Tape...another technology about 100 years behind a good solution. Bicycle engineers/designers seem to be the last in their class, D- students who can't get a job anywhere else end up designing bicycle frames and components. I think they are on drugs. First, a round handlebar is the last shape you want for your hand, hands are not designed for supporting weight over long periods. The new carbon bars are big improvement for flat areas to lay your hands, but still not an answer. Second, for road bars, most spend our time over the brake hoods and the gloves is where the padding should be. Today we have padding in our shorts where it shouldn't be and no padding (thick gel) in our gloves where it should be. I rode ultra-marathon, riding in RAAM (Race Across America) I used plane, thin tape and just for grip, and Spenco gel gloves this was a great combination for 20 hour a day riding. Very thick gel precisely in the location of the hand needed. But now gel gloves are a joke, and I can't buy shorts with just a simple anti-friction lining. I don't use road drop bars anymore, I use flat bars with flat bold-on end grips, bar-ends and aero-bars, I have 3 main hand positions and 6 minor alternatives. I've had to wait 30 years for them to design a proper aero bar with adjustable risers, but they are finally here. I've tried the padded tape on the bar ends (because they are stupidly round) but it all has glue backing and becomes a mess with a little wear. Been threatening to buy a sewing machine so I can make proper shorts/jerseys/gloves that actually function for cyclists. I know I'm not the only one with problems from all the stupid engineering, I see cyclists trying to shake the numbness out of their hands all the time. After the perfect fit, proper seat tilt, reach, there is not much to do, or available for a comfortable ride of 6 to 7 hours with a road bar. But there could be... I have a square shaped bar end, it is 5x more comfortable than round, but you can't find them anymore. We only grip the bars 1% of the time when sprinting, intense climbing, and hard acceleration, yet the bars are shaped for this grip, when we need a shape for the 99% of the time we are just resting on our hands. All contact points on a bicycle need better design, but we will have to build it ourselves. The engineers don't ride bikes, or their longest ride is 5 miles.