Dark Green handlebar tape

Quoted message said:

Does anyone know where to purchase tape in forest green. (to match brooks british racing green
saddles). I'm almost to the point of buying white cotton tape and dyeing it. (then coating
with shellac)

Don't dye the tape, dye the shellac. Use clear (I like Zerung) and any fabric dye. Strain it before
applying. Works a treat. Put a coat or two of clear over
it.Phil Brown

"Jonathan Kaplan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]... Does anyone know where to purchase tape in forest green.

Look for some hockey stick tape. One of my son's BMX bikes has the bars wrapped with American Flag
hockey stick tape. There's a good selection to choose from.

In article <[email hidden]>, "Jonathan Kaplan"

Quoted message said:

Does anyone know where to purchase tape in forest green. (to match brooks british racing green
saddles). I'm almost to the point of buying white cotton tape and dyeing it. (then coating with
shellac)

Find a Bianchi dealer ( Harris Cyclery - Sheldon Brown ) they may have it.

HTH

--
³Freedom Is a Light for Which Many Have Died in Darkness³

- Tomb of the unknown - American Revolution

Quoted message said:

Find a Bianchi dealer ( Harris Cyclery - Sheldon Brown ) they may have it.

Celeste-in any of its various shades-won't even be close. Phil Brown

Does it come out as dark as if I dyed the fabric directly? I could use RIT liquid dark green dye.
Also doesn't the dye thin out the shellac?

I searched for Zerung shellac with no success. Where do you purchase it? Most store around NJ sell
Bullsye Shellac in clear or amber.

"Jonathan Kaplan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Does anyone know where to purchase tape in forest green. (to match brooks british racing green
saddles). I'm almost to the point of buying white cotton tape and dyeing it. (then coating with
shellac)

Dear Jonathan,

For a truly tacky solution, consider duct tape, which comes in suprising variety of colors,
including various shades of green.

I favor screaming yellow police-line-do-not-cross tape on my bars, since the shady bicycle-path part
of my daily ride winds through the trees along the Arkansas River past cyclists and pedestrians
wearing drab clothing or even surplus camouflage gear. I'm desperate to be easily seen, since
they're desperate to blend in.

Similar fashion hints are being posted by g.daniels, whose fall collection panders to my taste for
lurid colors. Three catalogues are now available in his thread "$8 poly dayglo T's !!!!!!"

If you must whack yourself with the drab stick, a search for "green" and "handlebar tape" should
turn up sites like:

cambriabike.comhandlebar tape.htmOpen ↗

They offer shades of green tape from Cinelli and other manufacturers. Sheldon Brown, Andrew Muzi,
and other bike-shop posters can probably help you even more if an exact hue is required.

I marvell at your hopes of "Annihilating all that's made/ To a green thought in a green shade."

Carl Fogel

"Jonathan Kaplan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

I searched for Zerung shellac with no success. Where do you purchase it? Most store around NJ sell
Bullsye Shellac in clear or amber.

Dear Jonathan,

"Zerung" stumped me, too. But I did stumble across a web page "How to shellac your handlebars" with
handsome pictures and detailed instructions:

mindspring.comshellac.htmlOpen ↗

Details include how many coats of Bullseye, darkening rates, and encouragement for your quest for
matching your green Brooks saddle:

I achieved an almost exact match to the brooks honey colored saddle on my Motobecane by applying
12 coats of amber shellac to yellow tressostar cotton bar tape. With each coat, the bar tape gets
progressively darker.

Of course, if you're sitting on the saddle, the color coordination may not be obvious to philistines
like me, but I'm pretty sure that the pursuit of beauty for its own sake will reward you.

If your efforts turn out well, perhaps you can post a picture? If you have no web site available,
I'd be pleased to take an emailed file and put it up on my idle space.

Carl Fogel

(Carl Fogel) may have said:

For a truly tacky solution, consider duct tape, which comes in suprising variety of colors,
including various shades of green.

Tacky indeed. Not very durable, and a miserable mess to clean off.

Quoted message said:

I favor screaming yellow police-line-do-not-cross tape on my bars,

This stuff?

rei.comProductDisplayOpen ↗
&langId=-1

Quoted message said:

since the shady bicycle-path part of my daily ride winds through the trees along the Arkansas River
past cyclists and pedestrians wearing drab clothing or even surplus camouflage gear. I'm desperate
to be easily seen, since they're desperate to blend in.

