So, last fall it happened that we were in the market for three replacement handlebar wraps – my Cervelo Caledonia Road Bike (reviewed here), my Pivot Gravel Bike, and my wife’s Trek Road Bike. Why not test some economically-priced wraps for fun, replacing them right away if they really sucked or if during the next season they wore out?
Just a note here – many people in general as well as some of the manufacturers or resellers interchange the terms ‘wrap’ and ‘tape’. To differentiate for this post, I am using ‘wrap’ to mean the stuff that goes around the handlebar or the act of ‘wrapping’ it, and ‘tape’ to mean the finishing tape at the end.
Here we go…
Firstly, for this first “economical handlebar wrap test” series I tried the Ge@r Handlebar tape.
I don’t know the company, it looked good and seemed like a good el cheapo test to do.
Of note – I am ONLY reviewing the handlebar wrap and tape here because I had no use for the bracket/hood covers and they don’t fit anything that I have. Weird to bundle them with the handlebar wrap. I am going to sell them elsewhere.
Upon quick inspection the handlebar wrap looks pretty nice, it is spongy and padded without being overly so and the pattern is interesting. It felt pretty nice.
This Ge@r Handlebar tape comes with some bar tape, pretty good stuff it seems like and plenty for the ends – I assume you are going to use other tapes underneath like I did, otherwise I think it still would be plenty.
The bar ends look fine, they are plastic with a logo on them and the tabs to push them in seem strong but I had my own screw-in bar ends so I didn’t use them.
There are no instructions nor would I expect there to be.
The underside of the wrap has a rubbery strip along the middle, instead of any adhesive. I thought that this strip was covering an adhesive strip so I accidentally started peeling it off. Oops.
But no, it’s a rubbery silicon-like strip to help hold the wrap in place.
It makes a good reference point for wrapping, as any wrap with an adhesive strip would.
Surprisingly this silicone-like strip is pretty good at securing the wrap in place, it really holds it well as it is wrapped but of course, it requires some pressure otherwise it will start to unwrap. It didn’t seem to bother my wrapping of it even though there was no adhesive.
The wrap went on just fine. It was stretchy enough to pull tight and not break but not so stretchy as to deform as it was stretching, especially in some of the curvier parts of the drop bars.
The wrap was JUST long enough, almost exactly perfect for me. However I did leave on and re-used the short original/previous strip of wrap that goes around the shifter/brake hoods, so otherwise I would not have had enough!
And for those with different-sized handlebars, this wrap might not be long enough, or if a person may be a bit sloppy with wrapping or wraps it differently that requires more.
Once on it was very secure, it held to itself and the handlebar well and was nicely padded. I took a 30-mile ride and it was quite comfortable. It didn’t feel cheap, and I like it just fine. In general, I would have left it on for a year and maybe replaced next year.
But on the right side where I finished it I wanted to adjust the end just a bit – my mistake here in not getting it perfectly at the end the first time around and not adjusting it immediately.
So this is where I had an issue. I unwrapped the tape (knowing full well that I would need to use a new piece of tape to replace it) from the wrap and the tape pulled the outer surface off the wrap at that location. Now the outer textured pattern is missing along the end but still the padding or layer underneath is intact but likely for cosmetics; I will need to replace this with new handlebar wrap.
So I do not think that this bodes well for the durability of the wrap, perhaps. I am a bit on the fence – I believe that just carefully peeling the tape off the wrap should not have damaged it, but on the other hand I should have fixed it originally.
The wrap looked good but you definitely do not want to mess with it once it’s on and taped. And this might be indicative of not-so-good wear resistance. Iffy on this Ge@r Handlebar tape – maybe okay for moderate use.
To replace the previous wrap I tried the Bucklos Aurora-Black handlebar wrap. Bucklos is a newer company, that sells a multitude of economically-priced bike accessories and gets pretty good ratings in general, I was a lot more confident that this one would likely be better wrap and a fairly number of people like the Bucklos wrap for the most part.
Looking over the reviews this particular set – Bucklos Aurora-Black handlebar wrap – seemed to get some good ones so I thought I’d give it a try.
I might say right away here; I really found myself impressed with this handlebar wrap tape, it SEEMS like more expensive wrap and if I didn’t know I would guess that it was pricier than it is.
The package looks nice, professional-looking and attractive packaging, with a little quick instruction inside the back. I mean, if you don’t know how to do it in the first place then you probably should look it up, have someone show you, or have it done professionally. But I appreciate the little illustration.
Each roll has its own protective tape around the roll and inside each roll are the plastic bar ends that actually screw in. I didn’t use the bar ends because, as I said above – I have the nice metal manufacturer’s bar ends that came with the bike, but these plastic bar ends are a nicer quality than most of the cheap afterthoughts that I’ve seen, and as I said – they actually screw in with a clamping action.
Taking the rolls of wrap out and just doing a tactile feel and visual check of them; you probably will immediately be aware of the thickness of the wrap compared to some bar wrap, and of course the edges taper down for proper wrapping which is kind of integral. Not to say that they are extra thick, just a good moderate thickness I think.
Pretty standard width, a little over an inch wide (3 cm) and each roll is about 86 inches (2.2 meters) with a thickness of about .11 inches (3 mm). Not the thickest wrap, but not thin either and the length is good and consistent.
There’s an adhesive edge around the inside, protected with a paper film. I found that when wrapping with this Bucklos handlebar wrap if I made a mistake and needed to peel it off and redo a bit of it – the adhesive can be re-used at least one more time and still is sticky. Maybe more. And I’m not expert in this, so I did have to reposition a few parts briefly.
