Lizard Skins DSP Bar Tape – A Thickness For Every Ride – Project OneBIKE

Our #ProjectOneBike is a year-long program of using one bike to ride and race road, gravel, and cyclocross. I’ve been making minor changes like wheels and tires, chainrings, saddle, shoes and pedals to suit the ride, but the main set up is staying the same. Another small change is bar tape. Lizard Skins offered us a chance to use their DSP (Dura Soft Polymer) bar wrap in all three thicknesses, giving us options for road, gravel and cross. If they are good enough for Lotto Soudal, AG2R La Mondiale, Team Movistar, and Spanish and World road champion Alejandro Valverde, I think they will work just fine for me.

This isn’t the first time I’ve used Lizard Skins DSP bar tape. And if you go back even further, I had a Lizard Skins Neoprene Headset Seal on my mountain bike back in the ’90’s that is still probably on there today with the current owner. My personal Bianchi Sempre Pro got the bright pink bar tape treatment in the past, and I believe I’ve had it on a cross bike or two over the years. I always went for the 3.2mm thickness though. This time around, I’ve been running the 1.8mm for the road, 3.2mm for gravel, and the 2.5mm is slated for cyclocross later in the season, but I’ve been riding it for some gravel and long-distance road riding for the review.

When it comes to the thicknesses, I’m purposely targeting them for different rides. The 1.8mm is the thinnest of the three tapes and is all about grip. The texture is made up of hexagonal dots, which is comfortable to the bare hand or when using gloves. Due to the nature of the material, there is a little bit of dampening, but it is minimal. The 1.8mm DSP provides the skinniest wrap on the bars of the three, which is preferred by some and provides the most feedback from the road. I picked it for road riding, because when it comes to crit racing and hour or two training rides, you don’t always need a thick, dampened tape.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have the 3.2mm tape. Grip is still a top priority, but so is dampening. When it comes to races like Paris-Roubaix, this is the tape the pros ask their mechanics for. The file texture provides grip in all conditions, while still feeling comfortable with or without gloves. The added thickness is noticeable though. If you like a chunkier bar (I personally do), the thicker tape adds some girth. It’s a similar feeling going from a standard 31.8mm bar to Deda’s 35mm bar. The 3.2mm DSP does take the sting out of the grip though, which is why I use it for gravel and long endurance events, like the Lu Lacka Wyco Hundo, Monkey Knife Fight, and unPAved Susquehanna.

The happy medium is the 2.5mm DSP tape. It has its own unique pattern, similar to diamond plating, but indented into the tape. As with the others, grip is priority and dampening is like Goldielocks, just right for most people. Lizard Skins pegs the 2.5mm as the stage race bar tape that helps get you through longer days on the bike but still provides enough road feel. I am picking this one for cyclocross, because of the short duration of races. It will have just enough cushioning to get me through races, but still provides a little bit of feel from the track.

If weight concerns you, the 1.8mm is obviously the lightest. The 82″ roll weighs just 50 grams, including plugs. For just 6 grams more, you can go with the 2.5mm, also in an 82″ roll. At 78 grams, the 3.2mm is the heaviest, but also adds 7″ to the roll. For a more apples to apples comparison, that means the 1.8mm is 0.61 grams per inch. The 2.5 is 0.68 g/in, and the 3.2 is 0.88 g/in. Personally, I’d take that weight penalty.

When wrapping your bar, there is one important thing to remember, DON’T STRETCH THE TAPE! Fight the urge and just wrap it with tension, but do not pull hard to stretch. Honestly, you don’t need to. All three thicknesses of the Lizard Skins DSP tape lays well with just enough tension to keep it tight. Even when rewrapping, all three of the DSP tapes laid across the bar well without any wrinkles or sections peeling when wrapped with nothing more than tension.

Something that is apparent across my descriptions above of all thicknesses of DSP tape is grip. It is something that I valued in the past from Lizard Skins, and have been able to appreciate in riding all three thicknesses. I’ve ridden them in perfect, dry, 60-degree temps, as well as cold, rainy, on the verge of snowing gravel rides and steamy hot endurance events where there wasn’t a part of your body and kit that wasn’t drenched in sweat. In any case, I never felt my hands even remotely feel like they were going to slip, thanks to the DSP material that they use. This adds confidence when riding over rough terrain or harsh conditions.

Going off of past experience, Lizard Skins DSP tapes are pretty durable. Colors will eventually begin to fade (as all tapes do), but they have held up pretty well for me. Over time, you will see some wear on the areas you grip the most, but they have traditionally lasted full seasons of 2,500 miles of riding for me. They probably would last even longer, but I usually replace my tape at the beginning of the season to get that fresh bike feeling. When it gets dirty, wiping it clean with a wet rag works, and spray foam sneaker cleaner works for getting out stains on lighter colored tapes.

The 1.8mm and 3.2mm DSP tapes are available in 12 different colors to match or add some pop to your bike. Standard colors include black, white, blue, red, green, neon (greenish-yellow), pink and sky blue, with four camo colors, black, yamasaki (blue, green, white), ghost (gray), and wildfire (black, red, grey). The 2.5mm adds brown, celeste, yellow, tangerine, purple, cobalt blue, and dynamite (red, white, blue), blue, and red camos. The 2.5mm also comes in dual color tapes, meaning half the roll is one color, the other half another. This adds white/black, black/red, red/white, black/neon, black/pink, cobalt blue/tangerine, and cobalt blue/neon. If you can’t find the color you are looking for, you’ll be hard-pressed to find it anywhere.

At $45.99 for the 1.7mm and 2.5mm DSP tapes, it is a little salty for bar tape, but not too far off other high-end tapes running in the $40-45 range. The 3.2mm is $49.99, on par or a few bucks more than other similar tapes focusing on cushioning. Considering that it should last you all season, if not more, you’ll get your money’s worth over other cheaper tapes that won’t hold up as long.

If cycling on a drop-bar bike isn’t your only thing, Lizard Skins also does grips for flat bar and BMX, along with other sports like baseball (probably cricket too), hockey, lacrosse, not to mention their other products to protect your bike’s frame and shock components, bags, body protection, gloves, etc. For bar tape, if grip is a priority, and you like choices in colors and cushioning, Lizard Skins is a tough tape to beat.

http://www.lizardskins.com