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? .

:roflmao2: 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.

bottom up or top down?
 

Hi
I just did some simple shellac re-wraps.
(pics soon)
one bike (paletti) had this crazy white with black splash italian tape,
since the bike is an off-white pearl with light blue airbrush,
white was used with the clear bullseye shellac.
after 2 quick coats, it matched the color of the white nicely,
will do probably 2 more though cause its still a little dry looking.

The other bike (schroder) had the old red wetsuit neoprene rubber sew-up grips.
I decided to keep with the red and after 4 coats it looks pretty slick,
will probably stop at 4 just cause it still has some coarseness to it.

My question is,

Is it more normal to do a bottom up roll with the cloth?
I saw on mkellers did a top down roll.

Just curious thanks.

TP

I think it's all personal preference. I know some people like to do bottom up and finish the end with decorative tape or twine. I personally like the top down method because I like the clean look of no tape at the top. I guess top down is considered the classic method, from what I gather.

Matt

lol

Are the grips you got made from cork? I find that 3 coats is the limit for cork or it starts to look saturated and bubbles like you are experiencing.

Perich, I think a lot of us prefer doing cotton top down because of the clean look. Newer cork/gel tape is usually done bottom up because the edges won't curl up in use when applied this way. Cotton covered with shellac avoids the edge issue, so we go top down.

Shellac provides a very nice and durable finish and does not really compromise the shock absorbing properties of the cloth.

I put down 3 layers of cloth before finishing the bars and once done, you have a bar that has good traction, absorbs shocks, is waterproof and durable, and is very easy to keep clean.

And it does look beautiful... especially when one opts for a natural colour.

4 coats over light yellow cloth...

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikep...mpathbars1.jpg

Shellac stays flexible, so you can wrap cloth over gel tape and then shellac if you like extra padding.

Those bars are fantastic, regardless of cloth and shellac!