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Get a Grip order is in! CABE Consumer Report

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Wheeled Relics

Cruisin' on my Bluebird
The long awaited TOC grip renaissance is happening! I just opened this box and I'm floored ! Frank (gazube) isn't charging near what these are worth and I'm happy to say what started out with me being judgmental of anything repop has turned around completely!

Well packed and hand made, I've seen a lot of botched re-pops, and these are jaw dropping!

Packing is good. I could see going with styrofoam sleeves but Frank needs to save money here to keep making money so I understand completely! Care has been taken to wrap each grip set in tissue and stacked neatly in an appropriately sized box! Invoice is included and Frank takes PayPal! No complaints.

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Complete order overview. I tried to make a very diversified order. I'm impressed with the quality of each combination! There are some subtle variations in length, however each grip in every pair is identical in length to its mate. I think these subtle variations can be expected from being hand made, and with that personal attention given if an exact length is needed. Digging into the box I found and EXTRA pair, I contacted Frank and he said he is replacing the set I scratched up dumping my rider! I for one am perfectly happy!

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Closeups

Black wrapped leather w/ nickel; 4" long dead on; 7/8" slightly snug; perfect; put immediately on my daily city scape ride. Outstanding quality. These should easily be 100$ grips Frank is selling them for near half that!

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Black Corkalines

Black Corkalines in both matte and gloss finish ferrules. 3 3/4" in length. 7/8" dia


Matte appears to have a slightly darker finish I believe this is the "Amber" color
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Unfinished Corkalines great unfinished look, non plated w/ a hint of copper peeking through. Great prospect for acid aging other custom finishes. 3 3/4" in length 7/8" bar dia

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Leather Wrapped Grips

These are the real highlight for me in this review: while I love all these grips these are the ones I've been waiting years for. Modeled after the No. 12 grips in a 1900 Catalog (ref) I ordered four different variations. Brown leather wrap with brass ferrules, unfinished ferrules, antiqued & black wrap w nickel ferrules. There is some length variation between each of these grips, the black wraps coming in at 4" the unfinished brown at hair under 4" the brass ferrul at 3 3/4" and the antiqued leather grips at just over 3 1/2". The 7/8 ID for each grip is spot on, no extra sizing is needed to fit any of these grips they are snug and don't slip around easily installing without adhesive. With slight variations in bar dia I could see using adhesive but in my case none is needed. The last two photos show the antiqued leather wrap grip installed on my 1897 ladies Stormer.

My overall impression is great. Frank (gazube) has a simple service he offers making grips. Frank has achieved a simple level of success in quality that plenty of others have failed at reproducing. Good communication with me letting me know when they were shipped and when to expect them.

In the end HAPPY CUSTOMER .. AWESOME GRIPS FRANK!

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Going for a Ride ; Got a Grip

First warm days here. I rode up to Velo Cult bicycles in Portland, Oregon to check out the evening jazz and run some nearby errands, huge venue, musta been a hundred patrons sitting around bikes parked inside, beer, wine, food now, great spot!

On the way back I could really feel the heat start to sink into the grips, threats don't bother me, I'm not going to baby these on their first run, hill climb with my 16 to 12 ratio really lets me get a grip on these. Downhills nice, curved lines through the old privileged neighborhood, then down into the flats. As I came back into the local hood I could feel them start to get "sticky" ... and as I arrived home, I could see the "protective" coating shaping itself to my fingers and changing shape... I'm not sure how to address this; some of the leather grips don't seem to have this sleeve like coating, or perhaps it's thinner...

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thank you for the report dave it really keeps me motivated i have done some upgrades on the end caps the grips im changing more and more on each order and im finding out what works and what needs improving... im now working on the "sticky" part shortly the grips will be part of bike lingo " i hope" edison said this quote ' i didnt fail i just found 10,000 ways it doesn't work;.... end caps are now dead on but still made by hand out of steel one at a time i order nothing i made cork grip, the wood grips, and i leather each one, i don't have a laboratory to test .. but im hoping more orders follow... for anyone who has the grips also please comment let me know how to make changes as you see fit... and again thanks to wheeled relics for our reports on the grips...
 
This is the kind of buyer selling interaction that reflects positively on the community at large. Nothing to feel bad about, and I'm more then happy with what I have here, I have to test out the coolest looking set of course! And boom, a heads up on a possible weak link. Honestly I don't even think they really "need" a shellac coating, leather could be treated with oils from the hand and break in just fine.

From my end, since this is on my daily work horse, I'm going to look carefully at this set and see if I can either peel the shellack off or if its really adhered sand it lightly with say 200 grit to start to remove it, mighte give the blacks an antique look.
 
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