I had a blockbuster post lined up for today. Well, maybe not blockbuster. It’s pretty good, though. And it will have to wait till Monday because this one is important since I gave Serfas’s Polka Dot bar tape a pretty fair “I like it” a while back.
Now, there are two versions of the bar tape. The earlier version, the one I’ve got on my Venge, is stellar. I love it. I’m going to keep it as long as I possibly can. The new version, with bigger “polka dots”, sucks. I’d been through two sets this summer and the second set just went in the garbage because the outer layer of fabric separates from the foam.
If you zoom in on the second photo, on the handlebar, that’s the bad stuff (it seems I don’t have a closeup of that bar tape, oddly enough). The difference is the size of the polka dots – in the new stuff, the polka dots are much bigger than the tight, small-dotted pattern on the Specialized above.
Distinguishing the two is simple; small dots, good. Big dots, bad.
And the saddest thing is, the bar tape is exceedingly comfortable. I absolutely love the both styles in terms of grip. The delamination of the newer tape just can’t be overlooked, though… and it happened with two sets of tape. I blew $40-ish on bar tape that didn’t last a half of one season. I hate to give anything a bad review, but Serfas earned it with their new iteration of Polka Dot bar tape.
Save yourself some money and a large amount of headache. Keep shopping. Or enter “Supacaz” into Google and start there.
Fit Recovery 