Oxford Performance Handlebar Tape

The Oxford Performance bar tape offers plenty of comfort and, thanks to a tacky finish, loads of grip too. It isn't quite as simple to fit as some of the others on the market but it is half the price.

• Pros: Plenty of grip whatever the conditions, comfortable
• Cons: Not supposed to be stretched, which can make it slow to fit; length might be tight on wide gravel bars

I'm a big fan of tacky style tapes like the Fizik Terra Microtex Bondcush tape recently tested or those made by Supacaz and this stuff from Oxford is a very similar product.

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The sticky feel provides grip in the wet and dry, whether your hands are bare or you're using gloves, so slippage is near-impossible, which is great when moving between the drops and hoods with sweaty palms.

It's only 2mm thick but feels much more padded. I liked the overall feel. I'm not a massive fan of thickly padded bars and this was a nice balance of road buzz damping and feedback through the handlebar.

The only downside to the light colours we were sent for testing is that they get dirty very quickly, although it can be wiped clean with a cloth without too much hassle. The colours available are blue, aqua, fluoro yellow, red, pink, black and white.

On the side of the box there is one instruction, 'Do not stretch', which makes it a bit slower to fit than most other tapes, especially around the tight bends of the hoods. Getting a snug fit without leaving any gaps between each wrap while not pulling the bar tight is quite the balancing act.

Without much stretch, the metre-long length of each roll comes up quite short if you aren't careful; that's okay for narrow road bars but wider flared gravel bars might be a different story.

Take your time, though, and with a bit of patience you can get a good finish.

The Supacaz tape I mentioned above is much quicker and easier to fit than the Oxford stuff, but when all said and done the overall result is pretty much the same, and as both the Fizik and Supacaz tapes cost over 30 quid, I'm happy to allow for a bit of faff for the £16.99 rrp of this stuff.

Overall, I really like the finished product. I can forgive a few foibles for the low cost, and thanks to what looks like decent durability I won't be changing it anytime soon.

Verdict

A bit of a faff to fit but the grip and comfort are worth the extra time taken, especially considering the price