so first off I decided to shellac my new found track bars mostly using this guide http://velo-orange.blogspot.com/2009...ape-guide.html

harder than I thought

I wrapped my bars, (if you buy that stuff, buy 3 rolls, or 2 if you really wanna stretch it to fit) with the white cotton tape hoping to get a nice yellow-orange color in the end. I got my small can of shellac (It was either 7 or 8 ounces) and was ready to go. the first night I did a coat, waited 2 hours and did more. let it sit overnight, woke up to find a lot of it soaked into the tape. I did another 3-4 layers until it had that nice glossy finish like in the picture. it sat outside on my balcony for probably 16 or so hours till I headed to work in the morning.

So im heading to work bikes fun for about a minute when the shellac starts to literally melt. Keep in mind it was a nice 115 degree day in AZ. Get to work, its in air conditioning and it all hardens up again for the most part, much better than it was outside.

This isn't a me whining post, stuff like this happens lesson learned. But if you want to shellac your tape

1. if you live somewhere it gets mega hot outside (AZ or 100+ degrees regularly) dont put too many coats on. I would say the majority of the bars are at 3ish coats right now, no more glossy. like the cotton is just at its absorbent max.

2. If you do amber shellac it will probably turn out brown no matter what if you use store bought shellac, the white tape was brown by the 2nd coat. I would highly advise just buying the clear stuff and get a nice color. mine ended up being a dark brown and it looks leathery

3. I probably did put too much on that guide says 6-8 ounces I believe I probably did about 4 ounces and it was still too much.

Im probably gonna pick goo balls off my handlebars for the next few days but im sure it will still look nice. Also if your looking for nice not too extreme track bars the nashbar ones are nice and I think they are like 20 bucks or less