Spa Cycles Leather Bar Tape Photo?

[deliquium]

Has anyone got a photo of their Honey bar tape? The pics on the Spa site are

[deliquium]

So here's a couple to be going on with then

Comparison with Brooks tan - which has been used for a couple of hundred miles AND Proofided.

The Brooks is nearer to their tan saddles and looks like leather. The Spa tape is browner, softer, grainier and straight from the packet more plastic looking But good ol' time will tell a story or two!

Will photo just the tapes tomorrow and get all that bike mess out of the equation

[Dynamite_funk]

Any update on this? Am thinking of buying some to nicely finish a vintage build

[irc]

How does leather bar tape cope with rain? My tours sometimes involve camping with the bike exposed to any rain around. Will the leather tape shed water or be a soggy mess? Is the comfort any better than gel tape or is it just for the look?

[fossala]

Just for the look, it feels like you are riding on bare metal.

[deliquium]

Riding with both now since my original post, I can say the Brooks wins on aesthetics - it's taking on a nice darkening patina. Both tapes are wrapped over gel pads and are nicely giving and very comfortable. The Spa stuff still looks like plastic - but it's only been 500 or so miles.

[coast 2 coast]

I love my light tan coloured Spa Cycles tape. It looks and feels great and exactly what you want, when you decide to buy leather tape. I wrapped it over gel pads for comfort. It has a rich and luxurious feel that I enjoy riding without wearing mits or gloves. As far as I'm concerned, it is of a similar if not better quality to Brooks tape. Nothing would convince me to buy Brooks stuff anymore. It is expensive, gone down in quality, wrapped in a whole load of meaningless, nostalgic marketing nonsense and I prefer to buy British where I can. Brooks leather tape is made in China, so is Spa's. Brooks is owned by the Italians, Spa Cycles is British owned and UK tax paying.

[LucyEliz]

Anyone got any more recent experience / pics of Spa leather tape in honey...?

[rjb]

Here's an idea.

Love the look of leather bar tape but price/longevity/comfort when wet have always been issues until:-
Visit to charity shop, leather ladies coat in a beautiful honey colour. Mmmmm cogs start turning, always a bad sign.
£10 poorer and home, out with straight edge and sharp knife, 1'' strips. Thorough rubbing in of saddle dubbing, left for a couple of days to absorb, repeat several times.
Fitting time, roll old inner tube over bars, refit levers and roll hoods forward. Double sided sticky tape over tube and wrap leather strip on, roll hoods back refit bar bungs and tape inner ends. Job done and enough leather strips left to do several more bar should I wish.
Result:- Very stylish look, cushioned (remember the inner tube), waterproof (Don't skimp on the dubbing stage), a year on and looks as good as the day it was fitted.

[LucyEliz]

Ha ha! Yes, I've read that one before. What a story. I don't got the skillz, sadly...

[Vantage]

I used spas leather honey tape on my touring bikes. Made the mistake twice.
I never had any issues with it in the rain but, it's not very hard-wearing. At all. The skin (I'm not sure of its exact name) scrapes off very easily. There's quite a sticky tape on the back side to help it cling to the bare bar and when I had to reposition the tape, the sticky stuff ripped off the honey skin in chunks. It quickly looked scruffy. It would be easy to avoid all this by wrapping the bars properly in the first place but then you have the days when the bike slides against a wall, fence etc and you get the same result.
Do yourself a favour and avoid at all costs. It's rubbish.