Shellac cork?

[EricP]

What are the pros and cons of doing it? The Hillborne build will have
cork tape. Should I shellac the entire thing, or just the twine?
Mainly wondering if the cushiness of the cork will be compromised.
And/or if the shellac will flake off at a pretty good clip. Figure
the look would be nice, but don't want it to become a maintenance
headache.

Eric Platt
St. Paul, MN

[Murray Love]

Neither.  The shellac doesn't interfere with cush, nor does it flake off (the first couple of coats actually soak in a bit).  With more than (say) three coats, you lose the grippy-cork feeling, getting an ultra-smooth finish instead, which I preferred.

Murray
Victoria, BC

[Angus]

Eric,

I recently shellaced the cork grips on my All-Rounder. I think they
look much nicer (deep, rich, amber color), they still feel just as
cushy. With wool gloves (worn off rubber dots) they are a bit more
slippery, with standard leather cycling gloves or bare hands its fine.

Angus

[Dave Craig]

Actually, maintenance-wise, the shellac keeps the cork in good shape
much longer. The edges of the tape don't roll and the cork doesn't get
grimy. After a single, two week-long tour, the tan cork on my wife's
bike looked like crap. I'm going on the 3rd year with shellac'd cork
tape on my Atlantis with lots of miles, including two month-long
tours.

Perhaps a point of interest for some of you:

I used amber shellac on some black Cinelli cork tape. At first, I
wasn't happy with the result because I was looking for a shiny black
effect. However, the tape ended up looking very much like the leather
on my black brooks saddle. I used some black hemp twine to finish the
job - looks great!

Dave

[GeorgeS]

What will happen if one shellacs regular handle bar tape? The non-
cork rubber-like stuff sold by SRAM?

[JoelMatthews]

The French have been shellacing cotton tape for many years. You will
want to apply the shellac lightly adding multiple coats as desired.
Depending on the shellac used, the original color will change
somewhat.

If you only use one or two coats, the cotton feel is pretty much
unchanged. Three or more coats and the tape begins to feel more like
the plastic tapes that used to be popular. I change my handle bars
and covering too frequently to be a good judge, but I have heard
shellac on cotton bar does extend the life of the tape.

> > > > St. Paul, MN- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[MKahrl]

I recently tried shellaced cloth tape and I'm surprised and delighted
by how well it has held up over 3000 miles of riding. For probably
fifteen years I had been screwing around with various forms of cork
padded tape and they all start to chip up, migrate and loosen after a
few months and if they are any color other than black they soon look
grubby. Shellaced tape doesn't attract grim, cleans easily, stays in
place, has plenty of grip, and doesn't wear down.

I thought I would miss the cushion affect but the Jack Brown tires
more than made up for it.

Michael Kahrl
Columbus, Ohio

[JimD]

Ditto on shellacked cloth.

I've tried Brooks leather, shellacked cork, and modern plastic.
Shellacked cloth comes out as my favorite.
Durability is excellent. I had over 7k miles on shellacked blue cloth
on my Romulus when I sold it and the tape was still in excellent shape.

-JimD

[Dave Craig]

George,

I've never tried putting shellac on the rubberized tape sold by Sram
and others. I've had the type of tape you describe on several bikes in
the past - it comes in more colors and styles, so I understand why one
might choose it over cork. Given that tape is relatively inexpensive
stuff, I say shellac the stuff and report back to the group with the
result. My willingness to experiment with the unconventional set-ups
on bikes has made me a much better mechanic. Unfortunately, most of my
experiments have been considerably more expensive than bar tape!

Dave

[Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery]

"The French have been shellacing cotton tape for many years."

Is that true? Was it a widespread practice among "The French"? Or is
it simply a case where Jan Heine uncovered some obscure French cycling
club whose members tried shellac one time in 1938? I seem to recall
Grant discussing his handlebar treatment experiments in the Riv Reader
years ago, and that he "discovered" that shellac was better than
whatever else he tried. I use the quotes because I'm sure Grant wasn't
the first to discover shellac, but I'd think that if shellacking bars
had been a long established practice, he wouldn't have experimented as
much with other finishes. I've never seen shellacked cloth in person
or in pictures that predated Grant's publication of the idea.

To bring this around to the topic at hand, I'm not a fan of shellacked
cork tape. It's hard (for me) to get an even coat without drips, and
it wears quickly with use.

