hello again,

im making some changes to my brakes which will force me to re wrap my bars (AGAIN) 3 times this year.

wrapping the bars is ok but I always seem to rip most cork or find rips /tears/holes in the cork from the factory that are a headache to deal with.

another issue is general durability as ive had edge curls that ripped . the biggest problem with My bar taping woes are that my bars are a wide 48 cm and commercial foam/cork tapes are always about 2 Inches too short.

My old pugeot when I was a teen had cloth tape that lasted forever, so im wondering if I should go that route again ? I can purchase 4 rolls for very little $$ so Ill have enough length or do a weave or 2 color ....

cloth may not be as comfortable but its been used for "Centuries" (used for many years anyway).

if its too harsh I can always buy better gloves vs my cheapo gloves??

the bike is a Surly XC full dresser with barcons.

thanks again

"John"

Use pieces of your old cork under the cloth tape for cushioning.

I use hockey tape. Comes in various colors and cheap enough to put a couple of layers on the bars. I does fade and get dirty but it's cheap enough to wrap the bars again with the SAME ROLL every 4 months or so. It's also very easy to put on the bars.

This is exactly what I did on my Cross Check. I had the same frustration about the cork chipping off or curling up, so I pulled the cork off the drop sections but left it on the flats. Then I wrapped the whole bar in cotton bar tape. After about 500 miles of daily commuting, this has been a very comfortable and durable set-up. I've got an older green XC, so I went with brown bar tape and it's a great color combination. I haven't made up my mind about shellac-ing the tape for a real classic look, but I doubt that I will.

I got a bike with this ugly salmon pink colored cork/padded tape. Gray bike. I remedied this by covering with Velox black cloth tape. Nice and retro and comfy. Even added a second layer of black cork on top of bars for padding

Memo about velox tape: one box covers half the bars

If you want the cloth to last, you can coat it with shellac. time-cousuming, but nice when done.

I think someone makes a reflective bar tape, I haven't tried it but I think I will next time I wrap the bars.

I used Velox yellow cloth tape coated with a lot of coats of Bullseye amber shellac on my Atlantis. It gave a good color match to the Brooks honey saddle I used and was very comfortable and durable. I did put some cork on the bars before wrapping with cloth.

On my current bike I am using Nashbar natural cork coated with the same amber shellac. It comes out to about the same color as I had on the Atlantis and looks like leather. It has also greatly improved the durability of the cork tape.

Tips: if you are going to do the shellac thing, get yourself a can of denatured alcohol and some cheap brushes. The alcohol is useful for cleaning the brushes, and since they're cheap it doesn't matter if you get them completely clean. Another thing you can do is to leave the brush in the shellac can in between coats and seal around the brush and the top of the can with aluminum foil. That way you don't have to clean the brush in between coats.

Here's the cloth tape on the Atlantis. I don't have any pics of the cork with the shellac on it.

Those of you who are running cloth tape with shellac: Is it absorbent? I have always wondered what this combo would feel like. Is it slippery with sweat/rain? It does look great.

THANKS FOR THE REPLIES,

yeppers I think ill go the cloth route,

Im already a shellac junkie I love all the strange looks from roadies and techies when they look at my bars/brooks seat.


michaelnel how did do you like the atlantis? I was /am seriously thinking of going that route or perhaps Vanilla , I decided to build up the Cross check cuz they used 700c wheels and I had a set and I wanted to get back into the groove before I upgraded to a lighter lugged frame..

the only strange thing with the XC is due to the high bottom bracket my stem stack hieght is quite tall (looks very odd but is comfy)

the atlantis in my size or surly LHT uses the 26" wheels but has nicer geometry for what I wanted but I made my choice based on I had a set of wheels .

you have a double cross too so whats your opinion on the cross frame vs tour frame.



have a great day its raining here in NY.

"john"

I've done several sets of bars with cloth and shellac. I'm not sure of your first question. Does it absorb, what?

Cloth tape absorbs a couple of coats of the shellac before it beguns to build up. I didn't see it as time consuming. It took a few minutes to add a coat to the bars every few hours. In non-humid weather it dries quickly, in humid conditions it might take 4-8 hours.

Once coated the shellac cotton bars don't seem to absorb any water or sweat or anything. I've gone 2-3 years without doing anything. They resist dirt much better than the imitation cork I've used. They just don't look as grungy after months of use.

I find they the shellac and cotton feels more grippy than cork when wet. I've ridden in hours of rain and had no trouble with the shellaced cotton. Maybe it wears the shellac off faster, but I've not noticed.

So I think it looks better longer and is just as good as if not better in the rain.

I'm not sure why you think shellac is time consuming. Yes, you need to put on a few coats. You can ride the bike while you do this. If you commute on it, but a coat on when you get home. By morning it will usually be dry if you give it some ventilation. It does help to dry each coat before applying another. If you put a bunch of semi-dry coats on at once, the whole bunch will take longer to dry. Adding shellac only takes a few minutes if you use cheap brushes (I prefer inch wide sponge ones) and I keep them in a sealed sandwich bag while not in use. Usually if I do it once a day like this I get maybe a dozen applications with it before it becomes too stiff for use. Then I throw it away.

I'm using cloth tape (without shellac) on my bike, and I love it love it love it. Despite the lack of padding, I find it considerably more comfy than the padded vinyl tape I was using. I haven't ridden much with cork tape, so I really can't comment on that, but I find cloth to have a far more pleasant texture than either cork (which I've felt on other bars) or vinyl (which I have ridden hundreds of miles on). The downside is that it has practically no stretch to it at all, so wrapping the bars neatly is more of a challenge. Anyway, riding with cycling gloves solves the problem of padding for me, so I'd say go for the cloth. Shellacing is an interesting idea, I may have to try that someday.

cotton is softest w/o shellac....Get the good Japanese stuff for a little more $$ at jitensha studios out in California. Nice colors and easier to take on/off for whatever. My lbs sells black cateye cloth tape for $1 per roll. It's pretty good quality, too....

I loved it. Best bicycle I have ever owned. The only thing I didn't like about it was the kind of frilly, fancy looks.


I guess nothing that hasn't already been said before. The Double Cross is more responsive, the Atlantis was more comfortable. I think for *my* particular current needs (which do not include any plans for loaded touring), the DC is a better bike for me.


You jinxed me! We had rain (thunderstorms with bigtime lightning and thunder) today. It was the first rain in about 4 or 5 months.

I kind of enjoyed it though. It was warm and humid, and the bike and my raingear performed great.

Cinelli makes some