[geckoGT]

2 solid rides on the new bar tape, 106 km yesterday with 2 major climbs and another 53 km today with no major climbs but as I live in a semi rural area all my rides are done on pretty rough roads.

Just to re-cap I have fitted Specialized gel pads and Specialized Roubaix wide tape. There is a hell of a lot more padding and it really does take some of the vibration out of it. I have noticed that it gives a strange sensation when climbing out of the saddle as the gel allows a lot of movement under your hands and it feels like something is really flexing on the bike. It feels great in the drops, seems to smooth out some of the curves of my Ritchey WCS anatomical bars and allows great grip in the 80km/h plus descents, really happy with this.

So it seems worthwhile if you have to endure pretty rough roads but I think it would be overkill if you spend most of your time on smooth roads. In that case I think the Roubaix wide tape without the additional pads would be a good choice.