Leather Wrap Color Options

[Ahneida Ride]

Yea ... I know .... Another teaser ....

But we now have color options ....take a peek ....
About 40 colors are available

Here is just a sample ....

Black and (light) Brown are obvious .... but how bout a third color to
start ? What should it be ...

White
Blue
Red
Yellow
Pink
Orange
..... I like Orange!
Dark Brown?

;) :banana:

Thanks for all the input. I am deeply indebted ...

[Ken Robb]

RED goes with almost everything and can really liven up a dull-looking bike.

[michael white]

I like white tape the best, but yellow is in the running.

[rwsaunders]

White is always hip in cycling circles. Where do you find the white cows? :cool:

[Ken C]

White would be the next logical choice


After that Red or Orange.

Ken

[Michael Maddox]

I keep meaning to PM about this, but I figure I'll make it a public review.

I installed the sample I was sent, accepting Ray's challenge to TRY to tear it. This stuff is STRONG. You can wrap it TIGHTLY. Having just installed some Brooks tape as well, I will say Ray's tape is stronger and more supple by far. If he's going to make a go of this, you should definitely get off your wallet and get some of it. It is a superior tape to all other brands, leather or otherwise.

A long term review will be forthcoming as I have the chance to abuse it.

[SpeedyChix]

Orange or Blue/Navy

[torquer]

RED goes with almost everything and can really liven up a dull-looking bike.

If its from a red heiffer, will that speed the arrival of end times? That would really liven things up!

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/15024

[William]

I've been abusing the original samples for a while now on the Effin Cross bike and they have been holding up amazingly. Ray gave me a Navy Blue sample of the latest version which I've been running on my blue & white fixie for a while. The wrap is supple and very strong. Easy to wrap and stays in place. Nothing like the feel of very fine leather under your fingers. I've said it before and I'll say it again:

AR's wrap is the best on the market bar none.

Lots of great colors will be available to match up with just about any color scheme out there. When he pulls the trigger on this, grab it up!!



William

[acorn_user]

A rich, reddy-brown would be pretty cool :)
Look forward to getting hold of this. My race bike needs new tape...

[fiamme red]

Green, the color of FRN's. :banana:

[SoCalSteve]

White is always hip in cycling circles. Where do you find the white cows? :cool:

Same place they find white Brooks Swallows...

Just sayin'

Steve

[Pete Serotta]

this is good stuff and Anieda takes frncs

[mschol17]

Red or Orange

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . for this "miracle tape" yet?

I'm also curious as to where you'd find red or yellow cows? . . . :confused:

BBD

[stackie]

I'd vote for a dark brown to match Brooks antique brown. I'm kind of into the carpet matching the drapes, (bar tape matching the saddle, you pervs). I'm guessing that many of your bar tape customers will be Brooks saddle users, so they may be interested in most popular Brooks saddle tones.

Just my 2 cents.

Jon

[Blue Jays]

I felt the various A.R. leather samples while attending the Finger Lakes Ramble and they are indeed of the absolute highest quality. Purchase with complete confidence when this excellent product reaches the marketplace.

With black and light brown clearly in the queue, the next two colors that seem to be the most-appealing (to the broadest spectrum of riders) would be white and then red. We're rooting for you with this project!!

[sevencyclist]

Another vote for dark brown. Also light blue is nice.

[Ahneida Ride]

Thanks to all my buddies here ....

After numerous iterations, some pretty good, others well, I thinks
we have converged onto a nice properly champhered wrap. I'ts one
piece / side .... no splices to break or show.

Water proofing is easily accomplished by an application of Obenauf LP,
a leather condition used by fire fighters.

Obenauf Web Site (http://www.obenaufs.com/lp.php)

The Obenauf seems to be superior to Proofhide and it's application has
a minimal darkening affect on the leather. IMHO, most colors look
richer/ more vibrant after an application as the preservative soaks in.

