Don't know if that's wrong or not, but I've always done it the other way because that way the laps (I think that's what they're called) point "down bar", so when I slide my hands down the bars they don't curl up the edges of the tape, (and when sprinting you're pulling the bars towards yourself) and when riding in the wet, water doesn't trickle under the tape.
Imagine this is a horizontal cross-section of the bar on the flats to the left of the stem as seen from the saddle:
\\\\\ tape \\\\\ ---this is the top of the bar--- ---this is the bottom of the bar--- ///// tape ////
Galen "it works for me" Pewtherer San Fancisco, CA USA
On 5/15/07, Mark Fulton <markfulton5@mac.com> wrote:
> Since 1948 i've been wrapping my handlebars from the stem out. I
> simply wrap out and around, down and back, pop in the cap and I'm
> done. No extra tape up top. Have I been doing it wrong all these
> years? Have people secretly been making fun of me for this? Is there
> some compelling reason to wrap from cap to stem? Just to keep this on
> topic, I only ask because I'm about to retape my 1950 Locomotief Tour
> de France and the Cinelli cork ribbon that I just bought includes the
> extra plastic finishing tape.
>
> Mark Fulton
> Redwood City, California
> _______________________________________________
>
--
-galen