I recommend making yourself a pair of rainbow tie-dye tights. They aren't cycling-specific, but
blanks in useful sizes, as well as the dyes to do the deed, can be had at www.dharmatrading.com.
They're listed as "lycra tights" in the women's section, but they work just as well on the other
side of the store. Avoid the rib-knits, they emulate a vacuum cleaner. I have several screamingly
loud T-shirts and dress shirts produced using their stuff. (You should see the gears grind to a halt
when an MBA encounters someone wearing a Brooks Brothers or Land's End 100% cotton shirt that's
tie-dyed in brilliant shades...)

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail. Yes, I have a killfile. If I
don't respond to something, it's also possible that I'm busy.

By dyeing the shellac, don't you run the risk of staining your handlebars and related areas as the
green shellac bleeds through the cotton tape? Also, does the color get as dark and even doing this
method compared to dyeing the fabric first, then coating with clear shellac?

[email hidden] (Carl Fogel) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Details include how many coats of Bullseye, darkening rates, and encouragement for your quest for
matching your green Brooks saddle:

I achieved an almost exact match to the brooks honey colored saddle on my Motobecane by applying
12 coats of amber shellac to yellow tressostar cotton bar tape. With each coat, the bar tape
gets progressively darker.

Hi,what about the practical side of using shellaced tape? Isn't it slippery and uncomfortable? I
can't imagine giving up the benefits of a good cork/gel tape, for appearance sake, on anything, but
a show bike. I remember years ago, going from vinyl tape to the cloth tape and that was better. Then
from the cloth to the cork tape, much better. And now I'm using Specialized Bar Phat Tape with the
gel pads and from a performance standpoint, I think it's the best. For now, I'm sure something new
is in the works. One thing I did notice when looking at the link someone provided, most of the tape
companies don't offer green, and the few that do, it is the lighter Bianchi compatible green. Why is
that? Life is Good! Jeff

Rick Onanian <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

(Carl Fogel) said:

Similar fashion hints are being posted by g.daniels, whose fall collection panders to my taste
for lurid colors. Three catalogues are now available in his thread "$8 poly dayglo T's !!!!!!"

Carl, it really surprises me that you can interpret g.daniels' language. It seems the polar
opposite of yours. Maybe you could post translations for the rest of us.

There was a recent message by him in that thread which, while I was unable to understand exactly
what he was saying, I was actually able to get a general idea:

Quoted message said:

the woolmort dayglo T from lesotho is a smash at the intersection!! several motorista hooted good
show on the first trip out. the vocalizations stimulated thru the vision nervous system, shorting
same then cawzing the motorista's mouths to open is a basic safety function. like a electric
shock. buy six

I think it says: I've found a T-shirt which is very bright and makes me very visible. Car drivers
complimented me on my visibility when I wore it for the first time. Unintelligible gobbly [censored]
that may be a theory about an evolutionary purpose for motorists to make such compliments. They
are so bright that they are shocking to see. You should buy a lot of them, maybe six.

Correct me if I've translated wrong.

Additionally: Google found nothing for "woolmort". Maybe "wal-mart"? Lesotho is a 30,355 sq km
parliamentary constitutional monarchy in southern africa. See:
cia.govlt.htmlOpen ↗

Quoted message said:

Carl Fogel

Dear Rick,

It helps to have seen the same style in freshman English essays. Since no one but the teacher sees
it, the student can usually drop the literary equivalent of faking a limp without much fuss.

Here, the situation is different. The whole class, so to speak, has seen the act and while many
ignore it and a few even enjoy it, most of the people who do comment express irritation--the
imitation of someone with serious problems wears thin rather quickly.

So the poor devil in question has only three options after establishing his public facade in the
newsgroup, unlike the luckier teenager whose efforts have only been viewed privately by what John
Ciardi called "a hired sympathy" (no one will read what freshmen write unless paid to do so).

First, he can continue posing. It hurts no one, irritates some, and gets him a kind of attention.
The fake attitude is rather limiting and leads to triple self-postings about t-shirts. No one really
wants to play with him--the followups are mostly unkind comments. (Imagine the newsgroup as a pack
of school-children and you can figure which kid he is pretty quickly.)

Second, he could simply stop. Damned hard to do, I should think, given how long he's spent at it.
But he might develop some other interest, find something elsewhere that absorbs him, and simply
vanish. (Again, imagine the newsgroup as a grade-school class--whatever happened to that weird kid
who moved away?)

Third, he could drop the fake style and continue posting. He can indeed drop his pose--when provoked
enough to write brief private emails, his affected style evaporates, his writing proves to be
perfectly normal, and his excuses turn out to be familiar to anyone who has ever had to deal with
students who mistakenly think that e.e. cummings wrote that way when he left a note for the milkman.

But dropping the pose in a private email is one thing. Dropping it in front of everyone in the
newsgroup is quite another. What would this merry band of fair-minded adults do to him in print if
he changed his ways and quit pretending?