------

An adhesive strip is not added. This way the wrap can be removed and
reused. To mitigate sliding in wet conditions, one should first install a
thin underlayman of cheapo cork or cotton wrap. The underlayman
could be loosely spaced. The wrap is strong stuff and can be pulled
real tight.

An adhesive strip is easly added, but since this stuff should last a bit
it should be removable/reusable.

-----

Since it's real leather, the good stuff, one can expect some minor
defects, as the cow hit a fence or barbed wire. But these are minor.
Also there are some minor variations in the "smoothness" of the leather
as some parts of the hide are slightly more subtle then others.

The hides are of a superior quality and these variations are very small.


Hope this helps .... :) :beer:

[Far Rider]

Thanks to all my buddies here ....

After numerous iterations, some pretty good, others well, I thinks
we have converged onto a nice properly champhered wrap. I'ts one
piece / side .... no splices to break or show.

Water proofing is easily accomplished by an application of Obenauf LP,
a leather condition used by fire fighters.

Obenauf Web Site (http://www.obenaufs.com/lp.php)

The Obenauf seems to be superior to Proofhide and it's application has
a minimal darkening affect on the leather. IMHO, most colors look
richer/ more vibrant after an application as the preservative soaks in.

------

An adhesive strip is not added. This way the wrap can be removed and
reused. To mitigate sliding in wet conditions, one should first install a
thin underlayman of cheapo cork or cotton wrap. The underlayman
could be loosely spaced. The wrap is strong stuff and can be pulled
real tight.

An adhesive strip is easly added, but since this stuff should last a bit
it should be removable/reusable.

-----

Since it's real leather, the good stuff, one can expect some minor
defects, as the cow hit a fence or barbed wire. But these are minor.
Also there are some minor variations in the "smoothness" of the leather
as some parts of the hide are slightly more subtle then others.

The hides are of a superior quality and these variations are very small.


Hope this helps .... :) :beer:

....and this stuff will be available when....?

[Ahneida Ride]

....and this stuff will be available when....?


Going into production is no longer the hold up. We gots the pieces of the
puzzle. ;) Just don't envision any production problems.

I now have to get a site up and running with E-commerce capabilities ..
Any suggestions? short of paying the big frns for a full blown
custom site :confused:

I built a nice simple site using Go Alive, but alas no e-commerce.

Should be up and running by the end of January ....
Is this ok ?

I'm still thinking about a name .... wait ... did we have a naming contest?
gotta go back and check that thread ... :banana:

[dekindy]

. . . for this "miracle tape" yet?

I'm also curious as to where you'd find red or yellow cows? . . . :confused:

BBD

I was just about to ask also until I saw your post. Original comment began with "Do we have a name".

BDBT - Best Damn Bar Tape

[Wanker]

Where does one find this bar tape, please?
wank

[Jack Brunk]

I'll take a 100 ft roll in white please.

[Blue Jays]

A.R., perhaps you could sell the wrap via the classified page and PM messages here?
You could then "scale" to an e-commerce site as the business gained steam via word-of-mouth advertising.

[TMB]

White and/or a Tan to match the Brooks Honey Tan.

[Bruce K]

DARK BLUE.

White would be OK but I'm thinking it would be tough to keep clean.

I have some of Ray's tape (black) on my single speed road bike and it is GREAT.

The Obenauf works like a champ!

BK

[William]

DARK BLUE.

White would be OK but I'm thinking it would be tough to keep clean.

I have some of Ray's tape (black) on my single speed road bike and it is GREAT.

The Obenauf works like a champ!

BK


I've got some of that. The Ob darkens it real nice. :cool:



William

[Ahneida Ride]

A.R., perhaps you could sell the wrap via the classified page and PM messages here?
You could then "scale" to an e-commerce site as the business gained steam via word-of-mouth advertising.


Well maybe I could do that once. But this is a Serotta site and I am
already abusing Ben's generosity and good will.

I really need to get a site up.

[William]

We could sell some through my site…..but I would have to demonstrate how it could be used as a weapon. Some Silat Sarong techniques would apply here.


