My gut feeling says, "no", but, I wonder if anyone knew of any C&V connection. All things new were once old, and all ideas get recycled, so, there's a chance. Thanks for you input....

I wouldn't bet against any natural material: silk, cork, natural rubber.., even wool. I can't say that I remember any C&V's, offhand, that had cork on their bars, but it seems to me some would almost have to, originally. We might be talking 1930's here, rather than 1960's.

It goes back to about 1985.

Cork 'grips' go way back though, probably to the start of bicycles.

Depends on the bike. I would opt for cloth on a 70s bike, for example. But for a late-80s/early-90s bike (still C&V in my book), cork tape works for me.

Though it would be nice if thin cork tape was still available. The new stuff is quite a bit thicker in the center.

I still have a couple rolls of The Tape or No 1 Tape from the late '70s. IIRC, it was one of the first 'foam' tapes, and almost as thin as cloth, unlike 'cork' and jel tapes of today.

Sometimes the inverse is cool! C&V Tape on modern bike:
[IMG]P1030376, on Flickr[/IMG]

Then there is the standard all C&V:
[IMG]P9161245, on Flickr[/IMG]

To me, this isn't a question. I simply don't like cork bar tape. It gets dirty fast and doesn't clean well. It is also not very durable, so for me, leather or leather-like of gel tape, or cushioned plastic is a better option. I even prefer cloth tape with shellac to cork.

It wouldn't surprise me if somebody had tried marketing cork tape., though I'm not aware of any specific cases. The use of cork as an shock absorption material goes back to the early days of cycling. Cork handlebar grips were quite popular, as early as the 1890s. Attached advertisement is from 1896.

hmmm.... of the few old catalogs that I still have, the only one that mentions it (and that I've scanned) is a Bike Warehouse catalog from 1980. No mention of cork, but there are some padded wraps, such as "The Tape" or Bailey cushion tape. If you really needed padding, there was always the Grab-On foam tubing, but it was not the prettiest stuff.

Let me see if I can attach the portion of the catalog with the handlebar tape section... Well, it's attached, but not very legible. At least I can tell you that Bike Warehouse wasn't selling anything called cork tape in 1980.
edit: I've got the catalog posted to Mark Bulgier's site. You can find this page here:
https://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalog...e-80/BW05.html


Steve in Peoria

Part of the initial allure was that the first cork tape available was Cinelli brand. So you could equip your bike with Cinelli for not too much money. I never liked the stuff either. It was too bulky for me, and the edges were/are too thick. I preferred Bike Ribbon for padded tape. It was pretty similar to modern tape - Fizik or whatever.

I actually pretty sure that cork tape wasn't available before that, like i said, around 1985. Composite cork sheet had been around for some time, but it is much too weak to use as tape. The Cinelli tape was actually a synthetic composite that included cork. Cork grips OTOH have been around forever.

Before cork tape came out the big thing was spenco gel handlebar covers. They were kind of like a thin version of grab ons. And there was actually a thin version of grab ons. Prior to that there were at least a one or two varieties of rubber tape in the 60s in and 70s (Bailey above), though most people used cotton or plastic.

Well I know its not vintage correct but I am one vote for cork tape. The cinelli brand anyway. Makes my hands feel great and it shellbacks nice. Of course I see vintage bikes as daily riders so I may not be showing them the proper respect.

+1

Hey if you guys like cork tape, use it! It isn't 1979 anymore. Tape is a consumable anyway. I used to try a new one like every month. It's kind of like saddles: what is comfortable for one person won't work for another.

I bought some cork tape from Cicli Morris in Aversa, Italy in 1984. I think it was Cinelli branded. The stuff lasted forever.

Agreed

Also agreed.

But I'm so damn cheap, I'm even willing to RE-use cork (or any) tape, and have done, one several occasions, at least on my second-string bikes. In fact, I even have used cloth and used leather tape sets in a box waiting for a new purpose in life.

Just last year thought to try something different on my 80's Trek tour rig. Installed thin Spenco grips and then outer wrapped with Newbaums cloth bar wrap. I like it.

On topic, I also acquired actual cork duct tape. Very nice quality. Have yet to try it. The width is ideal where one could wrap an older narrow bar in parallel vs. winding around. Menards was selling it for $5 a roll.

I'll admit I knew little about the various different bar wraps, I've only wrapped a couple myself. I saw cork and thought I'd try it out. Are all you talking about real cork tape? Does such things exist? The cork tape I got was regular ol EVA foam grip with tiny cork flecks in it. Really? A piece of cork the smaller than a bb every inch and that constitutes cork tape? I like the natural aspect of cork, I have cork grips on many things with handles, hiking poles, etc. EVA isn't exactly natural. Kind of disappointing.

'duct' Duck brand tape

Real Cork Tape - 1.88 in. x 180 in. | DuckŪ Brand

(Original poster). By the sounds of if.. mid 80's then, apparently created by Cinelli first (or shortly after and most successfully). Apparently it takes some base substrate to apply the cork to, and the cork I've seen seems to be a combination of matl's, with cork as a major component of the combination.

I don't know the actual ingredients of the 80s Cinelli cork tape, but it appeared to be at least mostly cork (51%??) mixed into some sort of substrate to hold it together. It felt pretty corky, for lack of a better word. I guess the idea of cork tape has steadily been diluted, literally.

The Duck tape above seems to be the usual shelf liner / bulletin board type composite cork: mostly ground up cork and not much goop to hold it together. Good luck getting it around a handlebar without breaking it. It might be possible if one was really really careful.

But someone's gotta try it so we know for sure, right? Who's got some bare handlebars?

Maybe follow up with a shellacing?

The adhesive in self sticking cork sheet dissolves in alcohol. If you shellac it, it basically falls off of whatever it is stuck to. Needless to say, i found this out the hard way... Any sort of oil based varnish will work fine though.

I actually think it would be very cool to cover a bar with actual cork tape and have it turn out well, but it would take some painstaking work.

Now thats just a crazy idea