mike

I became tired of drooling over the Brooks leather handlebar grip tape; admiring and longing for it, but not willing to pay the $150.00 price tag (because my bars take two sets of rolls).

Soooooo...

I was shopping at my favorite thrift store and bought an old leather jacket - vintage 1980's with big puffy shoulders and tight short cropped waist - you know ala Duran Duran. I had to pick a jacket that I would not consider wearing.

You know, the cool thing is that there were all colors of leather jackets available from brown to green and pink and white and, of course, black.

Then, I did the same thing they do when they make leather boot laces. I cut one long ribbon by spiral cutting the biggest panels of the jacket. When the curve got too tight, stopped and went to the next panel. Then, I used rubber cement and glued the ends together to make one super long ribbon of leather. I could have just made two ribbons (for right and left sides of the handle bar), but wasn't sure how much I would need for each side, so I made it one long piece.

I then hung the ribbon from the garage rafter witH a weight on each end to pull the curve from the spiral cut straight. Two days later, I had some excellent leather handlebar tape.

You can see the glued laps because I didn't feather the cuts (not important to me), but you could do that if it was important to you.

Have a look.

What do you think? Good enough to show off to the bike-chicks and dudes?

Namenda

Pretty......ugly. Sorry. And you wrapped the hoods. Wow.

10 Wheels

Thanks for the pic. I plan to do that with a black leather coat.

BremenCole

Great idea!

CameronC

Looks like the ace bandage you would wrap up a sore knee with after a long ride.

bretgross

I really like it!
I like it so much that I'm gonna give you a pass on the hood-overlap.

I mean, I really like it!

spry

There's all kinds of free handlebar leather out in the street plus cat tails to tie to your rear fender.

mike

I like the feel of leather more than the feel of the hood covers, so I figured, "why not?". Works for me. That's the beauty of being able to do this stuff yourself - you can have it your way.

mike

As a note to the folks that might want to try this, I wrapped on top of the old handlbar wrap that was on the bars. It makes them extra plush and comfortable.

You couldn't do that with other handlebar wrap without buying two sets of rolls and slicing them because the length of the tape isn't long enough to wrap over the old layer.

If you are making your own, however, you can make the tape about as long as you want and give yourself a real luxury wrap.

OldPilot

When I was stationed at Ft. Lewis, WA, my friend that is a taxidermist did full body mounts of water buffalos, elk, white tail deer, etc. I got scap fur material to tie flies for fly fishing from my friend (a local taxidermist) for free. Your local taxidermist might have scrap leather material long enough that you could use. You might be able to get a better leather or unusual leather for little or no cost. Just a thought...I got the scraps for free you never know...oh, the scraps are tanned so they don't rot or stink.

Flak

Funniest thread ive seen in a while :lol

spry

Use an old split in half tube as underlay for handlebars.

Need to change my leather tape again.
Would a Calico cat give me a sort of splash design on the bars?

danarnold

This looks like the kind of thing I would do. ... and I'd be very proud of it... for a while. Ultimately unless I could carry it off as well or better than Brooks it would bug the ... uh... strapping out of me

danarnold

Now THAT's a good idea. I love to reuse stuff I'd otherwise throw away. Old tubes lead my list of candidates.

spry

What about my other good ideas

bretgross

The OP didn't do it on a brand new $15k bike. I think it's got the 'comfortable old chair' look goin' on.

spry

Don't be afraid to use the furry side out on those leather grips.It wicks away hand sweat naturally.

OldPilot

AWESOME IDEA! On the old tubes a "Calico" would be to 80's splash tape...but great idea on the old tubes, would hold up better than the foam pads you can buy.

DScott

So easy, even a caveman could do it.

New team bike?

cyclefreaksix

Now THAT'S funny!

danarnold

Refresh my memory. You aren't the one who told Sarah Palin to run for guv'ner are you?

danarnold

What's the point of the holes on the holes on the Brooks tape? Is it to allow the sweat from the bar to escape to your hands?

Tristan86

I used cork tape and shellac to get a leather look on one of my bikes. I think it looks better than leather, and cheaper and lasts longer

mike

That really does look snappy.

mike

Yes, you are you correct! Bretgross wins with his observation that the bike is not a brand new $15,000 bike. If I had a $15,000 bike, I might just go camando and not put any tape on the bars so that the gold trim wouldn't be hidden.

You know, folks, for some of us, bicycling is more about how it feels than how it looks. THAT said, I think it looks pretty good in real life to meee PLUS, it feels great. It is exceptionally good on the hands with the extra bar tape layer underneath.