:D ;)

William

[Blue Jays]

A.R., take William up on his generous distribution channel offer!
The wrap could probably be used to hog-tie perps in a pinch. See, it is fully-weaponized, too!

[Ahneida Ride]

Uncle William requests ORANGE ....

that word "requests" scares me ..

[palincss]

Yea ... I know .... Another teaser ....

But we now have color options ....take a peek ....
About 40 colors are available

Here is just a sample ....

Black and (light) Brown are obvious .... but how bout a third color to
start ?


The real question is, what will that color look like after 3 months on the road. I have the Fujitoshi in honey on my Velo Orange. It became a rich dark brown/black where I put my hands in a fairly short time. Where I don't put my hands is still honey. Depending on the color, that sort of change could look great, or simply horrible (on white, for example).

Cork and cloth don't change color like this. Honey Brooks leather saddles do.

[palincss]

An adhesive strip is not added. This way the wrap can be removed and
reused. To mitigate sliding in wet conditions, one should first install a
thin underlayman of cheapo cork or cotton wrap. The underlayman
could be loosely spaced. The wrap is strong stuff and can be pulled
real tight.

An adhesive strip is easly added, but since this stuff should last a bit
it should be removable/reusable.



I have the Fujitoshi, which came with an adhesive backing. I found that over time, the tape kept slipping -- especially so during a rainy century -- so that gaps opened up between the wraps. I think I've got it stopped for good now, by first wrapping a layer of friction tape, then wrapping the leather on top of it.

Good old friction tape. We always used it when I was a kid, called it "black tape". You'd wrap the grip of your baseball bat with it, and I even fixed a broken cap pistol with it once -- the stuff was so good the toy continued to hold together even after the tape was peeled off. The Wikipedia even mentions its traditional role as a base layer for wrapping bicycle handlebars. The smell is simply unforgettable, and for me brings back a flood of memories.

When I tried to buy a roll to fix my slipping leather handlebar wrap, I went into a number of hardware stores and got the same reaction: a dumb stare, a long silence, then an offer of vinyl electrical tape. Of course, in a hardware store they have no idea about wrapping handlebars. I did eventually find a roll in a very large, very old fashioned hardware store, the place around here where you go for really oddball things (like metric fasteners).

I'd almost forgot we used to use it as electrical insulation. It long predates the slippery plastic stuff. It's cloth tape permeated with rubber, and either the rubber is adhesive, or it has adhesive coating on both sides. When you wrap multiple layers of it, it seems to fuse together into a rubber/cloth "layer cake" blob.

I once used it to build up the dimater of a Zefal HPX pump so that it would fit a pump bracket designed for a Blackburn pump.

[Far Rider]

I have the Fujitoshi, which came with an adhesive backing. I found that over time, the tape kept slipping -- especially so during a rainy century -- so that gaps opened up between the wraps. I think I've got it stopped for good now, by first wrapping a layer of friction tape, then wrapping the leather on top of it.

Good old friction tape. We always used it when I was a kid, called it "black tape". You'd wrap the grip of your baseball bat with it, and I even fixed a broken cap pistol with it once -- the stuff was so good the toy continued to hold together even after the tape was peeled off. The Wikipedia even mentions its traditional role as a base layer for wrapping bicycle handlebars. The smell is simply unforgettable, and for me brings back a flood of memories.

When I tried to buy a roll to fix my slipping leather handlebar wrap, I went into a number of hardware stores and got the same reaction: a dumb stare, a long silence, then an offer of vinyl electrical tape. Of course, in a hardware store they have no idea about wrapping handlebars. I did eventually find a roll in a very large, very old fashioned hardware store, the place around here where you go for really oddball things (like metric fasteners).

I'd almost forgot we used to use it as electrical insulation. It long predates the slippery plastic stuff. It's cloth tape permeated with rubber, and either the rubber is adhesive, or it has adhesive coating on both sides. When you wrap multiple layers of it, it seems to fuse together into a rubber/cloth "layer cake" blob.

