UKH

I've lots of different brands of tape over the years and some have been good while others were pretty useless, unfortunately by the time I have decided if a roll of tape is any good I have usually thrown out the pack and forgotten who made it.

This is mainly for protection when crack climbing so availability in wider rolls would be handy. Any particular brands to look for or avoid?

Beiersdorf Leukotape. 

Expensive but excellent. It is absolutely non stretchy but can still be torn lengthwise or across, and becomes more sticky when the roll gets wet or damp while most other brands lose their adhesiveness. It will even stick reasonably well on sweaty skin. I have been doing judo for 40 years, where taping is even more crucial, and found nothing better.

CB

edit: Forgot to add, the best cheap alternative where stickiness is less of an issue (because you tape large areas, e.g. the outer layers of a tape glove) is Intersport Hockey tape. You can buy it in Sweden in the ice hockey department of every sports store, and in comes in 50m rolls or so that you can find for 30 to 50Kr. I buy a couple of rolls every time I go hiking up North.

As a long term user of finger tape (don't start on the pro's and con's of long-term use - my personal experiment has been going on since 1982)  there is only one that I will use - Strappal.  It is zero stretch (unlike a lot) and very sticky.  Buy on-line from pharma/physio sites like vivomed.  I use the slightly wider stuff and tear it in half (2.5cm I think)

I can vouch for how sticky this is, if you have hairy hands shave before application to avoid waxing when you remove the tape. They actually market a Leukotape remover solution to avoid epilation.

Just looked up Strappal. Apparently it is the exact same stuff as the Beiersdorf Leukotape I recommended above, just under an international brand name (Beiersdorf is a company from Hamburg that is trading internationally as BSN medical and as Beiersdorf in Germany). 

You learn something new every day!

CB

PS: The wide stuff is 3.75cm

You do indeed learn something new everyday. 

Vivomed sells Strappal in a wide range of widths - 1.25, 2.5, 4, 5 and 7.5 and in 5 or 10 m rolls for most widths. 10 roll boxes too, although I tend to be three rolls at a time which does me for a while.

My only encounter with stuff called 'leukotape' was with some rubbery stretchy stick-to-itself stuff for taping one broken finger to another that had fared better

Over here, the elastic stuff is called Leukoplast. Same company, different product.

When I was still competing, our team was sponsored by Beiersdorf, so we had a cupboard full of tape. Convenient, otherwise stirrup taping an ankle for each training would have cost a tenner per week!

CB

That's probably it

Cheers. I will have a look around, unfortunately the only thing I can get locally seems to be Metolius tape so I'll give that a test this week and pickup some Strappal from one of the online retailers. 

I find metolious to be very good in terms and sticking power and how easy it is to tear. Can't go too wrong with it at all. 

There's more to finger tape than stickiness and tearability.  The third element is a lack of stretch - if you look at the BSN/Beiersdorf  site it says 'Inextensible backing material provides strong rigid support'.  That inextensible element is vital for supporting pulleys in fingers - a wrap with stretch is four fifths of F all use for that.  Very few tapes make that claim specifically.

Decathlon beats Strappal by a MILE, as proven on my last trip to Orco. Strappal is sh*te, doesn't stick for very long and doesn't form the nice coatred "one-piece" glove decathlon does

But that's for a glove, not finger tape.....

Sure, my point is that it sticks better. Work great in the Red with raw finger tips