First try: Compressed air. Jam a nozzle under the top and see if you can sort of inflate them off the bar. Sometimes this works very nicely.
Second try: Soap and water. Injected up under the covers.
Third try: Silicone lubricant.
Solvent or oil based stuff may damage the covers and tends to soften them a little and thus increase the stick unless you flood them.
These sound like the Motobecane covers and I can't say I ever got those off intact.
Joe Bender-Zanoni
Whitneyville, CT
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net>
> After a cold day yesterday, it is warmer today, and I am finally getting around
> to cleaning up the 70's or early 80's Romic touring bike I bought in July. I
> think the post earliier today about the eBay Romic may have motivated me.
>
> As mentioned in my below post from July, it has rather cool GB bar plugs, but
> also marked "Paris". The concensus at the time was that these have no
> connection to Gerry Burgess of GB UK, but are much too old to have been produced
> by Gilles Berthoud, who is not that old a man.
>
> Also mentioned at the time was the bar covering, which is made to look like sewn
> on leather bar tape, but is really rubber push on stuff, like GrabOns, only
> harder rubber, not foam. At the time several people said this stuff was nothing
> special, some thought it downright nasty. Any different opinion? Is this stuff
> worth saving? And assuming it were, anyone know how to get it off the bars
> without destroying it? In the past, I've never tried to save used GrabOns, not
> only becasue I never liked them and because they broke up with age, but because
> it looked pretty hard to remove them once they had been on a while. So I just
> cut them off and was done with it. The stem on the bike is much too short, so
> even if I reuse the bars, the covering has to come off at least one side to
> change the stem. Anyone know a way of doing this without destroying the bar
> covering, or is this an impossible undertaking?
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
> Big Spring, Texas, USA
>
>
>
> --- On Thu, 7/17/08, Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> > From: Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net>
> > Subject: [CR]Berthoud? Bar Covering
> > To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> > Date: Thursday, July 17, 2008, 8:55 PM
> > Received today this bike:
> >
> >
> >
> http://ebay.com/
> temZ110267043540QQihZ001QQcategoryZ98084QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
> >
> > Those who know me know I am a cheapass, so a complete
> > touring bike for less than 1/3 the price of a Limited
> > Edition Ti Brooks Swallow, or $30 more than a long sleeve
> > Vintage Velo wool jersey is hard for me to resist.
> > Especially with the excellent SunShine ProAm wheels and the
> > equally excellent Sugino Mighty Tour cranks. And I love
> > Weinmann 500 brakes - everything you need - nothing you
> > don't.
> >
> > What makes this a bit special for me is that Romic was
> > built by the late Ray Gasorowski in Houston, TX. from who I
> > bought my daughter's 24" wheel junior road bike and
> > a custom track frame In The Day. he also repainted a couple
> > of bike for me. One surprising thing is that the bike has a
> > foil decal from a shop in Minneapolis. I thought Ray only
> > sold through shops in Houston and the surrounding area.
> >
> > Unpacking it I find it has bluish green GB rubber barend
> > plugs. I thought these were "GB" as in Gerry (or
> > is it Gary) Burgess, but it also say "Paris".
> > Does "GB" then mean Giles Berthoud instead? If
> > so, this raises the issue of the bar coverings. As seen in
> > the photos, these look similar to perforated sewn-on leather
> > coverings. But instead, the are rubber. Not the fragile
> > foam like Grabons, but thick, heavy rubber. Could these bar
> > coverings be Berthoud as well? If so, I may have to rethink
> > my initial inclination to cut them off.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Jerry Moos
> > Big Spring, Texas, USA