The Bike Hive

I unwrapped the handlebar tape on a nice Bianchi the other day and uncovered a potentially dangerous situation. This is pitting on the handlebar caused by corrsion after it has been cleaned. What you don't see is the white power that covered the bar, remnants of sweat and aluminum oxidation. This happened for a couple different reasons.  First and foremost, rider doesn't use gloves.  There's nothing wrong with that-I let my hands go commando on occasion too.  The problem with that is there's nothing to keep sweat off the bars.  Instead of gloves absorbing the sweat, it goes straight to the tape.  Sweat is caustic, and some riders' sweat is worse than others.  Regardless, it causes corrosion if not cleaned off. The second reason this happened is because the bar tape was used well past its prime.  In this case, it was three years old and had never been removed.  Bar tape is something that wears out rather quickly - even if you don't con...