ONE23 Bike Helicopter Clear Armour Frame Protection Tape - 1 Metre

protects my bike's aluminium pannier carrier from rub - transparent is good too

I bought this to protect the downtube of my carbon fibre road bike. It works (been on for a few weeks now and seems to be doing the job), and it looks fine (invisible) but there are a few limitations to where you can fit it, and its relatively complicated to apply.Firstly this is not stretchy in any way, it will bend in one plane only, imagine thin acetate sheet. So it is great for regular cylindrical surfaces like tubes etc, but if there is a change in section or a complex shape it will crinkle and be impossible to fit neatly. Even the slight change in section along the length of my bike's downtube caused problems. If you have a very aero frame with lots of curved surfaces this might not be for you.This product is supplied with no instructions at all. Which is a major failing for something with very specific fitting requirements.I managed to find a video of how to apply a similar product;1. Clean the surface thoroughly with washing up liquid or similar to ensure all oil/grease is gone.2. Cut the tape to length3. Soak the tape in a basin of lukewarm water with a very small amount of washing up liquid (this allows you to slide the tape around a bit during application) remove the backing strip in the water.4. Wet the application area with a cloth or sponge then apply the wetted tape carefully, avoiding crinkles as you would any other tape, bubbles you can deal with at the next stage, crinkles you can't; so for now concentrate on getting the tape positioned right.5. Then, Starting from one end, progressively squeegee the water bubbles out from underneath the tape with a credit card, dry cloth or similar. Repeat this process until you're happy you've got them all.6. Leave to dryI could have been harsher and given it lower stars for the limitations and non-existent user instructions; but it does work, you just need to be diligent when fitting it!

Warm with a hair drier when fitting! Handy that my wife's got one because I'm as bald as a coot