"Teasing" would be a mild word for it.

Besides, he'd have to come up with something to say--and the lack of content is what the bizarre
style conceals. I don't envy the poor fellow--he's spent a lot of time trapping himself and I see no
happy ending. I expect that he'll busy himself maintaining a pretense, which really hurts no
one---not even himself if he has the time and it pleases him. Let us be thankful that it's not
something serious, like drugs, dyslexia, or brain damage.

Carl Fogel

Carl Fogel <[email hidden]> wrote:
: Let us be thankful that it's not something serious, like drugs, dyslexia, or brain damage.

yea, dog help us all if he has dyslexia.
--
david reuteler [email hidden]

[email hidden] (Jeff Starr) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] (Carl Fogel) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Details include how many coats of Bullseye, darkening rates, and encouragement for your quest
for matching your green Brooks saddle:

I achieved an almost exact match to the brooks honey colored saddle on my Motobecane by
applying 12 coats of amber shellac to yellow tressostar cotton bar tape. With each coat, the
bar tape gets progressively darker.

Hi,what about the practical side of using shellaced tape? Isn't it slippery and uncomfortable? I
can't imagine giving up the benefits of a good cork/gel tape, for appearance sake, on anything,
but a show bike. I remember years ago, going from vinyl tape to the cloth tape and that was
better. Then from the cloth to the cork tape, much better. And now I'm using Specialized Bar Phat
Tape with the gel pads and from a performance standpoint, I think it's the best. For now, I'm sure
something new is in the works. One thing I did notice when looking at the link someone provided,
most of the tape companies don't offer green, and the few that do, it is the lighter Bianchi
compatible green. Why is that? Life is Good! Jeff

Dear Jeff,

I suspect that "practical" is not uppermost in everyone's mind. These folks care about how their
bikes look, matching saddles and handlebar tape and so forth--and the pictures in the link that I
provided convince me that they can get good results, pleasing to the eye.

They're like the street rod people, who gather every year from all over the Western states to cruise
around Pueblo during the Colorado State Fair, hundreds of lovingly polished and wildly modified old
cars, many with a dozen or two coats of candy-apple-red paint and lacquer. The cars are utterly
impractical, but the drivers seem to be enjoying themselves and can certainly tell you anything you
want to know about paint. (Despite their habit of migrating in parade-like columns, they're also
rather nice about passing bicycles, possibly because they take so much abuse from less attractive
motorists in more of a hurry.)

Me, I'm into practical even further than they're into good-looking, at least as far as bars go. The
earlier response to my comment pointed out that yellow duct-tape is messy, sticky, and doesn't wear
well, which makes sense if you never met a weirdo like me.

I ride exclusively on the drops, never using the flat section of the bars. Gel-gloves help my hand
problems, but aren't enough, so my drops are tastefully adorned with black foam slip-on covers,
which last a few months--darned useful on my elderly trials motorcycle, too.

If you can't imagine such unspeakable things, see the J.C. Whitney motorcycle accessory catalogue
and look for "all-foam soft grips" age060055y. (Not exactly Bianchi, eh? They come in any color you
like, as long as you prefer black.)

So the all-yellow duct tape on my bars is really only wrapped on the unused flats and lasts quite
nicely. Found some even better yellow plastic tape recently. Goes with my yellow helmet, shirt,
and jersey.

So I'm into ugly, they're into elegant, and you'd like both. The paucity of shades of green is
likely due to the manufacturers finding none of these three categories worthwhile--I don't care, the
good-looking hand-painted crowd can't be satisfied, and easy-going fellows like you in the middle
will wait for whatever they offer. There's not a lot of money to be made in offering different
shades of handlebar tape in a world where the average rider never even buys a $4 roll of the stuff
and the guys who care will tint and shellac white cotton to get just the right look.

If I don't tell them that the cotton twine business sounds like the feathery plastic tassels on the
bikes that my sisters had as kids, they probably won't ask what circus I escaped from. And their
bikes do look awfullly nice in those pictures.

Carl Fogel

Jeff Starr wrote: -snip tape-

Quoted message said:

One thing I did notice when looking at the link someone provided, most of the tape companies don't
offer green, and the few that do, it is the lighter Bianchi compatible green. Why is that?

Silva makes a forest green but after I posted a photo on my site we sold it all and they've been out
since August.

Things like that with low frequency will often be out of stock as it is harder to gauge demand - a
few rolls either way is significant. Black tape sells _magnitudes_ better. Yes 1000:1.

--
Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org Open every day since 1 April, 1971

Quoted message said:

Carl Fogel <[email hidden]> wrote:
: Let us be thankful that it's not something serious, like drugs, dyslexia, or brain damage.

