Joined: 13 Oct 2005Posts: 744Location: the westside
Has anyone used leather bar tape before? Good? Bad? Indifferent? I've seen some leather bar tape on a few track bikes (not necessarily ones that have seen much motion) and it's hot as hell so I was thinking of putting some on my new girl. However, function trumps fashion in my book so I want to make sure that the leather provides a solid grip and won't slip when I'm falling off the back. Plus the Brooks bar tape is silly expensive. It's either this or regular keirin grips so I'd appreciate any input.
btw, Sacha "Vanilla" White has made me all aquiver with his new track bars wrapped in leather. Holy yum.
martin
Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 9:00 am
Joined: 30 Jan 2006Posts: 712
I saw a guy riding with brown cloth tape that he had shelacked (sp?) that gave it a really nice leather look. He had some sweet Heron touring style bike with leather panniers. Pretty cool.
jillita
Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 9:07 am
Joined: 13 Oct 2005Posts: 744Location: the westside
Yeah I've seen that and it's pretty old skool. A big Rivendell thing to do. I'm looking for more performance though and wonder how the leather tape does. I don't want to be out there and slip. Slipping bad.
tacomee
Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 9:40 am
Joined: 23 Feb 2006Posts: 6Location: Tacoma... America's #1 wired city!
I had leather bar tape on an old 10-speed once. It worked ok I guess.
It's also easy to get natural brown cork bar tape--- Cinelli. Looks great AND still is the standard.
jillita
Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 11:08 am
Joined: 13 Oct 2005Posts: 744Location: the westside
Yeah I've always used Cinelli cork tape on my other bikes. Good on the hands. They don't use them on most track bikes though. It's usually track-specific grips.
Aaron
Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 7:29 pm
Joined: 25 Jul 2005Posts: 4645
Everybody used cloth when I raced track.
Shellac makes any tape more durable.
jillita
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 5:45 pm
Joined: 13 Oct 2005Posts: 744Location: the westside
I talked to a few Brooks afficionados and we concluded that leather tape is best left to Sunday rides on a Rivendell or to museum track bikes. So I got some keirin grips and black cork tape cuz I couldn't decide. Might take a few test rides to see which I like better.
sekai
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 11:29 pm
Joined: 25 Jul 2005Posts: 1466Location: on the lake
harlot wrote:
I talked to a few Brooks afficionados and we concluded that leather tape is best left to Sunday rides on a Rivendell or to museum track bikes. So I got some keirin grips and black cork tape cuz I couldn't decide. Might take a few test rides to see which I like better.
boiling water!
jillita
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 7:45 am
Joined: 13 Oct 2005Posts: 744Location: the westside
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Joined: 13 Oct 2005
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Location: the westside
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