Why do people use black electrical tape on the top part of their bike frame?

Question

I'm guessing it's just for style?... or maybe to hold together the housing of the wire going to the back of the bike. I don't know.

there is black tape wrapped around the top-most part of the bike frame. I've seen this atleast 4 times just looking around at random bikes.

Answer 1

There are three reasons people do this.

1) Bike messengers and people who often lock their bikes in urban areas often wrap their tubes in tape to mask the brand of bike and the make it less desirable to thieves.

2) Some riders do this to prevent the scratching and denting on the top tube. For example a lot of track riders put a band of padding on the top tube where the bars contact the frame when turned to their limit. This eliminates the impact of the bars hitting the frame in the event of a crash.

3) Some people who are trying to pose as hard core fixed gear riders do it to look cool :)

Answer 2

I never see that... explain futher. Kids or adults, road bikes, BMX, MTB? Out on the trail, arond the house?

I guess they could tape a wire for rear mount computer pick up.

Answer 3

Never seen that before. Maybe you saw the same bike several times.

Answer 4

prob to hold brake cables in place of brazed on cable hangers or zip ties. i used to do it on my bmx because it was cheap and fast and who cares im like 6ft out of the bowl and if i case i got bigger probs than my brake cable.

Answer 5

I put it down south to look like hair and ask people to stroke it all the time.....never works though.

Answer 6

lol. because they are "GHETTO"