12-13 red hoods

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liketoride
Posts: 408
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:05 am

by liketoride

i am trying to see if anyone has done anything to make a change to their hoods other than the bike tubes and the felt. I really like the look of the btp carbon hoods and wanted to know if anyone knows where i could get something that looks like these and can cut grams like it too. I know the that company is out of business but you guys know more than i. Thanks

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theremery
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Location: New Zealand

by theremery

Dulight.Fr had them last time I looked and Bastien there is a good guy to deal with. Buy a set and give them a light spray with plastidip to colour them RED (or if you mean sram Red hoods.....they have them too).
It looks like they are currently out of stock but Bastien seems to be able to get stuff if you ask.
http://www.dulight.fr/product_info.php? ... cts_id=988
Updated: Racing again! Thought this was unlikely! Eventually, I may even have a decent race!
Edit: 2015: darn near won the best South Island series (got second in age
-group)..woo hoo Racy Theremery is back!!

by Weenie


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theremery
Posts: 2658
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2005 10:56 am
Location: New Zealand

by theremery

I just spoke with Bastien....they aren't going to do BTP any more....so even if there are still some residual stocks.....it's gonna be a no. Sorry.
Updated: Racing again! Thought this was unlikely! Eventually, I may even have a decent race!
Edit: 2015: darn near won the best South Island series (got second in age
-group)..woo hoo Racy Theremery is back!!

liketoride
Posts: 408
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:05 am

by liketoride

sorry let me clear that up i do mean sram red hoods, i put them on the scale and they come out to 48 grams for the pair. i have searched for anyone making a carbon hood that is close to btp for the new reds but i cannot find anything. i have reached out to a couple of places but i have not had any luck. I just think they are a bit much and i am a total WW and need to make a change to bring down the weight.

styrrell
Posts: 167
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2010 10:33 pm

by styrrell

Other than the various homemade options it doesn't seemlike much out their. Hudz make the sft touch option and I''ve heard its lighter but never seen a weight to confirm that.

liketoride
Posts: 408
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:05 am

by liketoride

Can anyone coment on what they have done that is a good solution to the weight problem other than the felt and mt tubes? if someone has made carbon hoods for their units i would love to see them and i would buy it from you if you could make me a pair. i was also wondering if anyone knew what the hudz ones wt was. thanks.

DRAGON60
Posts: 106
Joined: Mon May 27, 2013 2:29 pm
Location: Victoria,B.C.

by DRAGON60

Sorry if this isn't helpful but just weighed the Hudz soft-touch I have-----these admittedly are for Shimano Ultegra 6700 but give you a ball park figure to go by----46 grams for a pair.

liketoride
Posts: 408
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:05 am

by liketoride

well thanks for the update on the hudz, i am sure that is going to be about the same as the sram reds giver or take a gram. I want a drop in weight like prend, his hoods are 4 grams for the pair. I would be fine with double that number. I know the BTP hoods were half the weight as the sram hoods which i am good with. If anyone has any other ideas i am up for them. thanks for all the comments so far.

jordo99
Posts: 106
Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2012 10:48 pm

by jordo99

I've seen someone make their own rubberized hoods and carbon hoods (possibly someone from BP back when they were developing it)...they basically wrapped the whole thing in saran wrap and then sprayed on a non-stick coating, let it dry, then sprayed on few layers of liquid rubber...process was very similar with the carbon.

Hope that helps.

liketoride
Posts: 408
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:05 am

by liketoride

this will be the first thing i have tried making myself for my bike, i guess this is a good as any place to start because if it fails i would not crash. That is very helpful. i will look for the materials tonight. Does anyone know of a lighter liquid rubber over another? thanks.

bombertodd
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by bombertodd

Have you thought about trying heat shrink wrap? I would think it would be a lot lighter than regular hoods, have a rubber feel (not sure about durability), and cheap to try.

Good luck.

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theremery
Posts: 2658
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2005 10:56 am
Location: New Zealand

by theremery

plasti-dip and 3K carbon has been mooted as the solution. Note: BTP hoods (I have 3 pairs) don't last well. The Foam ones are comfy but have VERY short life span. The carbon ones have longer (but still short) lifespan but aren't that comfy.
Updated: Racing again! Thought this was unlikely! Eventually, I may even have a decent race!
Edit: 2015: darn near won the best South Island series (got second in age
-group)..woo hoo Racy Theremery is back!!

liketoride
Posts: 408
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:05 am

by liketoride

i guess then i will just try the mtn bike tube style and see if it last longer for me than it did for prend. i do not like to the look but the weight savings is unreal and it is a good starting point for me to break in.

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prendrefeu
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by prendrefeu

Hey. Sorry I didn't respond to your PMs about this stuff, but mostly the hoods I've been working on were for pre-2012 levers and it's a project that's now on the backburner.

Try heatshrink. I found it lasts much, much longer than the tube however:
-it's not the lightest (10g/each)
-getting it to look proper takes a little patience.
-you better make sure your bar wrap is perfect, it doesn't have the 'total coverage' that you get from regular hoods or the custom ones.

Image

Below is a small tutorial for the pre-2012 SRAM hoods, but it should be a good basis to go off of with your post-2012 hoods.
I don't remember which I.D. size heatshrink that is being used, but you may be able to figure it out from the pictures. On the grid, each line is .5"
The heatshrink is 2:1.

So you take the heatshrink and you'll need to cut it so something approximately like this:
Image

The cut on the left is a slight angle, that's the back of the hood. The cut on the right is only on the lower half of the tube. That's the front of the hood.
Use a layer or two of electrical tape to cover the various holes in the lever body. In the area of the 'bolt' hole on the top of the lever body, I stuffed that with a small piece of cotton ball and then used electrical tape to cover it. The reason you do this is because the heatshrink will form into virtually every crevice and you want the result to be as smooth as possible.

Then you take this and pull it on to your lever body. It really helps to have the handlebars as secure as possible because there might be a little effort to slide these into place. Sorry, no pics of this process... but it's fairly easy. Make sure that it doesn't fold completely onto itself, but don't worry too much about the material being folded/compressed as the shrinking action will sort it all out.

I used a heatgun on a low-setting to slowly shrink the tube as evenly as possible. I also tried to pull the front/top of the hood over the front of the lever fighting the tendency of the heatshrink material to retreat backwards. This helps a little bit.

Then I used an X-Acto type blade to carefully cut the excess heatshrink tube from the lever body, both on the top and a bit under the bottom. Getting the amount you want to leave on the underside is a matter of personal preference and might take a little trial & error.
Image


I've found that these hoods will last about 300-400 continuous miles at worst, and definitely more than that at best. On a recent double I used the hoods extensively and I found that between the two, the left one started to get loose towards the end of the ride but the right one was still perfect. I think this was due mostly to how extensively I cut the excess off and how well I did it. I did a better job on the right-hand side, and the left one had just enough of a tear that would eventually expand and affect the whole hood. There also seems to be a rather sharp 'point' of the plastic body where it opens up to allow the lever to swing and reveals the internal mechanisms. Maybe if you file down this edge a little bit to soften it up there will be a lower likelihood of a tear showing up.

I removed both hoods and re-did them last night, but I can state that the right hood looked like it could have kept going for another thousand miles at least. The condition of the surface was really great.

Best of luck, sorry for the short response, a bit busy lately.
Exp001 || Other projects in the works.

bombertodd
Posts: 443
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2013 6:23 am
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by bombertodd

Great job prendrefeu!

What size shrink tube is that? It looks like it could be 2 inch diameter.

by Weenie


Visit starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓    Broad Selection ✓    Worldwide Delivery ✓

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