Decided to do an overhaul on my bike this winter, as it's been sorely neglected up until this point. Part of the overhaul included replacing the shifters, which meant pulling and replacing the stock bar tape. I decided to give the Lizard Skins a try based on material and the high rating, despite so few reviews. In retrospect, I probably should have gone with a different tape.
I will start off by saying that the tape is thick, and gives a comfortable sense of cushion - which unfortunately is also one of the cons for me. At <50% overlap, the thickness requires some pretty hefty deformation of the tape to get the adhesive backing to contact the bar. So much so, that there are notable ridges in the tape afterwards. Additionally, the adhesive backing for one of the strips I received was absolutely worthless, with zero adhesion at any point along the bar. The second strip wasn't too bad, and actually held in most places.
The kit does include a cover strip for the brake/shifter clamps - but again, the adhesive didn't do anything to actually hold it in place. It also comes with a couple strips of tape for finishing the wrap, which worked extremely well. The end caps for the bars, I opted not to use them as I'd ordered a 3rd party set that I preferred to use for purposes of color scheme. The set included with the kit seem quality enough, just no personal desire to use them.
In the future, I'll probably go with a different tape. I'd be willing to give up some of the thickness and cushion for a significant reduction in the annoyances created during installation of this tape and the subsequent task of keeping it in place. Despite the 3-star rating for the product as a whole, this is probably one of my least favorite purchases on Amazon.;
