Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 3,520
Likes: 12
From: Colorado Springs, CO
Bikes: 1959 Bottecchia Milano-Sanremo (frame), 1966 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1971 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1973 Bottecchia Gran Turismo, 1974 Bottecchia Special, 1977 Bottecchia Special (frame), 1974 Peugeot UO-8
Originally Posted by
Dawes-man
Is applying shellac a style thing?
I agree it looks very cool and I can see it would keep bar tape from getting dirty but is there another practical reason? Grip? Does it absorb shocks? .
You said it, it looks really cool. What other reason do you need?
It does make for a rougher finsh than the bare cloth tape so it's a bit grippier but I can't say that's ever been a problem even with vinyl tape. Since I'm almost always wearing gloves it really doesn't matter. It definately doesn't do anything for shock absorbtion. If anything it's harder though not enough to make any difference.
My "practical" bike is my Panasonic PT-3500 and I use black cork tape on it. Wrap it and forget it. For my Bottecchias style is everything. Currently the Giro runs with shellaced black cloth tape. When the other two are on the road, I will probably have white shellaced tape on the Giro, black shellaced tape on the Special, and blue shellaced tape on the Professional. Long live shellac! I'm not sure I'll keep the twine to secure ends of the tape though.
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1959 Bottecchia Milano-Sanremo(frame), 1966 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1971 Bottecchia Professional (frame),
1973 Bottecchia Gran Turismo, 1974 Bottecchia Special, 1977 Bottecchia Special (frame),
1974 Peugeot UO-8, 1988 Panasonic PT-3500, 2002 Bianchi Veloce, 2004 Bianchi Pista