[JoelMatthews]

> Is that true? Was it a widespread practice among "The French"? Or is
> it simply a case where Jan Heine uncovered some obscure French cycling
> club whose members tried shellac one time in 1938?

Well, I have seen pictures of old Herses and Singers with shellaced
cloth tape. I guess it never occurred to me to check whether the tape
was always shellaced or recently so.

To your point, while most think of Herse and Singer when they think of
French bikes, there were not a terrible lot of them.

On May 1, 10:29 am, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery <thill....@gmail.com>

> > > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

[Murray Love]

On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 8:29 AM, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery <thil...@gmail.com> wrote:

To bring this around to the topic at hand, I'm not a fan of shellacked
cork tape. It's hard (for me) to get an even coat without drips, and
it wears quickly with use.

Well, that's back to the whole wabi-sabi thing.  Shellacked cork does wear, but I found it wore quite gracefully--it gradually rubs off in the places where you grip most.  Then you re-apply periodically.

In a great fit of de-padding the bar area a few years ago, I switched to shellacked cotton and found it far more to my taste than cork, shellacked or no.  (I also prefer unpadded gloves, so it's a thing of mine, I guess.)  Plus, shellacked cotton does have that sleek old-school look which suits lugged steel to a T.

These days I've become devoted to the Fizik Microtex bar tape, the version without the gel inserts, though I'd never shellack it.

Murray
Victoria, BC

[Dave Craig]

> To bring this around to the topic at hand, I'm not a fan of shellacked
> cork tape. It's hard (for me) to get an even coat without drips, and
> it wears quickly with use.

I agree that the shellac wears quickly, especially in the places that
I grip most often. This has never bothered me since it makes the cork
look more like leather (uneven and organic). I touch up the shellac
occasionally, though not obsessively - I don't carry shellac on tours!
I'm OK with a few drips because it's my bike and I don't care.
However, I'll stand by the fact that unprotected cork wears quickly
and, unless it is black, it looks grubby pretty fast.

Shellacked cotton tape is beautiful. One can do fancy harlequin weaves
with it. It wears like iron. Why shouldn't everyone use it? I would
love to. There are two reasons for me. Sometimes I like to ride
without gloves and I have big hands. Riding with cotton tape is like
riding on bare bars - no padding and a small diameter. I just don't
find cotton taped bars all that comfortable. All this said, I am
switching my Atlantis off touring and town duty now that I have a
Bombadil. Perhaps, I'll consider committing to wearing gloves and
using cloth tape.

Dave

"The desire to have a beautiful bike is something shared by everyone.
The desire comes with childhood; some cultivate it, others repress it,
but it's always there." -- Paul Fournel - Need for the Bike

[fenderbender]

I've decided to fit cloth over some recycled comfy cork and then
shellac it. Shellac on cork tend to look like... a wiener sausage!
http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc/images3/cc228-5.jpg
Shellac - The Myth Revealed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=channel&v=UiPcpnylK-4#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TanLmg-RDps

[Bill Connell]

On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 11:54 AM, Dave Craig <dcr...@prescott.edu> wrote:
> Shellacked cotton tape is beautiful. One can do fancy harlequin weaves
> with it. It wears like iron. Why shouldn't everyone use it? I would
> love to. There are two reasons for me. Sometimes I like to ride
> without gloves and I have big hands. Riding with cotton tape is like
> riding on bare bars - no padding and a small diameter. I just don't
> find cotton taped bars all that comfortable. All this said, I am
> switching my Atlantis off touring and town duty now that I have a
> Bombadil. Perhaps, I'll consider committing to wearing gloves and
> using cloth tape.

I have big hands too, and cloth taped bars are too skinny for me. I do
like the feel of cloth though, so i wrap a layer of rubber tape (or
split innertube) on the bar first to fatten it up, then a layer of
cloth on top. There's a picture of my Redwood with this treatment
here:
http://wjc.fidean.net/log/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/redwood-diamondtape.jpg

I don't have the tape shellacked though, and the black has faded quite
a bit since that picture. I don't like the feel of slickly shellacked
tape, but i might put just a coat or two on to keep the tape in better
shape.

--
Bill Connell
St. Paul, MN

[Dave Craig]

Bill and Fenderbender,

Thanks for those ideas. I will use one of these techniques on the
Atlantis when I return from my summer tour. Bill, that's a beautiful
tape job and exactly why I might be inclined to use cloth instead of
cork for my next tape job.

