Why did foam bar covers go the way of the dinosaur?

anyone?

They used to make my hands tire. They were so gushy I'd squeeze harder for control.

They look funky.

They do indeed look funky. On top of that they were kinda hard to install and tended to get all hard after awhile.

Because they fall in the same category as dork disks. Who in the world would want them.

The "Weight Weenie" culture killed it...killed it reeeeeal bad.......

Chombi
84 Peugeot PSV

I still have the original foam handlebar stuff on my father's 1973 Puch Brigadier.
They are dense and cushy but not hardened with age.
But ew. I really want to change them out for bar tape.

This response speaks volumes of you, I asked why they went the way of the dinosaur, not what you think is "cool." I have a few bikes with "dork disc" on them, and what? I don't care what you may think of the dork disc or the foam bar covers, I just asked/need honest opinions on why they are no longer used as my wife was nice enough to pick up a set, still in the package, with finger grips that I happen to think are the coolest thing I've seen in a bit.

I really liked them - found them more comfortable than tape. You could even get them in colors to match your bike.

I'm actually sorry I can't find them any longer....

Try these, they actually look kinda interesting....

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Black-Bic.../dp/B001KEQ5IQ

We have a bike in the shop right now with the foam grips you're talking about. I hadn't seen that kind before...only the single-diameter foam stuff from the 70s/80s.

Actually, I still saw them for sale in some bike shops recently. They are NOT gone for good at all, and if you can't find them in bike stores, I think some motorcycle stores still sell them for motorcycles, but you might have to buy two sets from them to completely cover your bike's bars. Had them on my bikes in the early 80's and I loved them. Used them till I found out that I really did not need that much cushioning.

Chombi
84 Peugeot PSV

Any bike shop can order them from J&B....

https://www.jbimporters.com/web/check...90gir0gand60p0

Retail should be around $6.99

Those are nice! I'll see if I can take a pic of the ones my wife bought me.
EDIT: Here are the foam grips, my wife paid $2.00. and they seem to be thinner than most I've seen.
This pic is "no flash" to show the finger grooves.

To paraphrase Dean Wormer, fat, ugly and ineffective is no way to go through life.
The prior owner actually installed them on my Hetchins. They were the first thing I upgraded.

You guys need to lighten up a bit. It much to easy to get a rise out of you by maligning dork disks, and now foam bar covers. BTW,I like to cut them off with an exacto knife.

To answer your question, foam covers went the way of the dinosaurs because of a large meteor that struck the sole manufacturing facility in Dorkania, which was also the only supplier of dork disks.

Did you try them first? did you ever try them? If your opinion is based on the word of another it means nothing.

Never could figure that out, they were pretty comfortable on some bikes. The one's I preffered were the finger grip type.
The style I did not care for, but they looked decent were the solid rubber style, like on the old schwinn traveler

Pretty sure it was the weight weenie crowd that pushed them out of favor. you can't really cut a lot of weight cheaply on bikes, but switching to thin tape, less padding in the saddle, and thinner tires/wheels will give the illusion that a bike is 'better' when placed on the scale.

My favorite bike ever had padded bars and a hard plastic BMX seat, (80s type) I could ride that bike all day long without a problem. The longest single ride I ever took was on it, went from pierson, through traverse city and on to petoskey in one day. This was back when the white pine trail was still a railroad line.

Ken.

Since I type so slowly there have been some more replies....

My azuki:
https://picasaweb.google.com/merc2dog...36969541416642
has a dork disk and a chaingaurd, and I don't think it would look right if I removed them, even if the gaurd does make the BB area look 'busy'
The fuji:
https://picasaweb.google.com/merc2dog...36972277125442
has a dork disk, but since it looks like it was brought home and stuck in the garage the same day it was purchased, I'll leave it that way.
The Alan:
https://picasaweb.google.com/merc2dog...36966423428098
and the gitane:
https://picasaweb.google.com/merc2dog...36970605583842
look perfect the way they are

Ken.

Yup. Those are the ones that were on the bike Jim worked on yesterday. I thought they were cool. Guess I'm a dork.

[quote=RFC;9422011]You guys need to lighten up a bit. It much to easy to get a rise out of you by maligning dork disks, and now foam bar covers. BTW,I like to cut them off with an exacto knife.

To answer your question, foam covers went the way of the dinosaurs because of a large meteor that struck the sole manufacturing facility in Dorkania, which was also the only supplier of dork disks.[/QUOTE]

Thats was pretty funny! Glad you moved out before the meteor struck!

Cool! Now you have your very own collection.

Don't know if anyone else noticed, but the ones we call "dorks" are the ones that grow up to be your mayor, your president, your computer inventor, your boss, and so on, so yeah, I'm a dork too. (although I'm none of the above)

I can send them to you if you want to reminisce about your life in Dorksville.

https://www.niagaracycle.com/index.ph...sort=2a&page=4

[QUOTE=ilikebikes;9422043]Right on! Now you are getting into the spirit of the thing.

Funny this should come up now. I just removed a pair from a bike that I'm preparing to sell. They were somewhat dry-rotten.

Those of us who considered ourselves hip cyclists would look down at people who had them, but there was really nothing wrong with them.

I suppose you could make your own out of pipe insulation.