Steve Leitgen <sleitgen@charter.net>
Steve,
The feel of shellaced cloth tape is hard to describe, but it really doesn't feel like plastic. With me, it gives me a better feel of the bars than vinyl or cork. I prefer to use minimum coats to leave a rough texture. I've all but given up on anything else and have redone several bikes in cloth.
Fred
>
> From: Steve Leitgen <sleitgen@charter.net>
> Date: 2005/11/10 Thu PM 08:25:05 EST
> To: <saint09@bellsouth.net>
> CC: <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Subject: Re: [CR]shellac a "cork" handlebar tape?
>
> I must be missing out on something. How does shellac improve the feel
> of cloth tape? Wouldn't it end up feeling somewhat like plastic?
> Please educate me?
>
> Steve leitgen
> La Crosse, WI
>
>
> On Nov 10, 2005, at 5:40 PM, <saint09@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
> > Martin,
> > I've had very good luck getting cloth tape off of Ebay in
> > various colors (red, brown, white, blue, black, tan, even purple) at
> > about $5.00 for two rolls. One seller seems to have an overstock of
> > the stuff and has the fastest shipping I've ever seen. While I believe
> > you can shellac cork tape, I don't think it'll give you the same look
> > or feel as cloth. With cloth, you can vary both the tint of the tape
> > as well as the texture depending on the number of coats. Shellac can
> > be bought or scratch mixed in varying degrees of amber, so with enough
> > coats, you can approximate the tint of a honey Brooks saddle. Cork
> > doesn't absorb as well as cloth, so I'm not sure it'll give you the
> > same effect and I kind of like the feel of tightly wrapped, shellaced
> > cloth bar tape. If you do shellac, use several thin coats as opposed
> > to a few heavy coats. The shellac can be thinned out with alcohol and
> > if you store your brush in an airtight jar (I used ziplock bags), it
> > won't get hard.
> > Fred Durrette
> > Summerville, SC
> >>
> >> From: "Martin Appel" <martin@camelot.de>
> >> Date: 2005/11/10 Thu AM 05:56:31 EST
> >> To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> >> Subject: [CR]shellac a "cork" handlebar tape?
> >>
> >> shellacing a cloth handlebar tape is a nice way to give your bike a
> >> classic look.
> >>
> >> Sad thing is that cloth handlebar tape in colors other than black
> >> seems
> >> to have vanished rom the market; Rivendell is out of stock...
> >>
> >> so i thought of alternatives.
> >> Cinelli sells a modern "cork" padded handlebar tape in color "nature"
> >> (see http://www.bike24.net/
> >> just a little bit to light in color to match with a Broks saddle.
> >>
> >> i wonder i it might be possible to put shellac on one o those tapes?
> >> anybody ever tried it?
> >>
> >> thanks or any hints,
> >>
> >> Martin Appel
> >> Munich, Germany