Supacaz Bling Tape

08/06/24 22:50 Filed in: Gear

This brand based in California makes cycling accessories, (limited) clothing and shoes. Mostly they make shiny objects that look nice.
When I was putting my Checkpoint together I thought some special bar tape would finish the bike well. I chose Oil Slick from Supacaz. This stuff is pretty expensive for bar tape. And while aluminium plugs with matching oil slick anodising are particularly nice, plastic plugs are very effective, lighter and cheaper.
The texture is not bad but tends towards feeling a little slick sometimes. Notably, rain and sweat don't seem to impact the slipperiness - it just hovers around the "perfectly acceptable" level most of the time, sometimes feeling a little too slippery.
The colour is amazing. It really catches sunlight and refracts it into truly oil slick looking colours. The default colour blends well with the Dark Aquatic paint on my Trek, and the refractive colours go really well with the oil slick anodised bolts I put in the accessory mounts on the frame (to plug up the sometimes-fall-out plastic plugs Trek supplies in the 28 holes around the frame).
Grip and texture are pretty good, but not exceptional then. Appearance is stellar. "Cushion" is seemingly quite low. I feel like my fancy carbon bars meant to flex downwards under bumps but not upwards under pulls from the rider's hands are the only thing providing comfort in this set-up. I had the bars on the old Checkpoint with some soft red bar tape (and the soft foam stick-on layers under the bar tape that the bars came with - but they didn't survive the bar tape removal and so aren't on the bike now) and it was more cushioned feeling.
It is proving quite durable. For a bike that gets ridden every day to work and stored in a bike cage where neighbouring bikes often bump into mine on their way in or out (the paint has a few marks from these events) there are zero blemishes on the tape after 11 months.

The tape is perfectly named. It is bling. Perhaps even excessive bling. I like it. But I did run Deda chrome-look bar tape for several years on my road race bike (lots of negative comments about that tape). They were a tiny bit stingy on the amount of bar tape provided - another 10 cm would have made wrapping so much easier. And as one of the more expensive bar tapes I can name, I'd have thought they'd be slightly generous with length.

I'm not sure I can get past the RRP, but I found it on sale and at that price (25% discount) I can definitely endorse Bling Tape.

Michael Hanslip Coaching

If you want to go faster, you have to pedal harder

Supacaz Bling Tape