The best handlebar tape 2024, and how to wrap it

Installing new bar tape is like giving your road bike a manicure. Looking down at freshly wrapped tape is pleasing to the eye as well as providing a boost in confidence. But its beauty is more than skin deep. 

As one of a rider's few touch points it’s vital that your handlebar tape is comfortable as well as offering grip in wet weather conditions. It’s no exaggeration that good tape can help make a ride, while old, worn or poor quality tape can seriously hinder it, especially during a long day in the saddle.

Bar tape can offer some much needed cushioning when the going gets rough; double wrapped tape has been a staple for years at cobbled races like Paris-Roubaix, where any respite from the pavé is appreciated. But comfort isn’t only measured in the tape’s thickness. There are numerous finishes and patterns available too, taking care of most rider’s preferences.

Choosing the right tape for you requires a little thought and we’ve covered the key points to consider later in this guide. Likewise wrapping your bars isn’t to be taken lightly and we offer those new to the ‘art’ a few helpful pointers too. But first here’s our picks of some of the best handlebar tape on the market.

Best handlebar tape 2024: Our picks

Best for gravel

One of the thickest tapes here, the BT Gravel is designed to provide shock absorption, which in turn reduces fatigue, while also offering plenty of grip. To deliver this it features a padded foam back with a subtly textured rubber outer layer. It feels somewhat tacky to the touch. It’s worth noting that each roll of tape is 230cm long to accommodate wider gravel bars and comes with long bar ends for better security. I'd also tip my cap to Ergon for producing the tape in some interesting colors, including swamp green and the rusty red reviewed here.

Perhaps unsurprisingly due to its thickness, the BT Gravel tape isn’t that easy to wrap. I felt like I struggled at times to keep enough tension on the tape. That said the guidelines on the tape surface did aid me in keeping a constant wrap. The thickness of the tape even made insertion on the bar bungs a little trickier than usual. However, when finished, the result is a luxurious looking tape, with a feel to match.

When riding, that feel intensifies. This could well be the plushest bar tape I’ve ever used. It’s not just the thickness of the tape that adds to the comfort but also the make-up of the foam. It’s soft and springy, which means you don’t lose all that much ‘feel’ at the bars despite the thickness. And over the lumps and bumps it really does make a difference. As for the grip, the tape again delivers. It feels secure without being overly tacking, and the subtle pattern is comfortable on the hands, too. Given that my gravel bike does plenty of road miles too the tape might be overkill but for those who ride long distances off-road with regularity then it’s likely to be a great match.

Best all-rounder

To the touch, the Fizik Vento Solocush Tacky tapes lives up to its name - the foam soft and generous in its thickness, while the finish feels suitably gripping, with a series of straight lines applied to aid grip; Fizik describe this as a single-layer tape that’s been designed in collaboration with pro road cyclists. 

Wrapping the tape I realised just how shiny it is, especially in the bright orange colour. It doesn’t feel like it has much give, and as such required me to focus on maintaining the tension. However, like the Silca tape there is some stretch there, you just need to trust the tape! Each roll is generous in length, meaning that it’s well suited to those who run wider handlebars.

The sheen doesn’t result in any loss of grip. On the contrary, I found the tape to be really grippy. That it achieves this without being too tacky (despite its name) is, for me at least, a real bonus. The pattern too is subtle, meaning that even when I kept my hands in the same position on the bars for some while, it was never abrasive or irritating on the palm or underside of my fingers. 

As for comfort and absorption, the tape delivers both in spades. Like the Ergon Gravel tape, it’s luxurious in its feel and the degree of padding it offers. It’s a little thinner than the Ergon tape though, which for me, makes it more versatile; I would happily use this tape for gravel as well as its designated road application, or indeed on a bike that’s used for both.

Best for racing

Silca claims that its Nastro Piloti tape delivers the comfort and cushioning of a 2.5mm thick tape with just 1.85mm of foam. It does feel noticeably thin compared to the other tapes on test. The outer layer has a textured and tacky surface. It comes with aluminium expanding bar plugs rather than simple plastic ones - but it is one of the most expensive tapes reviewed here.

Despite its lack of thickness, it wasn’t the easiest tape to wrap - at least initially. Lightweight tapes often have a degree of stretch that makes it a doddle to maintain tension as you wrap. This Silca tape however felt a little stiff. As I started the job I just couldn’t get the tape as tightly wrapped as I wanted - until I realised that it was happy to be pulled really firmly. While I couldn’t quite get over the feeling that the tape was going to snap at some point, from here on in it was fine albeit requiring me to really pull hard on the tape to keep the tension. 

