Latest Handlebar Wrap Project
 

Had another handlebar to wrap, so I thought I'd try another harlequin, do something loud and of questionable taste. So here it is, after 2 shellac coats. Cheesy cell phone pics, wife is out of town with camera. I'm starting to think of these harlequin wraps on the handlebars as like the shark's teeth/jaws painted on the Flying Tiger aircraft. Bike is a 1980 Fuji America:

http://www.cellblock.com/gallery/LJq...FLHqrQFn-1.jpg

http://www.cellblock.com/gallery/wNS...WtWCPmyw-1.jpg

http://www.cellblock.com:80/gallery/...VuUgKbTP-1.jpg

It's not questionable taste! It's lovely! :love::D

Looks good! I think I'm gonna have to give it a go. I have several colors laying around here somewhere.......

I like it!

Neal

Looks really nice. Are there directions on how to do that somewhere?

I've always wanted to try it, but never had a bike that it would fit well with. That,....Looks great!!,,,,BD


Questionable would be pink and brown, haha.....

Here is a how to........
http://www.wastedlife.org/bike/harlequin/index.html

Here's the directions I used:

http://www.wastedlife.org/bike/harlequin/index.html

The first time I did it, it was pretty tough, you get all mentally turned around, although it did turn out ok. Just took a long time and was sort of frustrating, as I unwrapped and rewrapped several times. This time, I felt a lot better about the theory of it, so to speak, so I could spend a little more time worrying about fine points (and there are many) and still roll through it pretty quick.

Beyond the flashy look, the weave itself looks better than a spiral wrap. I think it would be pretty cool even in monocolor, maybe I'll try that sometime.

One of the harder parts is the second half. You do the first half rather blithely, and so long as it is sort of balanced/even, it is ok. However, when you get to the second side, it has to be, as much as possible, a mirror image of the first side as well as balanced and even. So you can spend a lot of time futzing around with that, and understanding how small changes in angle and adjustments to the tape change the over all geometry of the harlequin. I'm pretty up on it now and could definitely knock one of these out in about .5 hour, if everything went well.

It is a pretty outrageous thing. I'm liking the yellow against the navy blue frame paint and the navy blue part of the handlebar wrap. The Fuji America, with its chrome stays/fork/fork crown, two tone panels, etc, is a fairly flashy bike to begin with, so this handlebar wrap is just sort of piling on rather than going against the grain of the bike, imo. The lacquer doesn't seem to darken the yellow up as much as it did the red on my previous harlequin job, which is good. I also think I am not going to do any more than 3 shellac coats, maybe even leave it a two, try not build up a sheen/gloss at all on it.

Screams TIGER!

Yeah, my wife wanted me to do yellow and black instead of yellow and dark blue, because yellow and black are the colors of the Hanshin Tigers, her hometown baseball team back in Japan. But I didn't think the black would work on this bike, but is still pretty tigery.

I have a few rolls of the discontinued orange velox, which when I finally use it with something will be really over the top.