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After one mushy blister too many, I set out to make some new leather mtb grips. I don't wear gloves when I ride - for me, they dull the responsive feelings of the bikes front end - so nice handlebar grips are important. Leather has an air of the 'organic', 'pure' and 'natural', that appeals to my romantic, and probably naive, barbarian tendencies. It may not have the same "quad-core compound for density advanced shock absorption system™", but similarly, I figured it would not leave horrible black bits all over my hands every ride.
If you make your own leather grips they can be responsive, a custom diameter that fits your own hand preferences, cost very little, designed not to twist or slip on the bars, and generally please the body and soul.
If you want to buy leather grips, you don't get a lot of choice and they are reasonably expensive (probably rightly so). There are two different styles, one simply wraps a big piece of leather round the bar, the other takes many small cross sectional circular pieces, and stacks them up over the bar. I thought the second type would produce a rougher, grippier and more sweat diffusing finish, so that's the way I went.
If you make your own leather grips they can be responsive, a custom diameter that fits your own hand preferences, cost very little, designed not to twist or slip on the bars, and generally please the body and soul.
If you want to buy leather grips, you don't get a lot of choice and they are reasonably expensive (probably rightly so). There are two different styles, one simply wraps a big piece of leather round the bar, the other takes many small cross sectional circular pieces, and stacks them up over the bar. I thought the second type would produce a rougher, grippier and more sweat diffusing finish, so that's the way I went.
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Like most of my projects, in this one we can use mostly scrap materials. This keeps things out of landfill and as a bonus costs very little, other than some of your precious time and attention (and who would begrudge our hard working grips a good measure of that?!).
For this project we want:
For this project we want:
- Some leather (see below);
- One or two old bicycle wheel spokes - if you don't have any crisped old wheels (how?) then keep a look out for someone else's overly buckled rubbish;
- Some handlebar lock rings - these are cheap and effective little things that keep your grips on tightly (more on this later).
- An inner hole punch (we make this);
- An outer hole punch (we make this as well);
- A spoke-sized hole punch (I had this already, a fairly cheap handy tool to own);
- A vice, powerful clamp, or press of some kind;
- A hacksaw, electric drill, centre punch, and some beefy wire cutters.
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keep riding
thanks. The rear is just you regular magura HS33, the front is a hope trial. I wish I could run disk on the back, alas the Pashley frame has no disk mounts.
Btw, I have hope m4's with mini handles and 203 backsaw discs (sorry, just couldn't resist.)
Best instructable ever. ;)
You actually look like Danny MacAskill btw.
Looks comfy. I don't think I'll do it because I often come off and would cut my hands to ribbons without gloves.
It is quite comfy, because I was able to make it the diameter I wanted.
Does it give me sore hands? Yes, but less so than my last rubber grips, and more importantly my hands feel good. And they recover much quicker after a long days riding. See the last step for more of an evaluation...
Check out the link, basically, assemble your stack with pressure from a vise to help hold it together, plus gluing with epoxy.
Finish it in the traditional method for what you are looking for.
http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?13253-Leather-handled-knife-tutorial
I did actually experiment with compressing the leather ringlets with clamps, while on the bars, but I found that when I compressed it much more than 'grunting hand tight' It became very solid. My hands like some give to the grip, so that's the reason that didn't make the cut.
One thing about the epoxy is, how to put it on without permanently gluing the leather to the bar. Unlike the leather in your example, the ringlets have a very small surface area, so it would be pretty difficult to apply the glue without it leaking onto the handlebar and bonding it permanently. Also as it is reclaimed leather, it is much thinner, so you would end up spending a very long time putting epoxy onto the ringlets. And because they are so thin and 'wibbely' inevitably when you slide them onto the bar the glue would go everywhere.
So yeah, I see the similarities, but this is reasonably different to the knife technique. Sanding to shape afterwards, for example, would not be possible, unless you did go in for the clamped up 'super hard' grip - even then one slip with a power sander would take you through to the handlebar. It may be that just the tiniest dollop of glue, delivered with a syringe, just before pushing the ringlets together would help...
Anyway, many thanks for your comments, I will add something into step 6 in relation to the glueing and clamp possibilities.
The leather grip would be much harder, and would not be apt to wobble. With proper treatment, a nice grippy and sweat free surface would be achieved. Thus, sourcing such thick leather could become a problem, but a saddle shop would be a good place to try for scraps; alternatively, one could get old belts at goodwill.
I agree that the stacked leather method would be quite a pain, but I feel it would result in a much better grip surface, but that surface would probably lack the amount of grip you want.
I know you are into free riding and these probably wouldn't interest you but, I think these are the best grips for city riding.
www.rivbike.com/products/show/cork-grips/16-103
They're all natural, sustainable and look really good with hemp twine and shellac (another great natural material!). And heck, they are only $15. I have had the ones with the plug and bar end shifter cable channel cut out ( a little more expensive) on my commuter for a couple of years now. They look great. I love them and am considering a pair for my mountain bike.