buldogge

Most leather supply places sell strip cutters...from very cheap ($5) to "pro" models ($25)...I plan on picking one up and cutting some strips of oxblood for my bronze green Super Course after it is re-painted/powdercoated. I would think the leather would need to be super thin...under 4oz....under 1.5mm.

FWIW
-Mark in St. Louis

Doohickie

My wife used to quilt and still has a fabric cutter; I think it will cut the leather in the pants easily.

Doohickie

I got the tape on. The quilting fabric cutter worked great (think of a pizza cutter with a replaceable, very sharp blade that you use with a staightedge). I sized the leather strips and determined three would be needed for each side. I put the strips in water and wrapped the bars in the old Bontager padded tape, then wrapped the damp leather over it. By getting the leather wet I was hoping to make it more flexible/stretchy and also figuring that as it dried it would shrink slightly, producing a tightly wrapped look. It was very pliable so the first part of that worked out; I'll have to wait and see how much it tightens up when it dries. First reaction to the look is just..... Whoa! Nice! It's very apparent it is leather and not some kind of synthetic stuff.

Chris_in_Miami

Thought I'd wake this thread up to show some photos of my low-buck leather wrap. I started with a few remnants from the local Tandy Leather store, a spool of waxed twine, some heavy needles, and a 1/16" hole punch. I spent about $20 on the supplies.

I wrapped the bars with a layer of hockey tape with no edge overlap to keep the leather from sliding around. Measured the bars then made a few short experimental pieces to test how much the leather would stretch and what would give the best fit. The two different colors were for separate projects, I managed to match a B17 and a Persons Apollo pretty closely.



Once I got the fit dialed in, I marked out and punched the holes. This actually took less time than I expected, the real work is in the lacing.



I started with a double bar stitch to secure the ends, then went to a crisscross pattern for the rest.



The aggravating part is that I ended up pulling the leather off before I took a pic of the completed job, I had these bars on my 3-speed and I couldn't bring myself to clamp the shifter over the nice leather. I'll get photos next time I lace it up.

CMC SanDiego

I recently saw this bike listed on Craigslist. Did you get your asking price?

jmichaeldesign

Scroll all the way to the bottom - https://www.eleathersupply.com/beltstrap.shtml

jco1385

ever since i saw this posted, i've wanted to try it out. well, yesterday i hit pay-dirt. i found a pair of 100% leather pants at the goodwill for $4.29 so i grabbed them. i'm hoping to just cut one continuous strip and wrap it just like normal tape. i'm not too sure how you guys made multiple pieces work out so nicely. did you tape them down and then start the 2nd/3rd pieces?

fwiw, these are my pants:


the leather is about .5mm thick. it should work out nice.

Doohickie

Where my tape ended I just started another piece that overlapped the end of the previous piece. there are a couple spots where you can see bulges because of the extra thicknesses of tape. I used one leg to do my bike; I'm tempted to try to do what Chris_in_Miami did with the sewed-up leather. That looks awesome.

BigPolishJimmy

The sewn leather appeals to me to because of the economy of materials, however all of these look great, and recycle old clothes too. +1000

jco1385

i'm sure i'll have enough material left over to try that out too. it's a lot more tedious too, i'd imagine. i'm sure i got some weird looks going thru all the pants, skirts, and everything looking for something leather. lol

(did you guys' have small, thin seams at the knees also? doohickie, did the theory of wetting and wrapping work out to be a tight fit?)

Doohickie

The wetting didn't hurt, and it was pliable while I was working on it.

jco1385

i got this done yesterday. i made (2) 1.5" wide strips ~66" long (2 strips hand-sewn together). I replaced the 'death' stem, bars, and levers on my UO-8 and then just wrapped the new bars with the leather. It went on just like normal bar tape with no funny wrinkles or anything. i did use small strips at the levers though, instead of the 'figure 8'. although i probably should have made the strips about 70", i think it came out pretty nice.