David Reuteler said:

yea, dog help us all if he has dyslexia.

Lysdexia? The inability to tell left from left?

--
Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org Open every day since 1 April, 1971

David Reuteler <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Carl Fogel <[email hidden]> wrote:
: Let us be thankful that it's not something serious, like drugs, dyslexia, or brain damage.

yea, dog help us all if he has dyslexia.

Dear David,

Well, yes, but he doesn't. The popular notion of dyslexia involves the transposition of letters,
but a glance through the archives of rec.bicycles.tech will turn up plenty of people hwose fingers
are hitting all the right letters, but whose right-hand fingers are simply out-speeding their
left-hand fingers.

Or mis-typimg one letter because it's right next to another.

These are usually just typos--they do not occur when the same person writes the same sentences out
in long-hand. And the same person would spot such mistakes if he proofread his posts.

People who suffer from dylexic problems tend to do just as badly writing as they do typing and
cannot spot their own mistakes. The first time that you meet a college student of apparent normal
intelligence in conversation who mis-spells her own name, along with twenty ordinary words per page,
the difference becomes more obvious, particularly when she attaches her hand-written rough draft
with all the same bizarre mistakes.

No, what we're seeing here on rec.bicycles.tech seems to be the equivalent of "Durn you pole-cats,
I'll be a-seein' yore bet 'n'raisin' yuh another sawbuck!" in that both are acts--but in this case
the pose is about the same as faking a limp for attention, not a momentarily grotesque and faintly
humorous attempt at Old West parlance, and the style overwhelms what little content exists.

Like mimicking a stutter, it gets attention at first, but the attention tends to turn to scorn, and
the poor fellow ends up trapped. Normal writing would expose him to ridicule as a fraud, which is
sad, but at least he has options, something denied to most severe dyslexics.

Carl Fogel

"Carl Fogel" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Dear David,

Well, yes, but he doesn't. The popular notion of dyslexia involves the transposition of letters,
but a glance through the archives of rec.bicycles.tech will turn up plenty of people hwose fingers
are hitting all the right letters, but whose right-hand fingers are simply out-speeding their
left-hand fingers.

Or mis-typimg one letter because it's right next to another.

These are usually just typos--they do not occur when the same person writes the same sentences out
in long-hand. And the same person would spot such mistakes if he proofread his posts.

People who suffer from dylexic problems tend to do just as badly writing as they do typing and
cannot spot their own mistakes. The first time that you meet a college student of apparent normal
intelligence in conversation who mis-spells her own name, along with twenty ordinary words per
page, the difference becomes more obvious, particularly when she attaches her hand-written rough
draft with all the same bizarre mistakes.

No, what we're seeing here on rec.bicycles.tech seems to be the equivalent of "Durn you pole-cats,
I'll be a-seein' yore bet 'n'raisin' yuh another sawbuck!" in that both are acts--but in this case
the pose is about the same as faking a limp for attention, not a momentarily grotesque and faintly
humorous attempt at Old West parlance, and the style overwhelms what little content exists.

Like mimicking a stutter, it gets attention at first, but the attention tends to turn to scorn,
and the poor fellow ends up trapped. Normal writing would expose him to ridicule as a fraud, which
is sad, but at least he has options, something denied to most severe dyslexics.

Carl Fogel

Well Carl,

he certainly seems to be renting a lot of space in your head🙂.

What's all the psychoanalysis and derogatory comments for?

Maybe that's how he prefers to express himself.

I enjoy reading his posts, and I see no reason for him to stop "posing" as you put it, or to conform
to what you think is proper.

By the way, I can tell which kid in the schoolyard you were, or should I say are🙂.

Ed Chait

[email hidden] (Jeff Starr) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hi,what about the practical side of using shellaced tape? Isn't it slippery and uncomfortable?

I find that, yes, it's a little slick when the rain is comin' down hard. Sweat? Not a problem,
especially as I tend to wear gloves anyway. YTMV (your tolerance may vary). Cork is undeniably
"better"on this score, but the issue is what trade-offs work for you.

Comfort? Very, very nice. A strip of split inner tube, then the cotton tape, then 10+ coats of
shellac has a nice amount of "give", feels good in the hands, is not too slick, not too dry, and
gives a look to die for. I have long hands, so a thicker "grip" feels right. Again, YTMV.

Practical? Lasts forever. If it starts to look old, one more coat of shellac (five minutes) will
bring it back. Doesn't tear, fray, fade, soil or otherwise go ratty.

Obsessive-Compulsive? Yes, probably. Especially to set it up initially. Going forward, it actually
makes a fair amount of sense. But yes, the string tie-offs are purely for show.

Peter Storey