Protective Tape

In the past, I've tried a couple of sets of protective patches that are designed to stop cables rubbing paint off your steeds frame (incl'g some wickedly expensive carbon-esque patches from Pace) and non of them seem to stick. I've gone to the effort of thoroughly cleaning the area, warming the patch and even pressing the sucka into position until my pinky's hurt. All to no avail.

However, peeps over on Singletrack seem happy with stuff called "helicopter tape" which I know to be tenacious stuff from my days playing with RC choppers. A quick surf and I found that a bike related outlet called Just Riding Along market such a transparent film. Their smaller 10 x 25cm option will easily accommodate two steeds even if you include additional patches for battery's, etc. The best bit is that it's very competitively priced, especially when compared to the useless patch kits.

In use this stuff is sticky, very sticky indeed and will quite happy curl and more importantly stay curled around headtubes, toptubes, etc. It doesn't wash off and hasn't yellowed when exposed to around a years (to date) regular exposure to sunlight. Ten out of ten.