Duck Tape As a Bicycle Rim Tape.

by thewhite

4.8K22

Intro: Duck Tape As a Bicycle Rim Tape.

Nothing really like rocket science, just small hint. I've found Duck Tape (or cloth tape/silver tape if you like) as a good replacement for rim tape. You can rip it to required width and apply easily just unwrapping bit by bit, sticking to rim. Easy and light.Just start from valve hole (cover it) and at the end overlap slightly. Then make a hole for valve (just cross cut). Job done.

STEP 1: Test

So far about I've done ~70km on those wheels, no probs at all. As you can see on the picture, is a flat bar racer and both wheels 110-120psi.
Keep'em rolling.
Cheers.

2 Comments

exodous 3 years ago

Is there any brand you find better? The rims on my bike eats rim strips, they are constantly folding up and I get punctures. I have never had rims do this, must be how they're shaped so I thought I'd try this. I'm guessing Gorilla tape is pretty tough. I run both low pressure tires and high pressure tires on these rims also and a comment says high pressure he has problems with tape.

rigtenzin 9 years ago

This may work for you, but I tried this with high pressure tires and eventually the tape gave way on the edges of the spoke holes. The exposed sharp edges then punctured the tubes. This took a few weeks to happen.

But I can imagine that not all duct tape is created equally and some will hold up better than others.

I've used this for low pressure tires, a mountain bike for example, and it worked for as long as I had the bike.