Stitched leather bar tape and hoods

[chriscross1966]

Has anyone ever done this?.... I'm handy enough with a needle, but rather than spend a few attempts to get it right by experimenting I was wondering if anyone had any pointers?... Bars are Cinelli, levers are Corsa Records, I've got a choice of several sets , but they're all pretty similar, pre-ergo Campy stuff from the late eighties seems pretty standardised... For various practical reasons I want to run the cables in the aero positions (so therefore won't be running the NOS Victory levers I have, plus with Deltas I need the QR levers...

 

[Cycleops]

Sew go ahead and give it a try.

 

[chriscross1966]

Sew go ahead and give it a try.

Groan

 

[Gravity Aided]

Probably want some curved upholstery needles. I've made leather bar wrap out of discarded couches, but never sewn on covers. I may give it a whirl as well.

 

[alicat]

I did it to my touring bike. Bit of a faff once some padding has been added underneath.

I'm now thinking of taking it off.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Why so?

 

[alicat]

Looks a bit homespun. When it gets wet, it stays wet for a long time. The honey-coloured leather is a lot darker in some places than others.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Beeswax may help that.

 

[chriscross1966]

The bike I'm fitting them to will never see rain :-)

 

[froze]

I did my so long ago i forgot any pointers I may have had, but I got all the information on how to do it at the Rivendell site which they don't have it on their site anymore. I used leather wrap, hemp twine (lasts a lot longer than cotton twine) and shellac. The only thing I can find of any good instructions is: http://www.instructables.com/id/Handlebar-barwrapgrips---whipping-and-shellac-cov/

Shellac is kind of cool because you can even shellac cork tape to give it a unique look and durability, natural tan cork will actually turn out to look like leather. But I strongly suggest if your going to do that with cork is first test a very small piece to see if you'll like the end result. Before you shellac it wrap twine where the tape is that holds the tape to the bar by the stem, then shellac.

 

[chriscross1966]

Found a few bits and bobs on making hoods, have ordered materials to do the job, if I can't make the bar covering work then just hoods will be fine and I'll use normal white leather bar tape.