Wrapping is like any good handlebar wrap, you can really stretch it and move it around and it conforms where it needs to well, but it doesn’t rip or tear when stretching. It is made out of silicone material that feels textured for good grip, it doesn’t really feel like silicone, it feels like something else.
As I said above; I’m far from an expert in wrapping handlebars but I have to say that with this tape I probably did THE best job I’ve ever done in wrapping a handlebar.
Afterward, I even took a little of the extra and tugged on it and wrapped it around some experimental things to see whether it would rip and whether it would go back into shape after the abuse, and it neither ripped nor didn’t eventually snake back into shape.
So I have to say I just am impressed with the quality of this Bucklos Aurora-Black handlebar wrap.
It also comes with the finishing tape, I always use electrical tape under the finishing tape and as usual when using this method this worked out well – security-wise as well as visual aesthetics-wise. There seems to be plenty of finishing tape though.
There are no pre-cut pieces for under the shifter/brake clamp but there is plenty of extra to cut your own off from the ends.
After my first ride, I found it to be nicely padded and the edges were very secure and stayed secure. I just didn’t get the feeling that it was going to wear out quickly in any way, or fray, or roll up on the edges after a lot of us. We will see but so far after many rides last Fall, it seemed to look and feel exactly as it was when first installed. Hopefully, the durability will continue through the next season of riding, as I like it.
The one I got is called Black Aurora and it’s a strange blackish but iridescently bluish and sometimes purplish shade. I guess I expected it to be more black than it is, as I’m not sure if the colors go exactly with the bike – though it is a cool color, especially in the sun. And I like it so well that at this point I’m not going to peel it off and discard it and get the fully black version any time soon.
So all in all I am quite happy with this wrap and also quite surprised that it’s so economically priced. This Bucklos Handlebar Wrap also has several other colors.
My wife also got the same model of Bucklos Handlebar Wrap, she chose the Aurora-Multicolor which is just another color variation of the same wrap. Again, it looks just as good on her Trek, and the installation was easy and fluid, no issues and she seems to like it, though it was late-season so she didn’t get to ride with it very much.
Lastly, I tried the equally economical-priced Tijysh wrap on my Pivot gravel bike (which really, really needed the wrap replaced!).
Never heard of this Tijysh company – they seem to sell a few biking things and some other stuff but pretty good ratings on the tape. And a visually good-looking wrap from what I could see from glancing at the Amazon photos. Totally acquired this from the visual appeal.
Upon receiving it I again thought it was a nice pattern and really good quality, but one strip was very slightly shorter than the other.
The wrap went on like a breeze, very flexible and no imperfections but was seemingly strong, especially when wrapping over the brake/shifter system and clamp. For the price, really impressed as this seemed like another one that I really wouldn’t need to immediately take off and replace and that should wear well. Especially on a gravel bike.
I would say of the wraps I tried I like this pattern the best visually, a hexagonal pattern that appeals to me.
As is typical with bar wrap it is thicker in the middle with tapering edges, and the middle has a covered strip of adhesive. Again, this adhesive seems to be pretty strong and in places where I had to go back and re-wrap a bit I could peel it off and it would still stick when re-applying the end back on that I was working on. So pretty good quality adhesive. And the paper protective film on the adhesive stays on as long as needed until you need to tug it off.
The only big negative here is that one strip seemed to be shorter than the other. For my gravel bike, it was close enough with the finishing tape covering the end, I suppose a real stickler would have been unhappy, and possibly for my road bike I would’ve wanted it 100% uber-perfect.
I want to mention here that I got two sets of finishing tape strips, which was nice as I needed it for an extra strip over the very slightly short end. I can’t tell that it is a few mm two short visually or when I grab it close other stem but perhaps someone else can. I could have gone a little short overall but I like the wrap to go quite a distance toward the stem, maybe someone else who had gotten a shorter strip wouldn’t have noticed.
There’s no way I used THAT much extra wrap on one side over the other, especially when the other strip was plenty long and I cut two clamp strips off it and there was still extra.
The box that this handlebar wrap came in shows four strips of clamp covers, but there wasn’t even one strip in the box instead there were four pieces of finishing tape, which came in handy.
So a couple of bits of a snag but minor, as the Amazon photos show but do not mention that there are strips of pieces for around the shifter/clamp included. No big deal of course- as I normally just cut a couple of strips off the end of each strip of wrap; but it does SHOW it on the box and on the Amazon page.
It also came with plastic faux carbon-look bar ends, nicer ones that screw in and they even included an Allen wrench.
I briefly stuck these in just to see how they looked and they were fine, though not really tight so I stuck with my nice metal screw-in ones that I had previously used.
So, I wish one strip hadn’t been kinda short but I like the look of this wrap, it’s real nice.
The wrap feels super-good when riding, it’s got a nice grippy rubbery feel to it, almost like the biking gloves are sticking to it. So I like the texture and feel but have to give it a few checkmarks off for one strip being kind of a shorty and missing the shifter pieces that seemed to be supposed to be included. But good marks for a high-quality grippy feel and no issues with any fraying or wear from riding with it a bit on the gravel and trails. But more time with tell on durability, or possibly I will just try another set next season.
So middle of the middle-of-the-road rating with this Tijysh wrap.
I will update this post over time if there are any durability or ripping issues with any of these that are installed.
