Handlebars, to chrome or paint?

Previously wrote:

This may sound like a silly, "personal choice" type question, but I have a set of original 1 inch handlebars on my girders, and they are....tatty, to put it politely.

A local plating company have quoted me £50 plus VAT to put a sparkle on them, which made me inhale sharply and say "I'll think about it".

I have done some internet browsing and found several companies offering universal 1 inch chromed bars for around the £25 mark, but they look to be a different pattern, and the original ones just look so right on the forks that I am reluctant to change.

The bike is a civilianised WD model, so the bars would never have been plated originally, which got me thinking about painting them black, to match the girders. It would certainly be cheaper than chrome.

Have any of you knowledgable folk seen this on a civie bike before?

Paul

hello paul well they where nickle not chrome there is a diffrence , but camcoat black would be good too its your machine and you do too it based on what you can afford ?

Plenty of pre-war economy machines had black coated bars. My feeling is that they would look a bit odd on a machine with a chromed fuel tank and everything else bulled up but would be fine with a painted tank and rims etc.

It is more than likely that a good number of the 'civilianised' bikes that were sold-off post war had painted bars.

You'll have to scratch some paint off to earth the horn button though.

I too would be loath to replace period handlebars. If they're original WD16H then they'll probably have two small tapped holes on the left for the early pattern dip switch. I find them very comfortable but they are higher than the civilian bars, being the pre-war 'competition' (trials bars). Comfort might depend on the footrests being used (civilian have longer offset).

You'll probably also find that older handlebars have thicker walled tube. This is likely to have some vibration dampening effect and unless you have a civilian top clip to the forks then you presumably have the WD handlebar clamps with no vibration insulation ?