03 March, 2017

Tie-dye Fri-dye!

by Clint

Ready for warm weather
We have an office tradition of wearing tie-dye on Fridays.  Tie-dye Fri-dye.  I may or may not be the only participant.  Anyways, I was looking at our white bar tape the other day and thought a little tie-dye would be a great way to spice it up.
Gettin' in the nooks & crannies
It's easy enough to do.  You just need a tie-dye kit and white cotton bar tape.  I like our tape for this application.  It's nice and thick so it'll soak up plenty of dye.

I experimented with a few different folds for the tape.  I don't think these ended up making much of a difference.  It's easy enough to wrap a few rubber bands around it right out of the box and get to the dying.  When you've got it all wrapped up, I'd recommend soaking it in water before you dye.  This will help the dyes absorb into the fabric.
Dye patterns: Stripes & top and bottom dip
Time to dye!  I tried a couple different dye application methods.  Stripes along the rubber bands and soaking the top and bottom of the coil.  Both worked pretty well.  You really need to get in the cracks of the tape to make sure it all gets color.  Unless you want some white.  That's a pretty cool effect too.

Here's the tape on a couple bikes!  I think it turned out pretty darn well.  Just in time for the unseasonably warm weather we're having!

Tie-dye klunker

Shout out to Alison for the corks!

Dreamy bar wrap
We had some leftover dye from the bar tape so we tied an dyed a few shirts, shoes, and caps!  Great participation in tie-dye Friday today!
Tie-Dye crew.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Totally completely awesome. I want a shirt like that. And where can I get a tie-dyed dog??...

macmiddlebrooks1@gmail.com said...

VO must be a fun place to work! I need that Klunker in my life....

Unknown said...

Is that a proto camargue (Naked frame) or sibling/2.0 camargue?

VeloOrange said...

@Alex Wirth,

It's the original proto Camargue turned testing/shop/fun bike. No plans for more Camargues at this point.

-Igor

Jon B. said...

definitely, definitely make and offer the bar wrap in a limited run, with either purple or blue options.

Faded Soul said...

I realize this is an old thread, but I was about to have a go at this today, and I've got a few questions. 1) does this affect the adhesive on the tape? 2) Do you wash the tape after, and if not, does the dye bleed onto your hands on sweaty rides? 3) Did you unroll and hang the tape to dry, or just let it dry while all rolled up?

VeloOrange said...

@Faded

The adhesive is a little weaker, but it doesn't affect wrapping. I gave the tape a quick rinse and haven't had blue hands! As far as drying, either will do!

-Clint