Unwrap a leather wheel ?

[fngearhead]

Does anyone know what the TW/SS steering wheel would like without its leather? I mean, is it just a standard wheel that's been wrapped? My leather is done and I feel like being cheap and just cut it off rather than replace the wheel.

[ruffmill]

You could always cut the leather off and wrap it with handle bar or tennis racket grip tape. I've leathered handle bars before on a bike and it was a challenge. Leather being a natural material doesn't stretch uniformly so in some areas you might come up short and others may have an excess of material. Using the grip tape would probably be the easiest route. I will look & see if still have pictures of the handle bars, they came out looking pretty cool.
_ruffmill



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[evolutionmovement]

Handlebar wrap is a great idea! For durability, you want leather or cloth covered in shellac. Look up how to wrap bars and finishing with the ends with string. A lot of old school (real old school) race cars would have their wood wheels wrapped in several places with shellacked string for grip. Not a great photo, but here's my road bike done that way. The part near the stem is wrapped in white string and everything is shellacked with clear shellac (amber shellac will change the color more, which could be desirable or not). Cloth tape comes in almost any color you can imagine. For comfort, you can first wrap in cork tape (you could use just cork tape, but it is not durable). I have cork tape under the cloth in key areas of my bars. Those handlebars required 2 rolls. My guess is you'd need at least 3 to cover the steering wheel.

[ruffmill]

Totally didn't think about wrapping it with twine... I have a knife that I did wrap with #72 seine twine (for repairing fishing nets). Its nylon so it stretches a bit but won't break easily and the color fades a bit over time to a greyish color. Just have to read up on how to finish off a serving (nautical term for wrapping rope in twine as a protection from chafing)
_ruffmill

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[evolutionmovement]

The twine is used to keep the end of the tape from unravelling. Most bikers just use electrical tape, but I think the twine is classier. The starting end of the tape is wrapped over itself, keeping it in place, but the finishing end needs something to hold it.

In brief and probably sounding more confusing than a couple pictures would show it to be:

You make a loop with the twine extended past where you want to finish your twine/string wrap and the hanging end extending past where you want to start. Hold the loop while you start your wrap, then keep wrapping until you get to your end point, then thread the finishing end of your wrap through the loop, cut it so there's only a short piece extending through the loop, and pull the opposite loose end to tighten the loop and bring that and your finishing end back under your wrap. When you've got it where you want, you cut the excess and you're done. I like to put the loop on the part least likely to be seen, but the result is pretty clean all around.