I’m finishing up the refurbishment of a 1959 Fiorelli and the last bit to do is wrapping the bars. However, since I’ve been unable to locate a set of hoods for the Balilla Model 59 brake levers, would you wrap the lever bodies with bar tape or leave them bare? I have a set of Vittoria hoods but they don’t fit the bulge under the adjuster.

If I wrap them, is there a technique that would be period correct?

Depends on whether you like to have your hands on the hoods. It's my preferred position, so I'd definitely wrap them.

That'd be "period correct" for the period where you just can't get the right rubber hoods anymore...

Also, I usually wrap the top of the bar -- and the brake body if necessary -- with cork tape, then go over everything with old-school cotton tape.

cheers -mathias

Stretching pieces of inner tubes over the lever bodies before wrapping would probably not suck.

--Shannon

For life's difficult questions, I always ask myself, what would The Fabulous Thunderbirds do?

#wwtftd?

I used to do bottles of that fabulous Thunderbird....... but I don't recall being a cyclist then.

Maybe trim the Vittoria hoods or purchase a set of repops from iab? I have the same levers on my Frejus, currently sans hoods. I have a set of David's hoods waiting for me to pick up (was expecting to have ridden out there by now, but that has yet to happen). I figured I'd need to trim them.

The other alternative would be to include the lever bodies in the wrapping process. I imagine if you have a relatively narrow bar (<40cm) and use Newbaum's tape (longer than Tressostar), you should have enough to add a bit of tape to the body itself and still make it to the end. I suck at wrapping handlebars though, so I have no idea what sort of loop-dee-loop wrapping would work.

This is how I deal with the wrap with no hoods problem...

I like it. If the new owner (I recently sold it with the pretext I'd refurb it for him) wants to go this route, I'll wrap the lever body first, then capture the loose end of tape as I wrap the bar. I have 3 rolls of black Newbaums to work with.

@ Brad L...

If you are using cloth tape, locate the levers where you want them and then secure the lever clamps in place with PVC tape. Remove the levers and then wrap the bars with the tape. This system makes wrapping around the levers extremely easy to achieve really good clean results with...


Install the lever body and lever after wrapping...


This system would work with your plan to cover the lever body first and then install. I use this system because I find that wrapping with cloth tape is difficult when it comes to getting around the lever bodys...

I am planning to wrap cotton over synthetic cork next time I rewrap. I am assuming you mean you only wrap the bar top with cork before adding cotton? Can you confirm it doesn't get too bulky or try to unwrap itself?
I will be shellacking the cotton tape after I am satisfied with the wrap.

>> I am assuming you mean you only wrap the bar top with cork before adding cotton?

Correct. The top gets wrapped with cork from the brake almost to the stem.
Then the whole bar gets wrapped with cotton, starting at the bar-end shifters and finishing with twine.
The wine is shellacked, the tape is not.

>> Can you confirm it doesn't get too bulky
It does not. See for yourself, though the picture isn't great.

>> ..or try to unwrap itself?
I've worn through the cotton in places, and no problems.

ClydeClydeson is offline Report Post


The color is of course awful... a RED Cannondale must have BLACK bar tape. Like so:

extra jimmies.... Btw Jimmie Vaughan signed an album for me!