Has Silca managed to make the tape feel thicker than it is? It’s difficult to quantify but I really liked how this tape felt, both in terms of cushioning and grip. It’s noticeably tacky and this aided my grip when my palms began to sweat. Because of this, I’d say this is a good tape for those who do a lot of riding without gloves. It's reasonably cushioned; this is a 1.85mm thick tape designed primarily for road riding so there’s a balance to strike here and it’s one I feel Silca has achieved. If you’re riding gravel trails or go in for long audax rides then it’s probably not the tape for you. However, if you want a clean looking, lightweight tape with good grip for a race bike then it won’t disappoint. 

Best for grip

Described by Arundel as “perfect for the rainy, cold cobbled classics”, the Rubber Gecko tape consists of two layers - foam backed with an outer layer of rubber. This layer features a small diamond (or dot?) grip pattern for improved grip. The tape isn’t particularly thick - Arundel doesn’t provide a measurement - but it does feel relatively cushioned.

The tape was relatively easy to wrap. It’s not overly stretchy, and I did need to focus on keeping enough tension on the tape as I worked my way up the bars. If you’re wrapping a wide pair of gravel bars you’ll likely need to concentrate on how much you’re overlapping; I wrapped a slightly flared pair of 42cm wide Ritchey Butano bars and I wasn’t left with lots of tape at the end of the end.

Out on the road the tape does feel well cushioned. I cycled on both gravel and cobbled sections as well as tarmac and there is a discernible absorption felt at the hands when traversing the rougher stuff. When riding with bare hands the micro dots were a little harsher than I had anticipated on my palms but they did provide plenty of grip - I’d say this is probably the grippiest tape here, especially when it gets it wet. But there’s possibly a trade off here, and if I rode this tape day in, day out I might find myself reaching for some gloves just to take the edge of the abrasiveness of the pattern.

Best for thickness options

The choice of a large number of pros in the WorldTour peloton, the Lizard Skins DSP is one of the most luxurious feeling handlebar tapes on the market. As well as this 2.5mm option, there are three other thicknesses available (1.8, 3.2 and 4.6mm), and despite the good level of padding it can easily be rewrapped too.

Comfort and grip are most people's primary concerns when choosing bar tape and Lizard Skins provides both in spades. The choice of thicknesses really allows you to tailor the tape to your needs but whether you prefer thick tape or thin, the grip and comfort isn't compromised. If you like to count every gram however it's worth noting that the the additional comfort of the 4.6mm thick tape will cost you 50 grams when compared to the 1.8mm tape.

The tacky feel of the Lizard Skins material translates to an exceptional grippy tape and one that can be used in the wet without gloves, an issue for some tapes. This also has benefits in warm weather when sweaty palms can compromise your hold on the bars.

The only real downside to Lizard Skins DSP tape is the price. It's one of the more expensive out there but like many cycling accessories you get what you pay for.

Best for all-day comfort

If you choose to call a bar tape ‘super sticky’ it needs to deliver plenty of grip, and fortunately for Supercaz, its product does just that.

We’ve ridden it across a number of bikes and have always found it to deliver a nice blend of comfort and grip. We recently rode the tape during persistent showers and without gloves and the super sticky tape kept up its part of the bargain, with the geometric pattern providing surprising grip considering the conditions.

As for the ‘kush’ element, the tape is 3mm thick, which is on the thicker end of things, and really comfortable; it’s tacky and provides a decent level of cushioning even when the going gets rough. It’s certainly a tape that would be well suited to riders who enjoy long days in the saddle or regularly ride on less-than-smooth terrain. However, this does come at the cost of bar feel. If you ride with gloves, you may find it just a little thick, although this is certainly down to rider preference.

A thicker tape can prove trickier to wrap but the Supercush hasn’t presented us with too many issues in the past. While it’s not as easy to install as those thinner, stretchier tapes, there’s enough give here so as not to prove problematic.

The Supercush tape also gets bonus points for the wide choice of colours offered. Even if your bike or kit is ‘coffee brown’ (Ag2R fans take note!) you’ll find a Super Stick Kush tape to match. Finally it comes with adjustable bar plugs, which given the higher price tag should be expected but isn’t always the case.

Best for bar feel

Bontrager’s Grippytack is another tape that’s keen to promote its supposed benefits in its name. Having used it for almost a year that included a long, sweaty New York summer, we can safely say there’s no hint of any trade description infringement here. Even when our hands were covered in sweat on rides in temperatures north of 35 C (95 F) the tape offered up some much needed grip.

The tape is relatively thin, which means it delivers plenty of bar feel. However it does feature some shock absorbing foam to help cushion your hands during long or bumpy rides. Bar tape thickness is certainly a matter of taste, but we found that the Grippytack tape struck a good balance between comfort and feel. As for the texture, it features a series of micro-dots not unlike the Kinesis 4 seasons tape. In fact, we first tried Bontrager’s offering while living in the US, where the Kinesis tape wasn’t readily available and we were hunting for something similar.