You know what they say about men with bigger hands . . . they need
bigger bars!

Dave

On May 1, 11:30 am, Bill Connell <bconn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 11:54 AM, Dave Craig <dcr...@prescott.edu> wrote:
> > Shellacked cotton tape is beautiful. One can do fancy harlequin weaves
> > with it. It wears like iron. Why shouldn't everyone use it? I would
> > love to. There are two reasons for me. Sometimes I like to ride
> > without gloves and I have big hands. Riding with cotton tape is like
> > riding on bare bars - no padding and a small diameter. I just don't
> > find cotton taped bars all that comfortable. All this said, I am
> > switching my Atlantis off touring and town duty now that I have a
> > Bombadil. Perhaps, I'll consider committing to wearing gloves and
> > using cloth tape.
>
> I have big hands too, and cloth taped bars are too skinny for me. I do
> like the feel of cloth though, so i wrap a layer of rubber tape (or
> split innertube) on the bar first to fatten it up, then a layer of
> cloth on top. There's a picture of my Redwood with this treatment

> here:http://wjc.fidean.net/log/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/redwood-diamondt...

[fenderbender]

Can only get white cloth tape and light amber shellac witch will
probably result in a too light brown/orange result. So I'd like like
to ask if anyone know of a good way to get a darker result to match my
old Ideal saddle. Should I dye the cloth, ad some color to the shellac
or just keep putting on lots of layers?

[Bill Connell]

More layers will give you a slick finish, which may or may not be what
you want. There are places to get cloth in colors - Rivendell,
Hiawatha Cyclery, probably Harris. IIRC, yellow tape with a few coats
of amber is a good match for a honey saddle.

[Seth Vidal]

Velo-orange just posted that they have orange tressostar tape back in.

orange tape + amber shellac probably ends up being pretty.

-sv

[fenderbender]

On 1 Maj, 21:10, Bill Connell <bconn...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 2:04 PM, fenderbender <pedal_kr...@yahoo.se> wrote:
> More layers will give you a slick finish, which may or may not be what
> you want. There are places to get cloth in colors - Rivendell,
> Hiawatha Cyclery, probably Harris. IIRC, yellow tape with a few coats
> of amber is a good match for a honey saddle.

> Bill Connell
> St. Paul, MN

Thanks! Tempted to place a larger order this autumn. But I'm not that
much of a fashion victim to have handlebar wrap sent half way around
the world for the sake of colour. ^^^ I have both white and blue wrap
at home and would like to get it done soon so I guess I'll just try
and dye it. Not sure what type of color to use though. Could probably
source some hockey stick wrap but would it work?
Remember reading that Grant P. had come across some blue shellac. I
could only find amber and clear but what other colors are there?

[MM]

Yellow cloth + amber shellac = Brooks Honey after several coats.
Available now at Rivendell (bought yellow rolls today), VO, and
Jitensha in Berkeley. I use trash bags or old dry cleaning bags to
prevent drip. Alcohol removes drips and spatters quickly if you to hit
the spot twice about a minute apart.

[Ron Farnsworth]

I have not found that unprotected cork tape wears quickly. I've had the same cork tape out in rain, shine, and winter weather for 10 years and probably over 10k miles. It still has good grip, doesn't soak up water, hasn't cracked, and is still cushy. I've cleaned it a few times with some generic general purpose cleaners and it looks good as new, well almost anyway as it does look a bit burnished at my favorite positions. --- On Fri, 5/1/09, Dave Craig <dcr...@prescott.edu> wrote:

[fenderbender]

On 1 Maj, 20:52, Dave Craig <dcr...@prescott.edu> wrote:
>
> You know what they say about men with bigger hands . . . they need
> bigger bars!
>
> Dave

Oh, tell me about it.
http://www.capabilityevents.co.uk/images/001Sept08/Big/KIF_7020.jpg

[JoelMatthews]

I bought a pair of Miesha Portuguese Cork Tree Grips and put a few
coats of VO blonder flake shellac over the past couple of days. The
blonde shellac does not really change the color or character of the
cork. Rather, like putting mineral oil on fine wood it enhances the
flecks and patterns in the cork. It will be a nice organic look to
contrast with the cold steel of my bike.

http://www.rivbike.com/products/list/handlebars_stems_and_tape#product=16-187

On Apr 30, 6:51 pm, EricP <ericpl...@aol.com> wrote: