off here kindly did me an online fit but problem hasn't gone away. I'm using Enve tape which is expensive but lovely and very long which helps as I've installed it with plenty of overlap over Spank gel pads which are also very good. Put carbon bars on too and also use Specialized BG gloves summer and the Galibiers in the winter (although not yet this year). Biggest difference for me though was carbon Zipps running tubeless 30mm tyres. The difference in shock transmission is staggering, spend though. However my left wrist going numb still happens, it just takes longer now. Sometimes stuff is just a bit too damaged to not cause any problems

I think your doing it wrong if your getting pain in your wrists/hands. Correct bike fit and core strength is what you need to sort. Think of a concert pianist tickling the ivories. You shouldn’t put your weight through your wrist/hands. All your weight should be balanced through your rear end with your front end held up by a strong core.

By all means get some nice feeling bar tape but that won’t help your issue if your holding up half your body weight through your hands/wrists.

If your not putting weight through your wrists and the issue is just road vibrations when your lightly holding the bars then things that will help are lower tyre pressure and maybe some carbon handlebars. I’m still amazed at the amount of roadies I meet who run 100psi in their tyres.

Case in point ^ for a typical STW response. My left hand goes numb, that's the one full of arthritis from a broken scaphoid 30 years ago. My right hand doesn't. My core strength is pretty good thanks.

All your weight should be balanced through your rear end with your front end held up by a strong core.

Yeah, I put this theory to my physio, she just laughed. We don't have the muscles to support our upper bodies in the road cycling position for any length of time.

I've been through the wringer with low back problems over the last year or so and am learning that some or all of my problems have been due to tight quads/hip flexors applying a constant tension on my low back muscles as they try to counteract the forward pull on my pelvis. I can tell you that these muscles do not like maintaining a constant tension for any length of time.

Good bike fit helps because it balances you better on the saddle so that your weight is better distributed and not e.g. all going through your hands.

As above spesh mits under winter gloves. The Future shock on my Diverge was a revelation too. I hand hand pain in one hand due to a heavy pot hole hit in the dark. Took over a year to get better.

I just put a redshift shockstop stem on my gravel/ do it all bike. First ride was bliss even on rough gravel. It's twice the weight of my old stem but looks like a normal stem and is fine tuneable and seems to have no sideways flex. Might sort your problem out. Takes the trail buzz away.

Bontrager Double Gel tape is great from my experiences.

Width of bars and stem length need to be just so otherwise you strain arms and joints.

Gel pads under good tape is a game changer but make sure the fit is correct. Standard width bars for my height are 42cm, I find these too narrow and uncomfortable. Also a standard drop is too low for my back and a shorter drop is more comfortable.

Get the reach (stem/saddle) and bar width/drop right and you'll be more comfortable.

Even if my bike wasn't fitting correctly, I wouldn't have anywhere to go. I'm on a 62cm with the stem right at the top of the steerer, I've even tried the stem the "wrong" way up and it doesn't make any difference. Someone of my height will always have the saddle above the height of the bars so I will naturally have more weight tipping forward

How about your reach vs. saddle set-back? I have some faith in setting saddle back (within reason) and possibly shortening reach, I think it helps tip the weight balance backwards slightly.

Also, screw the fashion police, flip that stem, maybe even some riser drop bars (Specialized Hover/Genetic/Controltech?) I use both to get the fit I want on my gravel bike, and bars are still below saddle...

The spesh tape with gel pads is good but for ultimate cushion Selle Italia Smootape XL with cinelli gel pads underneath is lush.

I'm 6'7" used to get wrist pain from couple of MTB/BMX crashes back in the day. I have Fizik gel under bar tape, feels nice to my big hands. I reckon there's a bunch of stuff to try that doesn't involve raising the bars a ton as I know it's nice to be aero on the road bike.

Do you ride in the hoods a lot or mostly on the tops? Maybe a shorter stem would mean you're moving position more, which'd be a good thing. The hoods can jam up your nerves a bit if they're not adjusted nice...and I did see something once that suggested that some folks have comfier wrists on the hoods if you roll the hoods towards the middle a tiny tiny bit (looks a tiny bit weird but makes sense). I didn't realise you could get backswept roadie bars, that sounds nice!

Other stuff that may or may not be relevant:
- more saddle setback 'can' take weight off hands a bit.
- I had a clicky wrist for an age and sorted it using a Powerball.
- Do you 'deathgrip' with either hand? I had trouble bike messengering (on a road bike) 'til I realised I steered with my dominant hand and deathgripped with my left.
- even though you can't fit a massive tyre...maybe supple one with latex tube could be a bit more magic carpetty? (I know it's not the time of year for supple tyres exactly depending on where you ride).
Good luck!

Drop the tyre pressure a bit, double wrap with cheap stuff on top of what's on already. Should help, if not slide the saddle back on the rails a bit.

If none of those help, get a professional to advise as we are just nobbers on the internet guessing 🙂

You can grumble all you like about not getting the specific advice you want, but people aren't wrong. You're chasing the tiny marginal gains whilst leaving the barn door open. In order of importance: Road Surface > Fit > Fitness > Tyre Size / Pressure > Gloves > Handlebar Tape (where you're focusing).

The cinelli gel pads (I've tried them) just make it more difficult to grip the bars as you get this weird vague feeling - the result is you then overgrip the bars and increase pressure. Some pros will double wrap bar tape for roubaix, so make of that what you will.

Jesus Christ, there are some patronising berks on here.

OP has said he's got injured wrists, but people who've never met him (or seen him on his bike) insist he just needs a bike fit really.

