Anybody Have Dimensions of These Wood Grips?

[Tailwinds]

I've got a couple really old bikes and I want to use this type of wooden grip but I can't find them reliably available anywhere. I know a guy who can make quick work of these on his lathe, he does good, cheap, and fast work on small projects like this so I think we're gonna give it a try. Does anyone have some of these I can get dimensions on?

 

[udallcustombikes]

Here is what I could determine from your pic based on the known diameter of the handle bars (7/8")

The widest parts are 1" (red line)
Narrowest part and inner groves are 15/16" (purple line)
From the outside to the first set of grooves is 1 3/16" (black line)
Both sets of grooves are 1/2" wide (orange line)
Space between the grooves is 1/4" (yellow line)
Grooves to the open end of the grip is 7/8" (light blue)
Total length is 3 1/2" (dark blue)

Your craftsman will need to be careful because at the narrow parts the wood will only be 1/32" thick.

Can I have a pair too?

 

[icyuod2]

1" minus 7/8" equals way too thin for a wood grip.

that's 1/16" thick grips. you can clearly see by the profile, (or the grooves)
that this is not the case.
if the thinest parts where only 1/32 thick they would have probably broken and seperated along these lines years ago. (not to mention, 100's would break in the manufacturing process)


i'd be more inclinde to think there 1 3/8" with a 1/4" thick grips. these are old and worn down and they still look to be at least 3/16" thicker than the bar.

 

[Tailwinds]

I really like what you did there Udall to extrapolate the dims. based on the picture but I have to agree that the grips are slightly larger than the numbers you came up with, but not by much, and probably the best thing you came up with is that you got the proportions right so pretty much any dimensions can be based on those proportions.

I have to think that because I want some grips like this on my bikes I can't be the only one, but I'm not interested in turning this into one of those threads like "Hey guys I want to start producing this widget how many people want to buy some from me?" It's a tired story and I wish I had a nickel for every time I've seen early enthusiasm fizzle out on I don't know how many forums.
The first thing I want to do is see how easily we can reproduce some of these grips and just how efficiently we can do it, then we'll go from there.

Another question, what do you think these grips would have been made from? Maple? Ash? Hickory?

 

[Lugisland]

I would love to have a set of these made out of cocobolo wood. It's a Central American hardwood used to make duck calls, so I'm sure
it would be great for grips. Tom

 

[rms37]

I’ll chime in here…

I have a couple of sets of these grips, they are particular to 1942-1944 and are fairly crude compared to the wood and composite grips that were standard fair on bicycles from around 1890-1910.

The body of the grip is quite thin and I imagine the grips were produced from well seasoned wood to keep them from distorting or cracking after manufacture. If one were to reproduce them it would probably work best to bore the interior out of a larger block of wood for stability and then turn down the outsides.

I’d be happy to accurately measure the dimensions of the grips I have but I probably can’t get to it untill after January first as Work, Christmas, my Birthday, and several other items are in line ahead of any new projects.

I’ll note that I also have some wooden pedal blocks that I could measure for someone to reproduce. It is also possible that I have extras of each that I could sell if someone wants originals but I would have to dig them out to see what I have.

 

[Tailwinds]

RMS, PM sent.