Unlike the Kinesis tape Bontrager Grippytack isn’t the easiest to wrap, even if it claims ‘“ideal stretch for quick-and-easy installation.” We didn’t enjoy a great deal of stretch and while it's far from the trickiest we’ve wrapped with, this lack of flexibility did make it a little more taxing to install.

Best on a budget

No bar tape guide is complete without a traditional cork offering. If you’re of a certain age there’s a good chance that cork tape is all you knew for many years, after it superseded cotton and vinyl in both performance and comfort after its invention in 1983. In this instance we’ve gone for SRAM’s Supercork.

Cork tape is essentially a polyurethane tape that’s embedded with pieces of natural cork, combining to create a spongy soft feel that’s also both lightweight and grippy. SRAM’s version is 3mm thick and doesn’t stray from the traditional path to deliver a tape that’s very comfortable with bags of cushioning.

The downside to cork tape can be a lack of grip in the wet or when your hands get a little sweaty. In our experience the SRAM tape does a pretty good job of mitigating this, although if you’re used to the super tacky modern tapes such as Lizard Skins then you're likely to feel a little underwhelmed by the grip offered here.

Perhaps the biggest asset of SRAM’s, or for that matter most cork tapes, is their affordability. They can be half the price or more compared to higher-end tapes like Supercaz, meaning your can can re-wrap your bars more often, giving your bike a fresh, new feel for as little as £10. 

SRAM Supercork tape is pretty easy to wrap, as are most cork tapes. However, proceed with caution. Cork tapes do have a habit of snapping if you attempt to add a little too much tension during your wrap.

Most durable

Kinesis’s 4 Seasons tape may look pretty ordinary but there’s plenty of detail here that make it worthy of this best handlebar tape guide.

It’s made from what Kinesis describe as an ‘anti-slip’ rubber. The small micro-diamond pattern is designed to offer grip in all conditions, hence the ‘4 Seasons’ name. Having ridden this tape in fair weather and foul we can attest to its grippy properties; even during serious downpours we found that it still offered up a decent level of grip, certainly when compared to cork tapes. It’s also plenty durable too; we’ve used this tape for well over a year in the past without it showing much sign of wear.

Vitally, the tape’s also comfortable. While Kinesis doesn't list its width it’s not overly thick. However, the shockproof layer and Vex Gel backing seemingly does the trick and we found that both the pattern, the slightly tacky feel and the level of cushioning combined to deliver a comfy ride even over long distances and uneven road surfaces. We actually used this tape while riding a few sectors of pavé in and around Roubaix and while it couldn’t mute the vibrations (what tape could?!) it coped well over a few bone jarring kilometres.

The Kinesis tape is a firm favourite for another reason, too. It’s easy to wrap. It offers a decent amount of stretch and doesn’t have an overly sticky backing, so even if you need to re-wrap sections you can do so without making a mess.

Are there any downsides to the tape? Not really, although the gaps between the small diamonds can be a little tricky to get clean. 

Finally the Kinesis bar tap also comes with adjustable plugs; the kind you’d normally expect to buy separately as an upgrade and a far cry from the basic push-in plugs you normally get with bar tape at this price point.

Best handlebar tape: How to choose your bar tape

Grip

You might think that your handlebar tape is mainly there to make your bike look good, but this is probably the most important contact point between yourself and your bike, so it's important that it gives you secure grip so you can control your machine in all conditions. Look for a handlebar tape with a nice tacky finish that you help you maintain grip when riding in wet conditions - something that is particularly important if you're riding without gloves.

Padding

Another very important aspect of handlebar tape, especially for those riding without gloves, is its padding. Especially on long rides over rough roads, your hands and wrists can take a real pounding, so look for some handlebar tape with plenty of padding to reduce the vibrations being transmitted to your body. If you're riding on particularly rough roads (or even cobbles) then consider wrapping your bars with two layers of tape for even more protection.

Wrap-ability

If you're planning to fit your own handlebar tape, then it's worth reading on below for a few pointers. In general thinner tapes will be easier to wrap as they will be more flexible, but might be prone to bunching at the bends in the bars.

Finish

Most handlebar tapes are made from one of three different materials: cork, leather, ora synthetic material. If you're after a really luxurious feel, then leather or cork are hard to beat, however they are often more expensive than synthetic options. If you're a sucker for white bar tape, then its also worth finding an option (usually synthetic) that will be easy to clean, as the last thing you want is your sharp white tape turning brown from mud or sweat after only a couple of rides.

Colour

Certain members of the cycling community will tell you that your handlebar tape must either match the colour of your saddle, or match the colour of the head tube, or be black, but we say just go for whatever colour catches your eye. There are some very bright options to choose from if you shop around, with companies like Supacaz and Lizard Skins offering some pretty funky patterns too. It's your bike, so do what you want to it.