Silca Nastro Cuscino bar tape..

I use BBB BHT-16 - find it very comfortable, not too thick (though you can over wrap it quite easily if you want to as it’s long) and grippy.

Cheap, but only available in a couple of colours - can be picked up on Amazon for between £18-£20.

I’ve tried various fizik, Supercaz (Cush, I think) and the Pro gravel tape (pretty good, but quite expensive and not overly available)

Even if the glue sticks on, and it can due to salts etc, brake cleaner is pretty good - had to do that with a 'used' CX bike I bought last year. Quite happy with Decathlon tapes -£10-£15.

Just leave your current bartape on and put a new one over the top. I think the traditional cork types are best and are cheap too.

IMO £40 for bartape is bonkers, especially for something that you can rip on a single tide.

Also in my experience, the microfiber type bartape does not last well and looks shabby in no time.

https://www.prendas.co.uk/products/cinelli-gel-black-cork-bar-tape

Cinelli Cork used to be my favorite.

Piloti on both bikes, very nice 👌

It does leave a bit behind when it’s removed, no hassle to clean it up though.

I don’t want to wrap over the top as it will be too fat around the brifters. Anyway I have some new carbon bars which have a wider profile so the old tape will be too short. And I want new tape on my new bars because, well, it’s new innit! I am wondering if the 3.75mm Cuscino might be a bit too thick compared to the Piloti - the Rapha stuff is 3mm though and very nice. Shame it can’t be bought anywhere anymore..

Deda Presa bar tape is very lovely, seems to have gone up in price tho....lots of colour combos. Pretty good cushion from 3mm and hard wearing, still looks good after a couple thousand km

Thanks all - That Deda looks nice. I like the perforations. The Rapha Brevet has perforations with colours underneath and it looks v smart.

Can't go wrong with this stuff

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003GBAW5I?th=1

I’m sure it’s lovely but the link doesn’t show …!!

The Enve bar tape - 3mm - gets very good reviews,  but at £35 a roll, it ought to. I have some really nice feeling Fizik Bond Cush soft? or something or other on my road bike, which I mostly bought because I liiked the Prussian blue colour, but has been good so far, but hasn't done a load of miles, so hard to say on the durability front. It doesn't like getting wet though, just seems to soak up water, which is good as it puts me off wet weather road riding 😉

On the knackered cross bike I use Supacaz but with Fizik gel strips underneath and that works fine and lasts about 50 times longer than the Lizard Skins stuff that seems to wear out in seconds despite feeling good initially. The gel things work pretty well ime and mean you don't have to run super thick bar tape for a comfortable ride, ymmv.

No idea on the Silca tape. Everything they make seems to carry some sort of premium brand tax, which means it had better be very, very good.

Yes exactly it's hard to tell if it's just that Simon Cowell look alike fella in the videos wanting to get rich quick or if it's genuinely very (very) good. I have one of their pumps and it's lovely but is it worth what they charge for it at full price - no most definitely not.

The Enve stuff might be worth a shot. The Silca is £45  when bought direct which is still more than anything else. It's up to £60 when bought online in the UK it seems.

I'd never heard of Silca before this thread, after a look around their site I now see that the bartape looks almost like good value compared to some other of their products:

£30 for some bike cleaner

https://silca.cc/products/ultimate-brake-and-drivetrain-cleaner?variant=39778060566626

£38 for some wipes

https://silca.cc/collections/all/products/gear-wipes

£85 for a bottle cage

https://silca.cc/collections/all/products/sicuro-titanium-bottle-cage-black-cerakote-edition

I feel decided poor now...

I take it you didn’t spot the £500 pump…

£2.99 for cork bar tape from my secret supplier.

@oceanskipper did you by any chance, buy the Enve tape in the end. Pondering options...

No I bought some Silca as I needed some other stuff and it was only a bit more than  the Enve in the end. Not fitted the Silca yet though.

I'll let you know how the Enve stuff does. Fingers crossed for your own experience of very expensive bar tape 🙂

ps:

In particular has anyone tried removing it? I read a user review where the reviewer said the foam backing peels off and sticks to the bars and is very difficult to remove. It’s also got a preposterous price tag as per anything Silca. Don’t mind if it’s good value though.

One of the attractions of the Enve stuff is that it uses a silicone strip for adhesion rather than an actual adhesive and is supposedly very easy to re-use and I'm also messing about with a couple of different bar options.

Yeah it wants to be good for what it costs. 🙄 I can confirm though that it feels lovely to the touch when on the roll still so I have high hopes.

So come on oceanskipper, I would like to know if £50 bar tape is £25 better than £25 tape.

How have you found it?

I have used the Enve tape and it's very nice but the grey gets very dirty and doesn't clean easily. Might try some kitchen cream cleaner or something

So come on oceanskipper, I would like to know if £50 bar tape is £25 better than £25 tape.

How have you found it?

Not fitted yet, I’ll report back once I have… Although I might just put it in a display case and admire its audacity in convincing me to buy it. Also it will maintain the illusion that it’s worth it as I’ll never know different!!!

ESI RCT is excellent, made from the same stuff as their grips, stretchy so you can make it as thin or as thick as you want (up to the thickness of the tape) it has no sticky stuff on it as it grips to itself, lasts well - I've got it on my CX race bikes, dead comfy.