Ergon BT Orthocell bar tape

Ergon BT OrthoCell bar tape is 3mm thick and made of an orthopaedic foam which the brand also uses in its range of saddles. It’s aimed at a range of drop-bar applications from cyclocross to road, and Ergon says that the higher density gives greater cushioning than competitor tapes of similar thickness. It’s right at the top of their range of bar tapes, with a price to match, but it does deliver well on the promise of comfort and grip.

Ergon is a German manufacturer of products almost entirely focused on contact points – the places where you and your bike are touching. It’s best known for grips and saddles, but it also makes pedals and an excellent bouncy seatpost. Ergon offers a range of four bar tapes. Three of them use its Aircell foam in different thicknesses (to suit gravel, all-road and road applications) while the OrthoCell tape that we’re testing here employs a different, denser type of foam.

Why’s that a good thing then? Bar tape needs to cover a few different things. It needs to be grippy – that’s an important one – but it should also offer a bit of cushioning to help improve hand comfort. Some people prefer more cush, some like less. Now, of course, if your bar tape is only 3mm thick, there’s only so much it can deliver and manufacturers have used a wide range of different materials to achieve this – leather and cork were the traditional ones, but nowadays a variety of synthetic foam and gel materials are more common. A material that feels very soft might seem appealing if you want comfort, but if it’s too soft then it will compress too easily and then you’ll feel the handlebar itself. Similarly, you might think that thicker means more comfortable, but there’s a limit there too. You still need to be able to get your hands around the bars, after all.

Ergon says that the 3mm OrthoCell tape provides cushioning to match gel-based tape of a significantly greater thickness – which would mean it would be heavier and overly bulky. We’ll look at that claim in a bit.

What you get

Inside the box is the bar tape itself, plus a couple of bar-end plugs, some finishing tape and a couple of extra lengths of the bar tape to cover the bit behind the brake levers. There is a full 2.5m of tape for each side, designed, says Ergon, to allow for the current burgeoning width and flare of bars, especially in gravel bikes.

The bar plugs are plastic which, while it fits the fairly unflashy style of most Ergon products, feels underwhelming at this price – although there are other premium-priced tapes from Cinelli and Fizik which also come with plastic plugs.

One other unexpected inclusion in the box is a sheet of detailed instructions and safety warnings. This included the statement that the tape should be professionally fitted, and that modifying it in any way, “may endanger your safety or life”. Mmm, okay then.

The tape is all black, and available only in black. Ergon’s other tapes come in a range of colours, but here it’s Henry Ford. It has a fine texture made up of tiny dots which is pretty subtle. When viewed close up, it looks like a natural grain pattern.

Many bar tapes today use tacky silicone instead of adhesive to stick to the bar, but here it’s a strip of clear adhesive. Nevertheless, I found that peeling it off and repositioning it to get it just so was no problem. The adhesive isn’t the stickiest thing ever, in fact, and this meant that it was a bit prone to unravelling mid-way through the application process unless I took care to always keep it under tension. In particular, it was a bit of a three-hands job to keep the section of tape behind the brakes in place while taping around it.

That said, the tape was strong and it has a small amount of stretch, meaning that getting a neat and flat installation wasn’t hugely challenging. There was ample tape to cover my 42cm handlebar with some to spare.

One thing I noticed while fitting was that there are joins mid-way along the tape, and that these are perpendicular to the tape length. They’re visible in a couple of the photos, and I was a little surprised to see them. It seems like a potential point of weakness that you’d probably want to avoid. However, in fitting, and subsequently in use, I’ve not seen any issues at these points.

Comfort

In your hands, the Ergon tape does feel denser than most foam tapes, it’s true. Squeeze it between finger and thumb and it feels substantial, without the feeling of it “bottoming out” when you suddenly feel the bar through the tape like with less dense foam tapes. When you’re riding, I wasn’t sure whether this difference would be noticeable, because normally you’re using your whole hand to hold the bar. I fitted this tape to replace some Prime bar tape, which is sadly no longer available from Wiggle, and having wrapped one side of my bars with the Ergon tape I was able to make a good comparison between the two.

The Prime tape has a similar feel to the Lizard Skins DSP tapes, with a tacky finish which offers excellent grip. It is noticeably less plush than the Ergon, despite both being 3mm thick. Riding over poor asphalt, without gloves, I could feel more of the vibrations reaching my hands with the Prime tape than the Ergon. To be fair, I expect that the Prime tape had compressed a little in the two and a half years since I fitted it, but still – this was definitely a win for the Ergon. I couldn’t do this type of back to back comparison with lots of tapes, of course, but the Prime tape is one I liked a lot, so this is an improvement (in terms of comfort) over a good product.

Grip

Ergon’s tape doesn’t have the same tacky hand-feel that the Prime does, or – for example – that Supercaz has built its name upon. I’m not saying it’s slippery – the texture works well to give you ample grip with or without gloves – but if you like the tacky feel on your handlebars, there are better alternatives. I like the feeling of a tacky bar tape, but I was happy with the grip levels available with the Ergon tape.

In the past, I’ve used some tapes which were brilliantly comfortable, or offered exceptional grip, but which were showing significant signs of wear in only a few months. I would expect the Ergon tape to have no such issues – it feels robust. As I mentioned above, it’s only available in black, which suits me just fine, but if you prefer a different colour then you’ll need to choose something else.

> Best handlebar tape for cycling 2026 – get some cost-effective comfort and grip by choosing quality bar tape 

In summary then, the Ergon OrthoCell is fairly pricey bar tape which prioritises comfort thanks to its high-density foam padding. Grip levels are decent, if not class-leading, and it is reasonably easy to apply. If you’re riding on gravel or just crappy asphalt then the comfort available will be a welcome boon. Compared to competitor products at a similar price point, such as the Lizard Skins DSP and Supacaz Kush ranges, it offers a bit more comfort and a more durable tape, but without the same high-tack finish.

Verdict

Dense foam tape gives a plush ride for your hands

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