The best bar tape for your bike provides not only great grip but also comfort, helping keep your hands and upper body securely attached to your handlebars as one of the three main contact points.
There’s only one time where you might see a drop-bar bicycle without bar tape, and that’s on weight weenies’ builds during hill climb season. For everyone else, bar tape not only improves the comfort and grip, but also offers space for personalisation.
While flat bars such as those on hybrid bikes and mountain bikes tend to use tube-like grips, curved drop handlebars are wrapped with handlebar tape, which is supplied in rolls along with bar end plugs, which are crucial for plugging the ends of the handlebars.
There are a myriad of options out there when it comes to choosing bar tape, but which bar tape is best? Thankfully we’ve stepped in to help you work out which bar tape is best for you with our buying advice below, which follows the list of our favourite bar tapes on the market for all tastes and requirements.
Best handlebar tape 2025
Our selection of the very best bar tapes:
- Pro Classic Comfort £12.99
- Brooks Cambium Rubber Bar Tape £40
- Prologo Onetouch 3D Bar Tape £32.99
- Fizik Vento Microtex 2mm Tacky Bi-Color £34.99
- Lizard Skins DSP Bar Tape V2 £47
- Supacaz Bling Tape Gold £32.99
- Cinelli Caleido Strip Bar Tape £36.99
- Deda Mistral Leather Look Bar Tape £15.99
- Wolf Tooth Supple Bar Tape £45
- Silca Nastro Piloti Bar Tape £50
Read on below for more detailed buying advice.
Related questions you can explore with Ask Cyclist, our new AI search engine.
Why trust Cyclist's advice?
From the bikes that we ride at home to a huge fleet of test bikes, between us here at Cyclist we’ve tried and tested a huge number of bar tapes over the years. The quality and feel of the tape is often one of the first things you notice when testing a new bike or if you’ve just rewrapped your own handlebars, and the comfort and durability is soon put to the test after a few miles in the saddle.
You can be confident in the recommendations and advice we offer here, as these are all bar tapes we’ve had the pleasure of getting to grips with that we’ve considered worthy of your investment, with options for all tastes.
Best bar tapes reviewed
Pro Classic Comfort Bar Tape
RRP: £12.99 | View offer
- 2.5mm thickness
- EVA and cork material with plastic bar ends
- Black or white colourways
The Pro Classic Comfort tape delivers excellent performance at a budget price, making it a great go-to option for durable tape without breaking the bank.
The tape is best suited to road riding on smoother tarmac, as the cork and composite tape isn’t the thickest at 2.5mm, nor features any additional grip pattern, unlike many other tapes.
For those looking to take on their own handlebar maintenance, the tape is also pretty easy to wrap at home, and can be re-wrapped easily on different bars or bikes.
The 2m-long rolls are also supplied with plastic push-in bar ends, as well as extra strips of bar tape for bridging the gap around the shifters.
Brooks Cambium Rubber Bar Tape
RRP: £40 | View offer
- 3mm thickness
- Bar ends and cotton finishing tape supplied
- Many colourway options including black, white, tan, brown, khaki, orange and teal
Though pricy, the Brooks Cambium bar tape is among the best I’ve tested, with a grippy yet cushioned offering earning the accolade of Editor’s Choice.
The rubberised bar tape features a very small checkerboard pattern, which offers plentiful grip for both road or gravel applications, while also being very durable.
Though the tape itself is of a modern synthetic construction with a foam backing contributing to the 3mm thickness, two cotton weave strips are supplied to finish the tape at the top of the bars. Two plastic push-in bar end plugs are also provided.
Whether you’re looking for a grippy tape for your regular rig, or something more complementary for a more traditionally styled build, the Brooks Cambium tape is a great shout.
Prologo Onetouch 3D Bar Tape
RRP: £32.99 | View offer
- 3.5mm thickness
- Plastic bar ends and printed finishing tape supplied
- Black colourway only
Master of touch points Prologo has not overlooked grip when it comes to its Onetouch 3D bar tape, which features a hexagonal pattern of rubberised raised dots along half of the tape’s 30mm width. The embossed honeycomb-like pattern of the surface of the bar tape is designed to help absorb vibrations from the front wheel over rougher terrain.
The Onetouch 3D tape is thick at 3.5mm. It's tried and tested by WorldTour teams including EF Education-Easypost and UAE Team Emirates at the spring Classics such as the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, where the combination of extra cushioning and reliable grip is a high priority.
Featuring the Prologo logo, the bar ends supplied are made of plastic and push into the ends of the wrapped handlebars with ease. The finishing tape, which can be used to secure the ends of the bar tape to the top of the handlebar in place of a more simple electrical tape, is also printed with the brand name.
