Padded Road Bike Handlebars on the Cheap!

This project lets you take common packing material and customize your own padded handlebars with little or no extra cost.

Step 1: Get Some Handle Bar Tape

If you allready have some, peel it off, if you can reuse it, do so, if not, go get something cheaper than I found (hopefully) I was in a hurry to get some tape, and I didnt shop around too much, but I got my basic black tape for 16 bucks at a local shop.

Step 2: Get Some Closed Cell Packing Wrap!

Go anywhere that deals with shipping a lot (like retail stores) will have this suff piled up in a huge box somewhere in the shipping area. Find "associate" and make them an offer they cant refuse. or just go look around at work, its the really thin stuff thats nice and soft and closed cell, and also just so happens to rip in perfect strips once you tear with the "grain"

Step 3: Wrap Bars With Customized Cush!

Bust out your wrapping skill here and go crazy, try and think where you will be putting your hands while you ride, and add more where its needed. Longer strips are easer to work with, but you really don't need much material for the padding, if you score a 2/3ft chunk, you will have more than enough. Leave room at the center for taping down the black outer wrap.

Step 4: Finish With a Normal Wrap

Im no expert on this, and most people I talked to didnt seem to have any theories for how to wrap the outer tape. but I found that pulling it tight and leaving at least 1/3-1/2 width over wrap is good. overlapping around the outside of the curves of your bars will be important.

I found them to be an exceptable alternative to spending the 30 bucks on new black tape with special squishy inserts, as you can customize with this material to your hearts content.