replacing tape on my road bike

[princeperch]

about to put some brown tape on my road bike. I noticed that a colleague had recently put new tape on his as well, but he didnt bother to take the old tape off and simply placed it over the old tape, which gives the bars a nice thick padded feeling. Doesn't look bad either.

Should I strip off the old stuff before I put the new stuff on, or would it be ok just to do it directly over the old?

[Rouleur]

I'd imagine it would feel (and look) very strange! Oh, and don't do what my brother's colleague did and tape from the top to the bottom

[Uriel]

I've done it with Fizik Microtex and it was fine. Comfy and it stayed put without any problems. You can buy gel strips and things to put under your tape, so I can't see why more tape would be a problem.

[sjg]

If you want comfy then just buy the thicker, more padded tape. Putting it on over old tape just seems lazy and I can't see it lasting as long.

[anonymous-user]

double taping is fine and most people do it for a sportive or an audax. i would use new, but lower standard for the first wrap, i wouldnt go over old stuff in case the adhesion is fading and it starts to break up thus it might get uneven and feel odd. cheap new stuff as a base then nice stuff on top everytime....

[Parsnip]

I'm not a fan of double tape - looks a bit funny and makes the bars really fat to hold.

Did double wrap my bars to do Paris Roubaix, but that was purely for comfort - comes down to personal choice I guess.

[princeperch]

Cheers chaps.

Took the old off and single taped it. Looks pretty cool now with the new saddle.

[Pupp]

Rouleur said:

Oh, and don't do what my brother's colleague did and tape from the top to the bottom

If done neatly and tightly, there's no real reason not to. I've done loads of bars that way to avoid having sticky tape wrapped around the flats of the bars and never had any problems with the edges curling, even racing.