Fizik Vento Microtex 2mm Tacky Bi-Color Bar Tape
RRP: £34.99 | View offer
- 2mm thickness
- Designed for road racing
- Fluo yellow, orange and pink options, plus grey, red, white and blue
Fizik’s thinnest option from its wide range of bar tape designs, the 2mm thick Vento Microtex tape is designed to be lightweight and minimalist for road racing. Each tape is 235cm, with a little extra length designed to make it long enough to cover flat-topped aero bars.
Tacky by name, and tacky by nature, the tape has a glossy, sticky quality on the surface to enhance grip and avoid any slippage, whether you’re on the tops or in the drops.
The handlebar tape is supplied with plastic Fizik-branded bar end plugs, as well as extra strips of tape to help you wrap around the shifters.
The Bi-Color tapes also add a bit of extra bling to your cockpit, with the striped tape giving a gradient effect once wrapped.
Lizard Skins DSP Bar Tape V2
RRP: £47 | View offer
- 3.2mm thickness
- Premium screw-in composite plugs supplied
- Huge colour range available
Best known for its extremely grippy surface, this Lizard Skins bar tape is available in 2.5mm or 3.2mm thickness. The thicker 3.2mm tape is a little heavier (adding just 12 grams), but offers greater comfort and shock absorbing qualities, so is great for rougher roads, cobbles and gravel riding, or riders just looking for a little more cushion.
There’s a dizzying array of colours to choose from, so you’re likely to find a colour to suit most builds. As well as the fairly long 226cm rolls, there are clamp cover strips, branded finishing tape and screw-in bar end plugs provided, which tend to be a bit more durable than the simpler push-in alternatives.
The Lizard Skins bar tape isn’t cheap, but you can certainly feel that you’re paying for great quality.
Supacaz Bling Tape Gold Bar Tape
RRP: £32.99 | View offer
- 2.5mm thickness
- Matching aluminium screw-in bar end plugs supplied
- Gold, silver and oil slick purple bling options, plus plenty more standard colours
If bling is your thing, look no further. Founded by the son of Specialized’s Mike Sinyard, Supacaz now offers a range of cycling accessories from bar tapes to bottle cages, many featuring some pretty bright and wild colours.
The rubberised, debossed star pattern finish of the Supacaz Bling tape offers great grip and is easy to wipe clean. There’s also rubberised black finishing tape supplied, as well as matching, top quality screw-in bar end plugs with an aluminium head for great durability.
The tape is shaped with thinner edges and is a little stretchy to help make installation smooth and easy.
If metallic gold, silver or oil slick purple aren’t your cup of tea, there’s a huge range of other Supacaz tape colours to choose from, including paint splatter, gradient and star designs.
Cinelli Caleido Strip Bar Tape
RRP: £36.99 | View offer
- Medium thickness tape
- Push-in bar ends and leather effect finishing tape supplied
- Synthetic leather tape with multicoloured accents
The Cinelli Caleido Strip tape blends a black synthetic leather upper, texturised and perforated, with a multicoloured backing which gives an amazing effect when wrapped. This backing strip is made of EVA and cork; the same formula that Antonio Columbo designed in 1983, which completely revolutionised cycling bar tape, previously cotton or vinyl.
Depending on which way you wrap the tape, you can either get a black finish with a few colourful dots poking through, or this effect in addition to a swirl of colourful edge. Either way, it’s a lovely way of introducing colour to your cockpit without committing to a single colour or sacrificing the durability of a dark-coloured tape.
The Caleido tape comes with black branded leather-effect finishing tape as well as silver metal-effect push-in bar ends.
Deda Mistral Leather Look Bar Tape
RRP: £15.99 | View offer
- 2.4mm thickness
- Leather-effect tape with plastic bar ends
- Brown, black, white, blue, red, and celeste colourways
While leather bar tape can be highly durable once fitted, it can be a real pain to fit, not to mention very expensive. For those looking for a more classic finish on the bars without the hassle, a leather-effect bar tape can be a good compromise.
Deda’s Mistral tape is a fraction of the price of real leather, yet still looks pretty convincing from a distance, and comes in a good range of colours beyond classic tan, even extending to celeste to keep the Bianchi fans happy.
The relatively thin tape comes with plastic push-in bar ends, off-cut pieces to help you wrap around the shifters, and two finishing tapes that are more like logo-branded stickers. Perhaps opt for some cotton tape or waxed cord instead for a more authentic finish instead.