I once used it to build up the dimater of a Zefal HPX pump so that it would fit a pump bracket designed for a Blackburn pump.
I use "hockey tape", another name for friction tape, as an underlayment on all my leather-clad handlebars. You can buy "hockey tape" most anywhere hockey equipment is sold. It's used for wrapping hockey sticks and it's quite inexpensive.

[Blue Jays]

My immediate thought was hockey tape.
They also use it on skateboard decks.

[palincss]

When I first discovered that hardware stores didn't know what I was talking about when I asked for "friction tape" I went online. I discovered there are two kinds of tape currently sold as "friction tape": one for wrapping hockey sticks, and one that has electrical insulating properties.

I have no experience with the hockey stick variety, but the other is the same plain old "black tape" we used 50-60 years ago, and still smells just as wonderful. Who needs Proust when you can sniff friction tape?

[Ken Robb]

Good old friction tape. We always used it when I was a kid, called it "black tape". You'd wrap the grip of your baseball bat with it, and I even fixed a broken cap pistol with it once -- the stuff was so good the toy continued to hold together even after the tape was peeled off. The Wikipedia even mentions its traditional role as a base layer for wrapping bicycle handlebars. The smell is simply unforgettable, and for me brings back a flood of memories.

).

And when you vigorously pull a strip from the roll in a dark garage you can see blue sparks---no kidding. We wasted quite a bit of my neighbor's tape demonstrating this phenomenon to other kids. :)

[Pete Serotta]

WHen can we have it and how much and yeah a 3rd - "Where do we send our check?" THANKS

[Blue Jays]

"...When can we have it and how much and yeah a 3rd - "Where do we send our check?" THANKS..."A.R., you're good to go to sell right here!
Will your supplier/plant be able to scale to the requests? Will this same facility conduct the leather dyeing once you've decided upon that additional color?
Keep us posted on the good news.

[sc53]

AR--as the only female responding to your thread about colors, and thus the *only* responder with fashion sense :) PLEASE do not go with white first. Royal Blue is such a better color and will hold up better in rain, sweat, grease, etc. If you can't do the Royal Blue shown in the bottom row of your sample swatches, then go with Red. Primary colors. White will quickly turn grimey gray/black/hideous.
Oh, and Royal Blue will match 3 of my bikes!

[Blue Jays]

I think that Jack Brunk's order for 100 feet of white wrap on the previous page has thankfully resolved the remaining color question. :beer:

[TMB]

On my leather bar wrap I use Neatsfoot Oil,

I apply once when I first put the wrap on and then re-apply whenever needed.

Works really well.

[Jack Brunk]

I think that Jack Brunk's order for 100 feet of white wrap on the previous page has thankfully resolved the remaining color question. :beer:
I wish it was that easy. :beer:

[acorn_user]

Here's an example of a simple e-commerce site my friend Kyle put together for his simple straps.

http://www.byekyle.com/

[Ahneida Ride]

Jack

do you really want 100 ft ? 100 ft is 14 straps or enough for
7 bikes ...

If Jack is serious, then white is definitely one color.
Tan / Honey Brown is another.

Do we really want black or should I go with another color? :help:

I am on the road this week, so Internet access is sporadic.
I'll get working on the site and wrap, soon as I return.

Making wrap at this point should be straightforward. :beer:

If Pre-treated with Proofide/Obenauf , Is suspect this stuff will
hold up and retain it's color/patina ...

I don't recommend Neatsfoot oil as this tends to softten
the wrap a bit too much.

High quality hides are being used. This is NOT the other stuff ...
No way, No How .... :D


THanks for all the feedback ..... ;) :banana:

[Jack Brunk]

Jack

do you really want 100 ft ? 100 ft is 14 straps or enough for
7 bikes ...

If Jack is serious, then white is definitely one color.
Tan / Honey Brown is another.

Do we really want black or should I go with another color? :help:

I am on the road this week, so Internet access is sporadic.
I'll get working on the site and wrap, soon as I return.

