I've always loved the aesthetics of perforated leather, be it on old car seats, wheel covers, gloves... After a couple of tries we found a company that could make VO handlebar tape in a perforated version. It's soft, available in black or tan, and it's long enough for even a 46cm bar. And at $55 it's a lot less expensive than the Brooks version.
18 September, 2008
Our Leather Has Holes
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7 comments:
You know, I always thought of using tennis racket grip wrap but never tried it. It would probably work pretty well.
4 dollars less expensive-- do a google search
Possibly, but you'd probably use four lengths of grip-wrap (given a standard piece) to cover a set of bars.
I did a google search and came up with this:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=brooks+leather+bar+tape&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=
The street price for brooks is $75-79.95, plus shipping. These prices possibly do not reflect the last 2 price increases that Brooks released in the last 6 months.
There are a few shops in Europe (SJS cycles, Total cycling) selling them from 46-52 bucks, but shipping is 25 pounds (about $40), so the price to your door is about $80 anyway.
We received a Brooks 2009 pricelist a few weeks ago; US MSRP is $90 for this tape. To be fair, Brooks has 2 additional colors than us (green and a slightly darker brown, but after a few miles or riding the honey will darken to brown anyway). If you need to have the exact matching black color or a 100% brooksed out bike, it's probably worth it to pay the $25 premium. If you can live with a slight off black or not the perfect color combo out of the box, then VO leather bar tape is a very reasonable option.
looks good!
i love the look of this, but can someone honestly tell me what kind of advantages this tape has over gel or cork?
on a related note, is there sufficient length for the tape to work with gel pads like these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QSXYHM
The tape is sufficiently long enough for most road bars, even 46 cm widths. Gel pads will definitely require more tape as you are increasing the overall diameter of the bars. There is usu 4-6" left over when wrapping a bare 42cm end to end measured handlebar.
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