Bikes are wear items and get replaced. Everybody knows. And even though that first scratch in the paint always hurts, you stop bothering after the second or third one. Personally, I don’t care too much if the paint chips and has scratches. But still, it would be a lie to say I don’t care how my bike looks and the only thing that matters is how it rides. Being a visual person, I appreciate good-looking stuff. I also value quality and am in many cases a firm believer in “buy once, cry once”. That also means taking care of your stuff and keeping it for a long time.
Applied to the strange little world of mountainbiking, that might be a bit paradoxical, because the sheer act of mountainbiking itself will mean wearing out and damaging your bike. It will also mean crashing every once in a while. And since not going out for a ride is not a solution, I try my best to protect a bike frame I bought for a lot of money.
Quite a few people seem to be in the same boat, otherwise there would be no market for companies like Ridewrap or InvisiFrame. And while I don’t have any experience with their products, it is very easy to just buy a strip of tape and do it on your own. Over the last few years, I’ve wrapped a handful of frames, and the process has grown on me. It is a very meditative, quiet process while listening to good music or a podcast on a dark winter night when the kids are asleep (read this with a Bob Ross voice). Depending on your mood, you can do it very carefully or go nitty-gritty if you feel like it.
In this article, I’d like to share what I have learnt in that process.
First off, you’ll need to decide on a tape. I use two different kinds of tape: one for glossy and one for matte paint. My favourite glossy tape is ISC Racers Tape (also called Surface Guard Tape) in a 0.2mm thickness. A 50-metre roll will set you back around 50 bucks and will be enough for 3-4 frames. For matte paint I have only worked with the Zefal Skin Armor Mate which is more expensive and costs 100 bucks for a 50-metre roll. You’ll notice that it has some structure to it but when applied it is not visible anymore. Generally speaking, when applied with care and choosing the correct tape for your paint type, you won’t notice that your frame is wrapped. Even after a few years, I have never noticed any fading of the tape color on any frame.
The matte (left) and glossy tape I use for frame protection.
Glossy tape applied to my Scor 2030 – 2 years into its life.
Matte tape applied to my Transition Sentinel – also 2 years into its life.
Once you have settled on a tape, you’ll need to decide where you want to apply it. Obviously you can make you inner perfectionist happy and go all-out. However, I’m too impatient to ride a new bike and rarely do a full job. For instance the inner front triangle is very unlikely to get damaged. In my experience, the inside of the chainstays and the backside of the seat tube are the most important locations to wrap. Mountainbike tires are designed to grip perfectly onto rocks, so they’ll also enjoy throwing small versions of them towards those areas of your precious frame. On quality paint it will just rub, but cheaper paint will chip.
Proof of Murphy’s law: impacts will always happen where you have not applied tape. Also, notice the paint chipped away.
The bad news is that chainstays are also a very shitty place to apply tape to, because there will most likely be some bend in the frame surface. Protective tape doesn’t like bends or edges in multiple dimensions and is hard to apply properly in those instances. Due to this, there are also frames that are easier to wrap than others. In general, the carbon fibre and industrial design trends are not your friends here. Simple aluminum or steel tubes, on the other hand, are a lot easier. But there’s also a big ambiguity between carbon frames. Some feature straight lines and surfaces while others make full use of carbon fibre’s folding capacity.
While this Kona Honzo frame might look easy to wrap, it wasn’t. It features curvy lines and “fancy” carbon forming.
This Santa Cruz Chameleon frame, on the other hand, was a lot easier to wrap with its straight lines and surfaces.
Other places on top of the must-wrap list are the bottom bracket area, down tube, outer chainstays and everywhere a cable can rub on the frame. I often also wrap the top tube, because I will sometimes rub my shoes on it when getting on or off the bike. Call me pedantic or overly cautious, but I will even apply some tape to the fork lowers, where the brake cable runs down.
When it comes to applying the tape, you’ll absolutely need a perfectly clean frame. Your best bet is to do it on a brand new frame that has never seen dirt. Also, working on a naked frame will be easier, but at minimum you’ll need to remove the wheels.
I will then start to cut the tape into a piece suitable for the area I want to cover. When cutting, bear in mind, that bending the tape in one direction will work fine. But as soon as a second direction comes into play, it’s better to use two separate pieces of tape. I will then round the edges of the pre-cut piece of tape. After making sure, that the pre-cut piece will fit well, I’ll remove the tape from the liner and spray it with soapy water (I use a drop of baby soap mixed with water). This is key – skip this step and you’ll have a bad time trying to move the tape to the perfect position and moving out air bubbles trapped underneath. You can then go on and apply the tape to the frame. In my experience this works best when applying it first to one side (if putting it in a place with a bend), moving out air bubbles (my favorite tool for this is my thumb), pressurizing the first side for a couple of seconds (so it starts adhesing well) and only then wrapping it around the edge and repeating the same process for the other side. As long as you applied soapy water, you can take your time and are in no rush to apply the tape. You’ll still be able to move it around for a few minutes.
Apply one flat surface first before wrapping it around an edge.
Piece-by-piece you will finish the puzzle. Don’t obsess with the occasional air bubble trapped under the tape, those will fade into the background on the overall picture. Finally, let the tape sit for at least 24 hours to reach full bonding strength.
And then, get out and ride the damn bike. After all we buy bikes for the riding experience. Well, at least mostly for the riding experience. And just a little bit to stare at them too.
About Nico Brunner
I’m lucky to live in a small town at the foot of the Jura mountain range in Switzerland with lots of old hiking trails and some hand-built trails right at my doorstep. I try my best at following my passions: being a dad, working as a software developer half of the week, showing friends our beautiful mountains as a mountain bike guide in summer and coaching aspiring ski instructors in the winter. I love all aspects of cycling, but my heart will sparkle most on multi-day adventures, discovering unknown alpine terrain and trails.