Reuse Brooks handlebar tape?

[Reid]

A few months ago I bought a demo AHH from RBW and the Noodle bars are wrapped with Brooks leather "tape." It's time to make some changes to the set up, so I wonder -- can I unwrap the Brooks leather tape and then re-wrap such that the tape still looks good, not tacky?

Thanks for any ideas.

Reid

[Fullylugged]

I re wrap it all the time. Doesn't look "new" when you do that, but "Beausage" is okay in these parts.

[Steve Palincsar]

Drop bars, right? How old is the tape?

I've recently replaced the leather HandleBra wrap on my Velo Orange
Randonneur with Fizik when it wore out on the ramp where I usually have
my hand. It was a long, hot and sweaty summer, and eventually it just
dissolved in those places. In this case, "beausage" looked more like
scavangers had been chewing on it.

[Tim Gavin]

I used some honey Brooks leather tape to wrap the B115 bars on my Roadeo, and then removed it and used it to wrap the B135 bars on my Riv Road.  

​Now, the tape got used less than 100 miles on my Roadeo, so it's not like it was "worn in" or "worn out".  The tape got a bit stretched around the brake levers, but it was able to re-stretch into place on the ever-so-slightly-different levers and bars on my Riv Road.

I've since re-done my Roadeo with another set of B135 bars (which came off my KOM, now with Jones Loops), and now the Roadeo is wearing Brooks synthetic leather.  I probably only have 200 miles on this tape, so I can't speak to its longevity.  It feels good, somewhere between Fizik or Deda synthetic and Brooks leather.

I also picked up some black Brooks leather tape for my cyclocross bike.  That bike is currently wearing Lizardskins DSP tape, which has excellent grip (and is re-wrappable), but has terrible durability.  The ramps have worn through down to the foam (like Steve P's scavengers).  This is at about 1500 miles:

​My friend had this same thing happen to his Lizardskins tape within 3 cyclocross races (no crashes, just wear).  

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[Bruce Herbitter]

Steve: those designer wraps like handle bra and Velo Orange elk skin look nice when new but have not lasted for me. I get a couple of years from a Brooks wrap.

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[Clayton]

When you remove the tape, it will be stretched, and the parts that used to be covered by the adjacent tape will be lighter. I probably wrapped and rewrapped my brooks tape 30 times, doing handlebar swaps, rewrapping to fix an oops gap, re-aligning..etc. It finally got so stretched out and thin it broke from me pulling too hard. The trick is to use Obenauf's or mink oil after wrapping old tape. This turns the tape all the same color and it looks new, as well as giving it some water resistance. Oh, and don't pull too hard. 

Claytonious Q