Replacing Handlebar Tape, Changing Gloves… How Much Can They Improve Riding Comfort?

My conclusion is: They help, but not by much.

There are two common misconceptions about improving riding comfort: replacing your handlebar tape with a softer one and wearing heavily padded gloves.

However… the core purpose of handlebar tape is to prevent slipping! It helps keep your hands from slipping off the bars and causing a crash. The core purpose of gloves is to prevent extensive, deep abrasions across your palms if you crash, which could otherwise leave you unable to carry out everyday activities for a period of time.

Shock absorption and things like that… they’re just the icing on the cake. On a road bike, or more generally, a rigid-fork bicycle, vibration is transmitted along this path:

Tire — spokes — fork — stem — handlebar — handlebar tape — gloves — palm — joints. Let’s go through them one by one.

Tires

Tire cushioning is very important. That’s also why so many people now prefer tubeless tires running at lower pressures.

With the same 25C tire, the feeling of going over a speed bump with a rock-hard tire inflated to 125 PSI is completely different from that of a tubeless tire running at 60 PSI. And that’s not even considering how tire sizes are now moving toward 30C…

Spokes

You can only really appreciate the advantages of steel spokes after riding with carbon spokes — at least, that’s how it was for me.

These steel spokes filter out road vibrations through slight deformation, and their effect is far greater than you might expect.

You can clearly notice the difference after switching to carbon spokes. Carbon spokes are genuinely stiff — power transfer when accelerating is very direct, but when the wheels roll over bumps and potholes, those spokes transmit every bit of the impact as well. So, if you’re particularly sensitive to bumps, think carefully before switching to carbon spokes.

Fork / Stem / Handlebar

These three components can actually be discussed together. How should I put it… Anyway, I think the so-called vibration damping is only so effective… Over long distances, there really is a difference between aluminum and carbon. Personally, I’d describe it as the kind of difference where you can’t quite explain what’s different, but you can definitely tell there is a difference…

But if you’re just riding 40 kilometers on a concrete road… I think claiming there’s a difference is probably just a psychological effect…

Handlebar Tape

There’s actually quite a bit to say about this… Some handlebar tapes really are comfortable. For example, the tape fitted to the Mentech complete bike is genuinely comfortable. But comfortable doesn’t mean it can do much in terms of vibration damping.

My recommendation is to evaluate grip first when choosing handlebar tape. Look for tape that doesn’t feel too slippery even when your hands are wet, even if it’s a little thinner. This is important!!

Next comes elasticity. More elastic tape feels a little springier when you grip it, which makes it somewhat better at absorbing vibrations.

Some handlebar tapes come in different thicknesses. I’d advise evaluating this carefully. The benefit for vibration damping is limited, but tape that’s too thick can look bulky and ugly if it isn’t wrapped properly, like the example above.

You can buy this kind of product online. It’s actually quite effective. I’ve installed one on my gravel bike, and it does help a little (though the improvement is also fairly limited).

Finally, handlebar tape is a consumable. Don’t spend too much on it. Replace it when it gets old! Don’t let it get to the point where it’s become as slippery as this.

Gloves

There’s an even greater variety of gloves out there… Just look online. The main selling point seems to be padding: the thicker it is, the better the shock absorption.

But many gloves designed for serious cycling are actually almost completely unpadded, with just a thin layer over the palm.

Even when padding is included, it’s used very sparingly.

Gloves with huge, raised cushioning pads may look appealing, but because the padded areas are small, the cushioning material has little room to deform under pressure. Instead, it gets compressed into lumps that create pressure points and interfere with blood circulation.

Good shock absorption requires careful design of how the cushioning material is distributed. Elastic Interface, for example, follows this principle. You also need to choose the right glove size: neither too large nor too small.

So, when it comes to vibration damping… my friend, understand this clearly: apart from the two large gray tubes mentioned above, trying to compensate for vibration anywhere in a rigidly connected structure is basically just scratching the surface. Don’t believe people who tell you that changing to a different material or a different structure will magically make things comfortable. It’s all relative!! Most likely, whatever made you uncomfortable before will still make you uncomfortable after the change. And you’ll have spent the money for nothing…

Now you understand why gravel bikes are comfortable, right? Leaving geometry aside, gravel bikes can accommodate big, fat tires, use steel spokes, and even be fitted with suspension forks. Of course they’re comfortable.

Palms

First, let’s talk about your grip position. Don’t grip the brake hoods tightly. The harder you grip, the more rigid the connection between you and the handlebars becomes. As mentioned earlier, rigid connections offer only minimal relief, so don’t create one yourself.

Your grip should be relatively relaxed. Of course… not as loose and floppy as the example above. I’m using that image to illustrate a point. Under normal circumstances, your middle, ring, and little fingers should still wrap around the bars, but they should simply curl around them rather than squeeze tightly.

Roughly like this.

Joints

Next are your elbows. If you don’t have a fork with 100 mm of travel, you’ll have to rely on your elbows.

When riding, make sure to keep your elbows relaxed and maintain a slight bend.

Regardless of your hand position on the bars, combining relaxed elbows and wrists with a relatively loose grip allows this system to filter out most road vibrations, making your ride noticeably more comfortable.

In reality, thick handlebar tape and heavily padded gloves mainly cushion impacts from larger bumps. On roads with dense, fine-grained surface irregularities, these vibrations cannot be completely eliminated by gloves and handlebar tape. You need to engage your joints.

On road surfaces like this, keep your grip relaxed and let the front end bounce naturally, using your hands simply to control the direction of the handlebars. Then, the faster you go, the smaller the bumps actually feel.

If you’ve done all of the above and your hands still go numb after a ride, then you need to get a proper bike fitting. Most likely, something in your setup is wrong, preventing you from maintaining a reasonably good riding position.