Peter-
I ran into precisely the same problem during one of my recent Masi restorations. I had acquired a large NOS box of Tressostar cotton cloth tape in which the "glue" on the backside seemed to have degraded a bit over the years and made everything sticky. The perfect solution was to grab a clean cloth and douse it in a bit of "GOO GONE" (in a small, yellow square can at Home Depot) which removes adhesive residue. It works perfectly. As an added bonus, it also lifts any dirt from the cloth. In fact, if you are using white cloth, or any lighter color, it will act as a bit of a cleaning agent to re-fresh the look of dirty tape.
It smells manly too.
Chris Arkell Atlanta, GA
>From: "Peter Brueggeman" <pbrueggeman@ucsd.edu>
>To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
>Subject: Re: [CR]making old handlebar tape not sticky on the outside?
>Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 21:58:11 -0700
>
>Ray, I think you gave a good off-list tip so I will out it. I Googled
>"colorless powder makeup" and see what you mean... it seems perfect since I
>do know that the tape stickiness goes away completely with baby powder.
>Since I had dirtied the newly-installed tape in a ride around the block
>with well-used black riding gloves (darn) and I want to ride it tomorrow to
>work, I put baby powder on the taped bars figuring it would at least get
>rid of the stickiness and soften the dirtiness too. It did both but it is
>still dirty looking, a bit whiter, and now it smells tarty. Much better
>than dirty and sticky though... Next I will experiment with colorless
>powder on a short piece of tape and then retape and powder up. Thanks for
>the lead.
>
>I also purchased some grey-palmed bike gloves which will be dedicated to
>use on this bike, and won't use well-used and/or black-palmed gloves on it.
>
>Peter
>......................................
>Peter Brueggeman, San Diego California
>pbrueggeman(AT)ucsd.edu
>
>From: "Raymond Dobbins" <raydobbins2003@yahoo.com>
>>Peter, I seem to recall a special colorless talc used for theater makeup.
>>I had some once that came with a Halloween makeup kit, and I remember it
>>took the stickiness off the heavy makeup without affecting the color. You
>>may want to look into that.
>> The other possibility would be to use a clean cotton cloth (light blue
>>if possible), to tamp/rub the bar tape with, to eliminate some of the
>>stickiness with that.
>> Good luck and let us know if you get a good tip off-list.
>> Ray
>>
>>Peter Brueggeman <pbrueggeman@ucsd.edu> wrote:
>> Is there a way to make newly-wrapped vintage light-colored cloth
>>handlebar
>>tape not sticky on the outside of the tape, before my sweaty gloved hands
>>dirty it up? This Chimiplast pale blue tape looks cool on the bike, and is
>>an uncommon color, but the adhesive passed through the tape.... I would
>>like
>>to de-sticky it for use. If it was white tape, I would use talc but it's
>>pale blue, so I'm not sure. Anybody dealt with this issue? I searched the
>>CR Archives for advice ... found nada.
>>Peter "this is what I get for deviating from my usual black handlebar
>>tape"
>>Brueggeman