Functional bikes. Not Porn not Anti

Cheers

And now I want to paint my pizza rack to match my f&f and stem.

I love racks colour-matched to frames, but to me it's a perfect illustration of why not to paint a stem.

Like a red ano deep V on a red frame, it's a step too far.

Exactly

Yours is one of the few examples I've seen of a paint matched stem working well. A matching rack may or may not be a step too far.

Thank you ~.~
That’s my fear tbh.

Only one way to find out! Maybe a contrasting rack could be nice instead though?

I've taken the liberty of mocking up my vision. Ideally the rack would be slightly darker and more orange but I had to work with what I had.

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Anyone got pics of bikes where a framebuilder has made integrated stem and/or racks? Maybe even bars and seat tube?

Nope, don't do it buddy. Just don't.

On further investigation that is the correct answer.

Very nice. For some reason these gaps on framebags really annoy me.

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This has answered my ongoing question of should I replace my grips with bar tape. Yes is the answer

Hmmm... The Brooks leather tape is quite flat so you don't get those spongey lifts. That works best aesthetically. I used a cut inner tube carefully wrapped to be seemless which thicken it up a smidgen.

Regular bar tape? In terms of comfort it's fine. But I think grips are better.

I saw people using thin fabric bar tape on top of ESI foam grips. Thickness + cushioning + looks.

This will be very uncomfortable

Couldn't agree more.

Interesting, is this why everyone uses grips on curvy bars? I’ve only ever used drops until recently, wearing mitts.

No. They're wrong.

Regular bar tape has downsides, but being uncomfortable isn't one of them.

Cons:

• less durable*
  
• can unroll/rip as it wears
  
• more faff to install
  
• need bar ends (probably sourced from a parts bin because the ones in the pack will be for larger bar internal diameter
  
• ergon grips are still in
  
  
  

*(grip position means less moving about and resting than with drops so you put more wear in a single spot than it's designed for)

The diameter of flatbars is also slightly less which makes it even less comfy if you have big hands, but of course to make it more comfortable you can do a double wrap or so. Still not worth the trouble imo

Still not worth the trouble imo

Agreed.

I've only done it with the Brooks tape with cushioning underneath for the looks and then on a beater just to keep the cost down. I did make the overlap much closer so to give more cush.

I changed the bars the other week and transferring the grips was way more hassle than wrapping them IME. I quite enjoy wrapping bars though.

That's what lock on grips are for.

Only flatbars with tape I see are the ones on race bike conversion with the tape falling off.