Making Ultegra STI levers feel better?

It was Iban Mayo, and the picture was at www.cyclingnews.com somewhere in the coverage of last year's TdF

Thank you sir. It was velonews, but you got me close enought to find it.

I was re-taping last night and thought about doing that, but I wanted to recheck that photo. I may give that a try tonight. I mean, its Friday night, and I have nothing else to do but re-tape my handlebars...I need a life.🙁

For those who don't feel like searching:

velonews.com7026.0.htmlOpen ↗

This is fairly common for folks with larger hands. I have biggish hands and have always put a few layers of a ripped up towel and an extra layer of bartape under my STI hoods. It feels better grip-wise, and gives some extra cushion/vibration damping for comfort on long rides.

(You can easily experiment with how much you want just by pulling back the hoods and putting some material over the tape...so it stays put though I always put it under the tape.)

i also have older ultegra 9sp sti's and from day one they've always felt uncomfortable. i build up under the hoods with extra layers of old cork tape. seems to help. i think the shape of the hoods has changed over the years because i tried to replace the hoods with newer rubber hoods and they didn't fit at all. i guess shimano has been tinkering with the geometry of the shifters.

later

bob

Chance3290 said:

A while ago, someone posted an article and photo showing Ivan Basso's (I think it was Basso) levers. I think it said that he put pieces of tire under the rubber to make the grips feel better around the webbing of his hands.
Does anyone remember this and/or still have the article/photo?
Or, am I just hearing 'the voices' again?