I recently inherited some rolls of herringbone twill cotton fabric tape.
I’m always experimenting with
Unique and frugal ways to wrap bars on the bikes I refurbish as riders without breaking the bank.
In the past I’ve used clothe baseball / hockey grip tape in various colors to tightly wrap right over old school black foam sleeves, used old leather belts finished with leather boot laces , clothes line and braided colored cords by the foot , etc
So today as soon as I got home I had to give this cotton tape a trial run. Just so happened I have Motobecane super mirage getting close to finished and in need of a fresh bar wrap.
The material is a slightly lighter weight than the bicycle specific type sold by NewBaums. It’s 3/4 in wide and thinner , so it can really be pulled tight and angle cuts easily with a scissors.
I normally wrap from bottom to top , but with this texture and with aero lever cables , I decided to go top down.
Since there’s no adhesive strips , I cut small stops of 3m double sided mounting tape as to anchor the first turn , the brake lever band and the last turn before the bar end plug .
To get the texture and thickness I wanted , having an unlimited length to work with allowed me to overlap as much as 75 percent each turn.
In the future for bikes without cables underneath the wrap , I want to do a thinner profile , wrapped like the look of vintage cellophane ish below wrap pattern.
I’m also going to try a version with underlayment fashioned from reused modern foam tape run lengthwise without overlap.
Can’t wait to see how this material looks with some custom mixed Rit dye colors , and with shellac.
I did not try to wash the twill first and apply damp, but I understand some folks find that method achieves a tighter and more shape able result.
I like the way it turned out for my first go. A bit hastily done , certainly not my best tape as far as uniformity. The main itch I had was to see how workable / tight turn friendly and manageable the material is , and the results were good from that perspective. It’s particularly good around the hood / lever clamp area. Lends itself well to the inside turns and changes of direction that can tend to bunch up and leave bare spots with conventional cork or fabric tape.
Turns out to be ideal to allow cable housing exit exit ramp in midstream , before the last turn at the stem. I like doing this to achieve a wider cable arc / avoid a tight 90 degree cable exit. Much better than cork or foam tapes which tend to be too thick , and too spongy to slide under the housing and still get an exit ramp with no gaps.
Hope to try this material out again on my next few bikes and to tryout some different variations on the style .
I’m always experimenting with
Unique and frugal ways to wrap bars on the bikes I refurbish as riders without breaking the bank.
In the past I’ve used clothe baseball / hockey grip tape in various colors to tightly wrap right over old school black foam sleeves, used old leather belts finished with leather boot laces , clothes line and braided colored cords by the foot , etc
So today as soon as I got home I had to give this cotton tape a trial run. Just so happened I have Motobecane super mirage getting close to finished and in need of a fresh bar wrap.
The material is a slightly lighter weight than the bicycle specific type sold by NewBaums. It’s 3/4 in wide and thinner , so it can really be pulled tight and angle cuts easily with a scissors.
I normally wrap from bottom to top , but with this texture and with aero lever cables , I decided to go top down.
Since there’s no adhesive strips , I cut small stops of 3m double sided mounting tape as to anchor the first turn , the brake lever band and the last turn before the bar end plug .
To get the texture and thickness I wanted , having an unlimited length to work with allowed me to overlap as much as 75 percent each turn.
In the future for bikes without cables underneath the wrap , I want to do a thinner profile , wrapped like the look of vintage cellophane ish below wrap pattern.
I’m also going to try a version with underlayment fashioned from reused modern foam tape run lengthwise without overlap.
Can’t wait to see how this material looks with some custom mixed Rit dye colors , and with shellac.
I did not try to wash the twill first and apply damp, but I understand some folks find that method achieves a tighter and more shape able result.
I like the way it turned out for my first go. A bit hastily done , certainly not my best tape as far as uniformity. The main itch I had was to see how workable / tight turn friendly and manageable the material is , and the results were good from that perspective. It’s particularly good around the hood / lever clamp area. Lends itself well to the inside turns and changes of direction that can tend to bunch up and leave bare spots with conventional cork or fabric tape.
Turns out to be ideal to allow cable housing exit exit ramp in midstream , before the last turn at the stem. I like doing this to achieve a wider cable arc / avoid a tight 90 degree cable exit. Much better than cork or foam tapes which tend to be too thick , and too spongy to slide under the housing and still get an exit ramp with no gaps.
Hope to try this material out again on my next few bikes and to tryout some different variations on the style .
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