Making wrap at this point should be straightforward. :beer:

If Pre-treated with Proofide/Obenauf , Is suspect this stuff will
hold up and retain it's color/patina ...

I don't recommend Neatsfoot oil as this tends to softten
the wrap a bit too much.

High quality hides are being used. This is NOT the other stuff ...
No way, No How .... :D


THanks for all the feedback ..... ;) :banana:
ARide,

I'm in.

[gomez308]

I don't need 100 ft, but I'm in for white also.

[Ahneida Ride]

ok ok ..


One hide in in white coming up.
.... I'll start the process next week. ;)

[bigman]

Just wrapped one side with a sample in a very deep navy blue. Treated face side with Proofhide a couple of days ago. Very good feel and very easy to work with.

[TACSTS]

I might have missed it, but what is the expected cost of this tape? I might be interested in white if you go that way. Someone PM me the cost if it's not appropriate to post.

Thanks

[SpeedyChix]

Is the deep navy a test only color or might that be one of the run?

[Dekonick]

AR -

I love this stuff. I wasn't sure how it was going to work without adhesive... but by wraping TIGHT it seems to hold. I experimented with weak carpet tape, but decided that isn't the best answer. Friction tape sounds like a great solution. I plan on buying some this week to try again.

I have only been wrapping bars dry, and haven't ridden with it yet. I want to get it right - as I believe it will LAST.

Good stuff!

:)

I am also going to try using a strip of railroad base track (foam padding that is THIN for trainaholics who play with model trains as adults. Not me, but I bought some when a hobby store closed it's doors.)

Ill post results.

:)

[gutefahrt]

Another vote for dark (AKA "Antique") Brown.

[Dekonick]

We could sell some through my site…..but I would have to demonstrate how it could be used as a weapon. Some Silat Sarong techniques would apply here.


:D ;)

William

Can you use it to kill squirrels?

[athenasoar]

I'd buy some in white. Let me know the details about payment and such.

[Louis]

C Breeze (http://www.ps-sport.net/nonathlon/)

Perhaps too simple - it's not obvious to me how one would buy several different colors at one time. In your case, I assume some folks might want more than just one color.

Good Luck

[Dekonick]

Have been sick the last 2 days with a nasty virus (whole family at once!) - puke, aches... the works. Anyhoo - as a result I cant sleep so I continued my best derned bar wrap experiment.

1) don't use aztec padding underneath - it looks puffy/lumpy and doesn't add much comfort.

2) thin foam works and is nice - but THIN is the key - just a little cushion. I found hobby shop model train track foam (chamfored edge - key to a no lump look) works well.

This wrap is really nice - I am not sure which version of tape I have, but I believe it is the pre-production stuff that will match what is to follow...

I like the dark blue. (almost black) -

I tried to tear it to see if I could (hands only - no tools, and no William...)

Nope. It held up (didn't try a seam)

To add another dimension - ever thought about a sew on version? (kinda like the velo oragne elk skin?) It looks like this leather would be fantastic for this application... as well as wrap (you might be able to use spare sections of hide that are not big enough to get long enough strips for wrap)

Great leather! Next I am going to overwrap my present cinelli cork on my Hors and take it for a ride. Not tonight, but when I feel better.

:)

Oh, this is as good as (different but equal to) the original wrap I had - the tacky brown...

:banana:

[Blue Jays]

Count me in for black and white wraps.
Likely for multiple orders for each color.

[Ahneida Ride]

Guys , Oz a working on it as we speak ..

[mschol17]

JackB is like the hedge fund of bar tapes. Singlehandedly driving the market...

I like black and orange. It seems to me if you had light brown people could get dark brown by using the right color leather conditioner...

[William]

Albino cows running for cover.... :eek:





William

[SoCalSteve]

I'd be interested in the black and white version...And, if there is a version that comes close to the Brooks "honey" color, that one as well...

Thanks!

Steve

PS: Is there a price for the stuff as yet?

[Keith A]

Albino cows running for cover.... :eek: These guys better watch out...

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/28/39035241_485594a584.jpg?v=0