How do I wrap my bar tape around the brake levers and make it look good without a hood cover?

Question

I recently purchased a vintage Schwinn Varsity and I wanted to wrap the handlebars with bar tape but I do not have brake lever hoods. The vintage ad I have of the bike shows the bars wrapped without brake lever hoods but I have not seen this done anywhere on the web in terms of do-it-yourself instructions. Here is the original bike ad. My bike looks just like it minus the bar tape. http://www.geocities.com/sldbdealer6/1963/63dlct08b.jpg

Answer 1

Nice bike, Congrats!

The job is very simple. Just look carefully at the bike picture. All you have to do is to release the brakes from the handlebars, then wrap the handle bars with the tape- You might have to cut the tape at some point because it is likely to be longer than needed.

After you have wrap and set the tape, simply install the bakes back into place. It should not be to hard to do!

Answer 2

I used to race bikes similar to that in the late 50s as brake levers such as Mafac only had a rubber part on the top of the brake lever.  Just put the tape on in the normal way and over lap the top and bottom of the levers.  The tape these days is a lot more flexible than the cloth tape we used then.

Try this site for more tips.  http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto...