Making nice flat comfortable hoods on older drop bars.
 

Earlier this year I built up a an old Schwinn Premis into a 3 speed coaster brake road bike, I did buy some cheap tektro brake levers for it to have hoods to hold onto, but the angle between the hoods and the bars was less than ideal as I did not buy a modern drop bar, and I want to take this bike on some longer rides so I want the hoods to be nice and comfy like my 2016 road bike, I wanted to fill the triangular space behind the hood before the bend in the bars, so I used styrofoam "blue board" insulation. once the insulation was in place I was able to make "final adjustments" by smushing the foam with my thumb. I wish I would have made the foam wide at the top where my hands rest, but all in all the angel and shape is really good. My hands are huge so the extra volume of the bar behind the hoods does not pose any drawbacks.

Here are some pics, This is the first attempt, this bar tape does not have adhesive on the back, you can see the other hood with no foam or tape, and how it isn't a great set up for you hand,

https://i.postimg.cc/ZntbSFt7/BB8A6D...E88DB07CD4.jpg

Here it is with a chunk of blue board cut to fit and held in place with electrical tape,

https://i.postimg.cc/C5GFLBwF/F0CE30...774FBAABD2.jpg

Here is both sides done,

https://i.postimg.cc/9MqmKgSw/051513...461D83CD59.jpg

And here is the whole bike, yea, its an odd one I built up earlier this year, 3 speed coaster brake road bike, no rim brakes,

https://i.postimg.cc/CMkM4tkW/60A846...225F97C868.jpg

I did something similar with a set of brifters on old-school drop bars many years ago, it just wasn't as well executed as your job. Did you have any trouble getting the hoods to stretch over the wedges?

I'm always interested in what people do regarding foam on bars. Around 8 years ago my left hand got crushed; the nerves in the hand are damaged and riding *can* cause significant pain and discomfort. While this isn't exactly in what I'm looking for as I usually ride on the corner of some sort- it's cool to see how flat that ramp section is.

The hoods stretched right over the foam no problem, these are some Tektro brake levers, $17 off ebay if I recall correctly.

I'm in the drops %40 of the time, on the hoods %50+ of the time with just a bit of time on the corners or on the middle section of bar close to the stem, so comfy hoods is pretty important to me, but I do find other hoods that aren't flat like I've made these to be comfortable as well, but not always, on this bike the hoods just weren't working that well for me, so I added the foam, rode 35 miles yesterday, I'll give it an A-, well worth the effort/time.

Here's a couple that I got lucky with, I will move them up the bar to make it happen. ;)

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...aff2a07d02.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a3841fe339.jpg

It seems that with modern bars the bend that is in the vertical plane is a much tighter radius than older bars, which go a long way to creating a nice flat spot on top of the hoods for your hands, I'm sort of new to drop bars,and I didn't really think about that when I purchased the bars for this bike, the lever shape is certainly a big part of the shape between the bars and the hoods, I kind of assumed anything modern was kinda the same shape, but I was wrong there too, good thing scraps of blue board are free/easy to find!