Cyclingnews Verdict

A super comfortable, noticeably fatigue-reducing and grippy bar tape, but it's awkward to fit and comes at a price

Pros

+
Fatigue-reducing comfort
+
Grippy

Cons

-
Lack of elasticity makes it hard to fit and even harder to reuse

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Fizik does a range of several different road bar tapes under the Vento and Tempo ranges with further subsets of tackiness, thickness and cushioning, one of which has even earned a spot in our roundup of the best bar tape. The Terra range is designed for gravel riding though so it only comes in one thick, well-damped, sticky compound format.

To be precise, it uses ‘Bondcush’ a shock-absorbing polymer foam centre with an external skin of textured Microtex synthetic leather in a soft compound that stays very grippy whether wet or dry. A sticky gel layer (rather than adhesive tape) adds further damping and also theoretically makes the tape easier to re-use.

Wrapping is reasonably easy, but it’s not the most elastic tape so you need to be accurate with your overlaps and angles to avoid gaps and gapes. Once on it gives a really comfortable, well-damped feel that we reckon equates to around 3-5psi lower tyre pressure. It keeps hands well anchored even in the vilest winter gravel conditions or with sweaty bare hands in summer too. It’s proved durable even on regular trips through overgrown singletrack and the occasional dry stone wall scuff.

The tape does pick up staining very easily from oil/sweat/gels etc. so even our dark blue sample soon developed a permanent ‘patina’. There are clear signs of wear on the highest use areas after nine months too. While the gel backing unwraps easily, that also leaves an obvious stain mark and the non-elastic tape means it holds all the kinks and stretches from the original wrap. In other words you’ll only be able to reuse it cleanly if you follow exactly the same wrap lines, which isn’t easy. That makes the high price more of an issue than if re-using was simple.