WW hoods

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4ibanez
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by 4ibanez

Any advice? I'm willing to put in some effort, and go hunting for materials, but want something that looks fairly tidy.

I've seen felt and other materials discussed, but all the old photobucket pictures disappeared. I know not too many people do this, but is there anything new I could think about doing?

I'd guess just fabric won't be the comfiest, anyone ever tried anything DIY that has decent comfort? I thought silicone or similar could work. Thinking about shoe inserts, it might be too heavy though...

I'd like to save 30g or so over Red 22.

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bm0p700f
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by bm0p700f

the lightest is no hoods. I have some old weinman brake levers all polished up, no hoods and they look ace. For modern shifter the hoods is not were I would try to save weight. comfort is king or the bike becomes useable. If you are on the drops or tops all the time maybe no hoods is actually viable.

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4ibanez
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by 4ibanez

I do ride in the drops a fair bit. But no transition between bar and shifter, as well as the exposed nooks and crannies of the plastic body isn't for me. Nice outside the box approach though - and defo the lightest! :thumbup:

desperado95219
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by desperado95219

Take a hole punch to your hoods. I've done it. It's fairly easy. I think it looks sharp, feel great on the hands, and the hoods are actually easier to get on and off after you have done so. There is a link somewhere here on WW showing what was done....that's where I got the idea. You can cut the weight virtually in half.

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4ibanez
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by 4ibanez

I did it but it only saved a few grams...

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prendrefeu
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by prendrefeu

Heat shrink. 3", pre-cut to shape, apply over hood (shifters already installed in place), heat/shrink, then use a micro knife (such as an X-acto™) to trim away excess.
I may have posted about this in an old thread with the shape to pre-cut.
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alcatraz
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by alcatraz

prendrefeu wrote:
Tue Feb 20, 2018 9:15 am
Heat shrink. 3", pre-cut to shape, apply over hood (shifters already installed in place), heat/shrink, then use a micro knife (such as an X-acto™) to trim away excess.
I may have posted about this in an old thread with the shape to pre-cut.
Cool! Is there possibly a pic of the result? Are there different thicknesses of heat shrink?

I'm thinking if it's too thin it'll take shape of all the small cavities and look like a stretched plastic bag no?

Do you make new ones every time you switch cables/work on your shifters?

/a

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themidge
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by themidge

This guy does some pretty cool tuning to some sram force shifters, making hoods out of carbon. Might be a bit advanced (it certainly would be for me!) but they save quite a lot of weight. In fact, there are loads of great tips and tuning methods to be found there.

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4ibanez
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by 4ibanez

prendrefeu wrote:
Tue Feb 20, 2018 9:15 am
Heat shrink. 3", pre-cut to shape, apply over hood (shifters already installed in place), heat/shrink, then use a micro knife (such as an X-acto™) to trim away excess.
I may have posted about this in an old thread with the shape to pre-cut.
How do you know where to pre-cut when it shrinks to 50% of its size? I guess trial and error might be the order if the day. Might try and give it a go.

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by alcatraz

I think he means precut from a meter down to 15cm. :)

/a

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4ibanez
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by 4ibanez

alcatraz wrote:
Wed Feb 21, 2018 2:19 am
I think he means precut from a meter down to 15cm. :)

/a
3" is the diameter of the tube. I've bought one off ebay. Don't really have a clue what I'm doing from here, but I'll try and figure it out! If it doesn't work I can retry, as it was only a few £. Or I don't like it, I'll write it off and maybe try something else.

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prendrefeu
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by prendrefeu

I'll try to take some pics tonight, sorry guys - the old posting that describes it all is here:
But for some reason at the time I chose to host photos not on my Flickr account (which wouldn't have that missing image issue)
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=116833&p=996766

Oh, and an update to durability: the current hoods on my Stoked are the heatshrink type, and they've seen about 6,000mi in this iteration. They've slipped around once but were easily put back into place.
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prendrefeu
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by prendrefeu

Ok, hi again.

Here are some images and a re-post of the instructions with some slight updates. I did not take photos of the process this time, just the pre-cut and the result.
First, most importantly, is the weight:
Image
So that's 10.3g for a pre-cut.
After you install and trim you should be looking at around 9.5g each (depending on how much you trim off. Keep your trimmings, weight them, subtract)

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.
We're using 2" 2:1 heatshrink, which is measured in its flat, non-shrunk state. The measurement is approximate, as a 2" tube will be slightly larger.
On the grid images below, each line is .5"

Per a post from 4ibanez later on in this thread, there's this:
"So Prendy's flat 3" = an internal tube diameter of 1.9096" or 48.5mm. Most sellers have 50.8mm/2" tube diameter. I'm guessing there are small variations in production and maybe Prendy's wasn't flat as a pancake (assuming his product was a standard inner diameter of 50.8mm).

You need a diameter of 50.8mm to get 3" when flat. Hope that's useful to someone!"


Image

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

Apologies for metric friends: the cutting board is using Imperial grid lines, which is very annoying (I would have preferred metric but could not find one), so most of the measurements here are based on Imperial. For metric you can estimate the same thing and experiment with what works.

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

Pic showing the underside cut which allows for shift lever movement:
Image
It is a little hard to make out because it's basically black on black, but you get the idea.

Try to do your trimming cuts while the hood is still warm, it will be easier.
Last edited by prendrefeu on Sat Feb 24, 2018 7:05 am, edited 2 times in total.
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4ibanez
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by 4ibanez

Thanks Prend,

Great advice. Your hoods look great. Any idea if shrinking the material sheds any weight? Either way 10gish for hoods is amazing. Looks a lot better than wrapping in tape!

How pliable is the material once shrunk? Can you remove them without destroying them?

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prendrefeu
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by prendrefeu

4ibanez wrote:
Thu Feb 22, 2018 5:18 pm
Any idea if shrinking the material sheds any weight?
? Sorry, I don't understand what you are asking. Are you asking if the material depletes over time and thereby loses mass through use?
4ibanez wrote:
Thu Feb 22, 2018 5:18 pm
How pliable is the material once shrunk? Can you remove them without destroying them?
It's on the stiff-end of the durometer scale once it has been heated and shrunk into place - basically the atomic bonds in the material tighten/shorten after it is heated, which leads to the shrinking, and thereby increases the density of the material. I'd estimate it goes from a 60 durometer to a low 90 (reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shore_dur ... ter_scales). So it isn't very pliable, and while it is smooth to touch and not hard-as-a-rock it is certainly far less plush than the silicon hoods that came OEM on most shifters. As for comfort, that's up to you. I ride on the hoods a lot, usually without gloves, and the roads in the Los Angeles area are quite shit.

You can't remove them without destroying, so if you need to re-cable you'll need to re-install hoods. To remove just take the micro knife (X-acto™ style) and slice along the side carefully, then peal off.
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by Weenie


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