Best bar tape for cushioning

[dddd]

I've found that grippy surfaces on the bars and saddle prevent the sort of unwanted movement that can expose body tissues to pressure and pain.

Too much thickness and not enough grip can be worse than thin tape that has tack to it.

I find myself sorting and prioritizing my winter glove options according to how grippy they are, as my hands become arthritic at times (polymyalgia rheumatica, bursitis).

[Fat Cat]

Originally Posted by shrimp123

(cheap solution)
old butyl tube slit open to prevent layer slipping and wrapped over the bar... and your favorite bar tape on top of it.

you can replace the butyl tube with a hockey stick tape w/ or w/o cushion and bar tape on top.

BUT, it will get a little bulky. that wont work for small hands

For me the bigger diameter spreads the loads on the hands over a larger area and is way more comfortable. One of the road bikes even has a double layer of silicone tape on the tops and it is just fine. Gripping is not a problem at all.
JMO of course

[bigbill]

I've got arthritis in my hands and I wrap a layer or two of electrical splice tape before wrapping the top layer. If you stretch it on, you can control how much thickness it adds.

You can find it at home improvement stores, it's rubbery in texture and sticks to itself.

[deluz]

Thanks for all the great feedback.
At this point I am thinking to go with the Enve tape as it has great reviews and many mention the cushioning. The Silca also seems a good option but I am afraid the extra thickness might be too much for small hands.
I think this will be just a marginal gain and not a solution in itself but worth a try.

[Wunder]

The 3mm Fizik tape is pretty good. I have that on my CX bike and my wife's road bike. Lasts a long time. I prefer the 2mm tape on my road bike for a firmer feel though.

[jacrider]

We recently put Lizard Skin on our gravel bikes. Amazing stuff. Comes in many thicknesses and colours.

[MikeD]

Thay make padding that goes under parts of the bar tape. Gloves with more padding too.

[robt57]

I put bullhorns rotated facing back for my wife, and raised up the stoker stem a
bunch. This made the turned up ends turned down. Now way less reach, but she likes more upright. Also, stoker bars are usually wide for captains butt. So for front also easier mounting/un mounting. They point back instead of hoods going forward.

The downward bends is where she lives, the radius in her palms meets her comfort approval.

[benb]

The best solution is a really good bike fit.

My most upright/shortest reach setup right now is by the the one that irritates my hands the most. I set my commuter up with a really short reach back sweep bar and the bars are pretty much level with the saddle.

There's gotta be some magic in adjusting the saddle to work, but I haven't figured it out yet. My MTB has the bars slightly lower than the saddle and with far more reach and I have almost no weight on my hands, and my road bike has about 7cm of drop right now and even more reach and I have no issues there.

I suspect a lot of this on "upright" bikes is a reach that is short enough that we don't keep our spines neutral and then all kinds of things go wrong and we start putting too much weight on our hands. For me at least there is such a thing as too upright.

[Jaybee]

I like Fizik Bar Gel under the tape on bikes that see a lot of high-frequency vibration (i.e. gravel), but the best solution has been getting the fit balance right and doing enough core foundational exercises that I don't weight the bars so much. That said, I am not telling the OP to tell his wife to do some crunches .

[marciero]

Originally Posted by Fat Cat

For me the bigger diameter spreads the loads on the hands over a larger area and is way more comfortable.
JMO of course

That's my main motivation for two layers of tape. Also I have big hands so thicker makes sense.