My main touring rig is an 84 cannondale, and I absolutely love the twined/shellacked look. My friend just got it done on his paramount, and it looks awesome.

My main question is, since it is my touring bike, I need a little bit of comfort on the handlebars, so I normally use cork, but the cloth tape doesnt give much padding. I was going to lay some strips of cork horizontally in the places I usually grip, and then cloth tape the entire thing, and shellac over it all. Would this work or has anyone tried this?

Thanks

That would probably work just fine, although I have not tried it. If you want to spend money there are purpose-made pads that are molded to follow the bends of drop bars. Good Luck!

Cheers

There are Gel Pouches to put under tape.. and Aztec makes a foam one sticks on bare bar..

My touring rig , I have Randonneur bars , added 'off the front grip shapes' (company RIP.)

over that, some neoprene sheet, smoothing the stuff underneath, then cotton tape,
the Gripshapes several sets,
combined to make a pretty flat surface to lay my hands on for long mileage..

Back in the 80's I used Grab On Tubes of High density foam rubber.
the factory gives them a suede like surface,
But the sun drys the rubber and it shreds off under your hands ,
so is made thinnest where gripped the most.

solution was wrap them in cotton tape, I used Black, and being in the shade, under the tape .. they last forever ..
[real PIA if you want aero levers , as fitting them on
over the cable housing is a challenge].

The shellac will crumble off where it flexes.

I suspect that the shellaced tape will crinkle and crumble as well. Shellac, and most clear vanishes for that matter, are fairly brittle films. Over true cork they may be fine since cork doesn't have a lot of give to it but over ersatz foam "cork" the flex and give will be enough to make a ruin of the brittle overwrap of shellaced fabric tape. And if you use true cork under the tape then the biggest advantage it'll have is making the bar diamet bigger so the pressure points aren't as small.

Putting a brittle shellaced or varnished tape over the spongy Grab On grips would be a disaster. The brittleness of the finished tape would crumble and make a mess in no time. The guys above that did have good luck with wrapping Grab on grips or other soft options just used tape tightly wrapped with no coating. If they'd used coating then it would have been a disaster.

Yea, just forgo the shellac, replace the cotton tape as it frays,
or just tape over with a couple more rolls.

thats what I did on my touring setup.

I've shellacked cork (well, fake cork) tape and it held up surprisingly well; I didn't notice any cracking from the flex. I suppose it should be noted that this was on a pair of porteur style bars, with just the grips covered, rather than a road bar, just in case this makes any difference.

Also, if you shellac, the twine is completely superfluous, the shellac will hold on the tape quite well on its own.

Alright thanks for the replies guys. I think I will try the shellac on my old cork tape thats on the bars now, see how it holds up, and decide if I want to do it on the new stuff I buy before my tour.