Wolf Tooth Supple Bar Tape
RRP: £45 | View offer
- 5mm thickness
- Adhesive-free backing and plastic bar ends supplied
- Black, red, blue, orange and tan colourways
For ultimate comfort, there are few other options that rival the cushion of the 5mm thick Wolf Tooth Supple bar tape. As well as being extra thick, the tape is also extra wide at 4cm rather than the standard 3cm. You can choose how much you overlap the tape when wrapping to adjust how it feels while riding.
The tape isn’t textured on the surface but is very tacky, making it both grippy and easy to clean. Unlike most tapes, there’s no adhesive strip on the back, as it grips onto itself when wrapped without it, which means it’s easier to reuse and transfer between bikes.
One word of caution, though; if you’re a rider with smaller hands, wrapping your bars extra thick may not be as ergonomic as you might otherwise enjoy. If you’re looking for a similar tape that’s a bit less extreme, the Wolf Tooth Supple Lite tape is 2.5mm thick and retails at £27.
- Buy now from Merlin Cycles (£39)
Silca Nastro Piloti Bar Tape
RRP: £50 | View offer
- 1.85cm thickness
- Aluminium expanding bar ends included
- Black, red or white colourways
The premium feel of the Silca Nastro Piloti bar tape matches the lofty pricetag, unusually supplied with aluminium expanding bar ends rather than more simple (and potentially less secure) push-in plastic ones.
The tape itself is thin at 1.85mm and best suited to road riding, though Silca claims that with the three-layer design of the tape, the comfort is equivalent to a thicker 2.5mm tape.
The three layers consist of a narrow strip of 3M tape adhesive, a foam core and a top layer of composite with a tacky, rubbery feel. Grip is further enhanced by a pattern which can be wrapped in two different ways for either high grip, or maximum grip, inspired by the tread of high performance race cars.
Shaped pieces are also included for helping bridge the gap around the shifter, as well as branded black finishing tape.
- Buy now from Sigma Sports (£50)
How to choose bicycle bar tape
What should you expect from your bar tape?
Most bar tapes are 30mm wide, and feature a thickness between 2mm and 3.5mm. Thicker bar tapes have been developed for off-road riding and tackling cobbles or rougher sectors, while thinner bar tapes minimise weight and are often claimed to provide superior handling.
How long does bar tape last?
How long your bar tape lasts will depend on how much you ride, how well it was wrapped and how well you maintain your bike. Some well-wrapped bar tapes on well maintained bikes will last for years, whereas others can quickly become scuffed or dirty if you don’t take care.
While some riders love the aesthetic appeal of white bar tape and a white saddle, beware that this (and other pale colours) can quickly look dirty, especially if you’re riding off-road or in the winter.
If you go to find your bike in the shed with mouldy handlebar tape (yes, it does happen), then it’s probably time for a rewrap.
Can you ride without bar tape?
Simply put, yes. You’ll notice at hill climb races some riders ditch a little weight by cutting the handlebar tape (and often parts of the bars too), but this is generally the only time that you’ll see bikes without handlebar tape.
There's also a trend to wrap the drops but not the tops of aero profile handlebars, which might help a little with aerodynamics.
But the comfort and grip offered by handlebar tape makes it a no-brainer, especially as you can pick up some options for less than £15. It's also important to fit bar end plugs. If you fall off, they'll protect you from a potentially nasty wound.
Can you double wrap bar tape?
You can use multiple layers of bar tape to enhance comfort and the vibration dampening effect of your tape, though this practice is becoming more unusual as thicker tapes have been developed. The cobbled classics such as Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders have largely driven this trend, where riders seek to improve comfort over the rough, relentless sectors of cobbles.
Can bar tape be reused?
Bar tape can easily be reused if it’s still in good condition and removed carefully. Some tapes may tear during removal which makes them much less suitable for re-wrapping. Tapes that don’t feature an adhesive backing tape are generally easier to rewrap.
Tape typically becomes stretched around the outside of the drops and where it's wrapped around the levers, so it can be difficult to re-fit smoothly. Older tape can tear if stretched too much and, since it's cut to fit, it may not wrap neatly around wider or deeper bars than those it came from.
What colour bar tape is best?
The best colour bar tape is the one you love the most! It may be a subtle black, it may be a bright blue, or it might be a snazzy red to match your frame. However, do keep in mind that coloured bar tapes – especially paler ones or white – will look dirty much quicker than darker colours or black. A good scrub with detergent solution an a bristle brush can usually bring it back to life.
How do I wrap bar tape?
Glad you asked. We've got a post and video with detailed instructions on how to wrap bar tape like a pro.