If you are on an XL bike already, that suggests you may have big hands OP? In which case, I'd deffo give double wrapping a try, for £5 or £10 you can pick up a roll of bar tape and it will massively change how your bike feels.

Personally I don't think you can get better tape than ESI. It's made from silicon like their MTB grips so it's super comfortable.
It's also washable, reversible, reusable and doesn't have any of that gluey stuff on it.
I've used it for a number of years and found it significantly more comfortable than lizard skins / suprcaz / spesh and other high end tape I had before.
It's quite a bit more money though (£35), but I've used and reused one set across three bikes so it's worth it imo.

Hang on, you're all assuming the OP is focusing on bar tape as the ONLY solution to his problems. I'm sure he's aware of all sorts of issues, but the question is about bar tape not 'how to fix my issues'.

Re gel pads, I love them and use them all the time despite not having injuries. It makes the bars thicker. Sure, I could use double wrap but why can't I just use gel? It's squishier. It works really well for me, doesn't migrate, and I've re-used the same pads on many bar tapings. It was the FWE branded stuff from Evans.

Also consider 'aero' bars - I really like the wide flat top for holding onto.

I mainly ride on the tops or hoods, probably about 50/50 between the two. I don't think death gripping the bars is an issue, I'm a pretty confident bike rider and I'm not exactly riding anything rowdy, I'm mostly resting my hands on the bars rather than actually gripping them. I also think any vague feeling with gel won't be an issue, if there's a proper descent then I'll be in the drops but rural Bedfordshire is fairly tame and rarely requires it.

I can have a go at moving the saddle and bars but there's not much room to move the saddle so also won't be much room to move the bars. I'm comfortable with the current reach so wouldn't want to change the overall distance between the two.

I don't see how fitness can have anything to do with my wrist hurting, the serious pain is only in my left wrist(the one I badly injured), I've been riding for years and never had issues prior to the injury.

I've double wrapped bars on my gravel bike but am now wondering about gel pads instead, the extra 'fatness' of the bars can actually be uncomfortable, feel like I'm constantly trying to separate the joint at the base of my thumb...

Lizard Skins DSP is lovely stuff, definitely my preferred tape. The 2.5 is what I use but the 3.5 will give some extra cush I guess.

I've double wrapped in the past and found it too thick for me and like the poster above, it made my hands ache. However, using gel pads or even a few strips of old tape at strategic places on the bars (the tops being the obvious place, perhaps on the drops too) is not as thick as double wrapping but gives a bit of extra cushioning.

Flat topped bars are great if you just rest you hands there, if you like to grip your bars on the tops they're less good.

I get bad hands too from a mix of injuries and carpal tunnel from doing a lot of wristy manual work (don't ask).. sometimes bad enough on the road bike that I can't feel to pull the brake lever, which gets interesting. I find that a flat topped sectioned drop-bar works better than a rounded bar, and carbon combined with a a full carbon steerer fork definately reduces the buzz a bit. I tried the Fizikbar Gel and although it kills vibration it also made the flattop bar too big to grip comfortably, and also because it's really squidgy it forces you to grip harder which makes it worse. It also adds weight in a place where your hands are not positioned for most of the time - so the weightweenie in me can't allow it...I prefer a good Gel Glove, I use a Castelli Roubaix glove which has a good bit of Gel which is always in the right place....and the thick DSP..and the front tyre as low as it'll go.

Also look at wrist angle when you're cruising on the hoods- you want to position the lever on the bend so that a straight wrist is achieved in cruising position. Imagine reaching out to shake someones hand naturally (pre-covid) and look at the wrist angle, this is what you want to recreate on the hoods. Big bends in the wrist whether flat bar or drop create problems in the wrist area.

Patronising berk back again. Sorry wasn’t meant to be patronising. I have Brocken bits in my wrists/hands too. The wrist pain is down to too much weight/pressure through your arms/hands. Best to try to help alleviate that first before trying to make a comfy perch.

Also, if you need to go higher on the bar but are maxed out on steerer tube height - a non obvious solution is the wacky Specialized Roubaix bar type range (possibly called 'hover') which gains you about an inch...which is a lot.

You don't want to go too high though as it ruins the handling..an old school roadie trick to look at positioning was to place scales under front and back wheels and look at the ratio to optimise distribution. Cant recall what it was but probably 60/40 or 70/30 rear/front - definitely not all the weight on the back as the bike will wash out through corners...

Supacaz supersticky cush (it's not cheap) and fizik gel pads have been kind to my hands. Team them with some Specialized BG gloves with the ulnar pad and you should dampen the buzz and pain quite a bit.

Hover bars got me through a week in Girona with what turned out to be a herniated disc...

Bike certainly didn't feel any slower on descents, there might even have been some sneaky undertaking of slow traffic on the hairpins...

old school roadie trick to look at positioning was to place scales under front and back wheels

This had never occured to me but I am definitely doing this first chance I get 😀

I just put a redshift shockstop stem on my gravel/ do it all bike. First ride was bliss even on rough gravel. It’s twice the weight of my old stem but looks like a normal stem and is fine tuneable and seems to have no sideways flex. Might sort your problem out. Takes the trail buzz away.

+1

Genuinely life changing

Just a thought
Have you tried lifting the position of the brake levers higher up the curve.
Might make you less aero but should decrease your reach or the angle your wrisr has to pronate in order to rest comfortably.
Raise the stem to maximum, screw the fashion police and maybe wider bars if they are 420. I run a 400 but i am a beanpole. It may be a spesh Roubaix fork with the zertz inserts coupled with 28c or bigger tyres will soften the ride.
Alot of riders i know hands go numb and they often have to drop them off the bars and shake them out, which is disconcerting on a bunched group ride