I wrote about the riding glasses I liked in 2014. Two years or so later, Serfas decided they weren't making enough money on them, and stopped selling them.
More recently, they began manufacturing a pure silicone bar tape in three colors: black, red, and white.
They were selling it at $45, which I think is just stupid. But recently I saw it for $7, so I decided to try it.
I like it a lot. It's self-sticky enough that if you start wrapping at the tops, you can stuff the ends into the ends of the bars at the bottom and use the end plugs to hold it in place, and you don't need finishing tape. It cleans up nicely, and the red stays bright. If you're careful with it, you can re-use it (hint: don't use their bar plugs: the sharp rings cut the tape).
But it's $7 because Serfas is discontinuing it. Now, I suspect that $7 is pretty close to the cost of manufacture, and I further suspect that there is a price point between $7 and $45 where they could have sold a bucketload of it and still made money. I would have gone for it regularly at $20.
I'm fed up with Serfas. But I've got a roll of this tape on the bike, and have three rolls backed up.
(In other news, Serfas has a line of fabric tapes that will certainly stain. Who is going to be the market for those?)
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