Frame Protection Tape

[wafter]

A possible new purchase looming against a backdrop of my persistant OCD means I'm back investigating this super exciting product...

Last time I got so tired of trying to differentiate between all of the available options (1cm^2 of super-premium genuine military-grade 3m "heli tape" for £50 versus a whole roll of dubious Chinese knock-off stuff for a tenner) that my brain melted and I gave up.

When I bought my first road bike I went down the stationers and bought a big roll of generic sticky-backed plastic for a few quid, which over 16-odd years did a bloody good job of protecting the paint on my top tube; although I've never tried to remove it so don't know what fallout (if any) this would have brought.

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions or insight into this compelling subject I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts.. as the mere mention of the stuff is already starting to send me to sleep but I know it's a neccessary evil that I've ultimately got to source somehow to put my anxiety at bay.

 

[kynikos]

Buy a grey bike then all you need is a roll of duct tape

 

[Gunk]

I just use the generic clear sticky back plastic. Plus I have a load of off cuts in lots of different colours that I blagged from a local sign writers, surprised how useful black self adhesive vinyl is at covering stuff up.

 

[Spiderweb]

Tesa Helicopter tape is very good.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/160688026927

 

[I like Skol]

Am I allowed to say "don't bother"?

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Just use electrical tape if you need to protect something on the bike.

 

[Alex H]

I must be missing something here. Are you putting the tape over damage or just to make the bike look crap?

 

[fossyant]

Electrical tape in the right colour is fine for cable rub. I have genuine 3m tape on the MTB in key points of cable rub (as it's potentially much worse than on road bikes with grit added). I bought a few metres of 50mm wide stuff via ebay for about £10.

You could go full on 'shack wrap' or 'invisiframe' for about £100 or more.

 

[ianrauk]

Am I allowed to say "don't bother"?

..or just buy Ti

 

[CanucksTraveller]

I put sticky pads on cable rub hot spots (head tube mainly) after seeing what about 8 years of cable rub can do to a frame, but that's it. Otherwise I'm firmly in the "don't bother" camp.

Your bike looks nice for quite a long time, only slowly collecting little bumps and scars that only you really notice anyway, much like the human face. Adding tape makes it look gash from day one.

Oh and "helicopter tape" equals "tape for the naive". Convince people (even wrongly) that something is used in aviation and you can instantly convince them to pay silly money for it. See also "aircraft grade aluminium".
I worked with three helicopter mechanics who maintained the Royal helicopters, there's no such thing as helicopter specific tape and the blade leading edges were simply painted with a tough paint.