[CR]Leather handlebar tape and bar covering timeline

(Example: Framebuilders)

From: "garth libre" <rabbitman@mindspring.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 17:02:04 -0400
Subject: [CR]Leather handlebar tape and bar covering timeline

First of all let me say that I have been to a few pro golf shops and leather grip tape is no longer used. Instead, now the walls are covered with slip on rubber high tech stuff that sometimes imitates leather but usually is just interesting but will not work for bikes. Maybe tennis shops still have leather tape, I don't know.

Second, let me say that the timeline you have is wrong. Rubber cushiony tape was used until the mid nineties on mid level and high level bikes and still (if you can find it) is sold in a few colors. This stuff is my personal favorite for any bike but Benotto celo tape is still sold in all colors and should do for any bike back to the mid 70's until the present. The current trend to use rubberized cork tape is an insult. Although it is comfortable, it is delicate, and dirties quickly. After a few months you have dirty and torn tape. The fabric tape was sold for all the years of the 70's and 80's and is still available someplaces today, although I hope it is not new old stock. The fascist tendency of the industry to get us to buy some new tape at the expense of making an older style difficult to get in all the colors or just plain difficult to get at all, is shameful.

As a restorer of classic bikes you should not be pushed into putting the era's most popular tape on your bars, but should be able to choose from any that were available at the time, as anyone would have in the time that is correct for your bike. Modern corky type tape is another in a long line of "improvements", such as toothpaste welded malonium one size fits all compact Day-Glo frames, that should be eschewed. Garth