Ape Hangers covered in Handle Bar Tape. Good? Bad?

[RegularSyzed Mike]

Hello, I'm back from hibernation and am getting back on the ball with messing with my bike.

One Idea I had over the winter was wrapping my ape hangers with brown leather handlebar tape instead of going with regular grips. I'd also get a matching brown leather seat and probably do a similar handle bar tape job on my still-in-progress suicide shifter.

I've searched online to see if anyone else has done this before to see if it looks good. Either I'm a genius and will blow people's minds with this or someone else tried it and it looked like garbage.

What are your thoughts everyone? It'll be going on the bike in my profile pic.

Thanks!

Mike

 

[CrazyDave]

Hmmm...on a road bike you tend to grab the bars in different places to adjust your position a little as the miles pour on, it makes good sense. I can't imagine holding onto any other part of a pair of ape hangers except the end. On my brakeless fixie I have to use more than one roll of tape because the tape is sold in lengths for normal people with shifters, brake levers and other unnecessary items. Personally I think it would be pointless and look hideous. If you do dig the idea, Id try to find tape in bulk as your gonna need 6-8 packs of tape ($100?!) to do a set of ape's.....good luck!

 

[RegularSyzed Mike]

It would purely be for showing off. I have no intention of holding the middle of the ape hangers. I want to try it out but I want to avoid spending $100 on tape which I'd never use except for this experiment.

I might just photoshop a pic of my bike to get an idea of what it might look like.

 

[deorman]

Well I'll tell you, a before the bmx wave hit, some guys were unicycling, steer-spinning and side-stepping on their banana bikes, and quite a few did indeed wrap their apehangers, ramhorns, "screamer" bars, half-wheel bars or whatever other type of "hi-rise" bars that came along.

 

[RegularSyzed Mike]

Great! Now I'll be expected to do tricks as well!

 

[CrazyDave]

Great! Now I'll be expected to do tricks as well!

some padding in case you knock your noggin' LOL!

 

[deorman]

Nah, don't sweat it. My bikes are mostly off-road ready and I haven't done any real drop-offs or even left the hard pack more than a couple of times in nearly a decade.

 

[Sticky]

Why not use exhaust wrap, for that rat look? Might be a bit less expensive, too.

 

[Bicycle808]

Rad idea, especially the exhaust wrap.

Dave, look at Newbaum's for your fixie's needs. They sell the longest cloth tape, plus it's made in the USA (Phila) and the same price as the French/Taiwanese/Japanese/etc.... I can usually wrap an entire drop bar, both sides, with 2 rolls. need 3 rolls of the French stuff.

As for the apes with full-wrap; I bet some folks will like the look, others will likely hate it. I'd be tempted to run grips, and then wrap the rest of the bar, between the grips.... But do what you want. Just go with cheapstuff or just photoshop before you commit to the leather. $$$