Grips... Or no grips!

[Bike Hoarder]

Okay, so you've chased down the elusive frame, fought for the matching period finishing kit and adorned it with M900 - but what grips do you use?

Not talking about braking out your secret stash of colour match porcipaws, or some NOS Yeti hardcores for £100... I'm asking what's available right now, that looks right and won't break the budget.

Ritchey do truegrip X that looks alright for the money, however am I missing something that's better?

 

[benjabbi]

ODI Attacks are still readily available.

 

[novocaine]

Pilgrips or dmr brendog death grips, both available in black, dmrs are rather simple looking.

 

[Imlach]

Should they match period correct grips or am I missing something? Are you just asking for good grips?

I like Ergon GA3, super comfy.

 

[Dr Dremel]

Grips I´ve tried (PC- ish and still available):

Ritchey Truegrip: Comfort ok, but wear out/degrade very fast even in storage. Will therefore not buy them again.
ODI Attack: Max control, but can be a bit harsh. Recently the grip ends are a bit thin and get "stamped out" by the handlebar if leaned on/crashed
ODI Mushrooms: Good look for 80ies bikes (BMX style), softer and larger diameter than Attacks. Large rim on inside needs to be trimmed
Grab On Mtn 1: Presumably different material than in the 80ies/90ies, but hard wearing and I like the surface (more coarse than Ritchey). A bit thin for my size 11 hands
ESI Chunky: My new favorite. Larger diameter than all above. Firm, but very effective against trail chatter, hard wearing. Available in "Extra Chunky", they must be for giants. Ugly stock end plugs

Not tried, but also PC: Oury MTB

 

[br0qn]

Ritchey Truegrip:

you mean the foam WCS ya? I had a feeling those would disintegrate.

I've been hunting the original's on the bottom to no avail

ESI Chunky

I don't love the look but they do feel great. I have a buddy that won't ride anything else.

I like Ergon GA3, super comfy

running the GA2's on my OR and even without the wings they feel pretty good.

 

[br0qn]

Okay, so you've chased down the elusive frame, fought for the matching period finishing kit and adorned it with M900 - but what grips do you use?

Not talking about braking out your secret stash of colour match porcipaws, or some NOS Yeti hardcores for £100... I'm asking what's available right now, that looks right and won't break the budget.

Ritchey do truegrip X that looks alright for the money, however am I missing something that's better?

Nearly forgot about these which I haven't used so can't speak to their performance. Look great though.



still readily available direct through WTB or amazon/ebay UK

 

[Imlach]

As we are going through grips we have

On my KM I have GA3 which are my favourite. I have dmr death grip on my 1x1 and cross check but find them rather uncomfortable, but they look cool I suppose.

Cheap ritchey foam grips used to be my favourite, and run those on my Explosif. Never go wrong with them.

On my Rockhopper I run ODI Rogue which are horrendously painful.

On my Tech I've got cheapo mx grips that cost nearly nothing. No complaints.

I've had esi chunky and I like them but hate removing them

 

[Dr Dremel]

you mean the foam WCS ya? I had a feeling those would disintegrate.

Yeah the foamies. 1 year lifespan in the basement, half that stored outside in my experience. Also totally forgot the WTBs. Probably because I hate logo redesigns for the sake of logo redesign.

Edit: There´s also this shop with Porcipaws and other repros:

Grips ONZA Porcipaws vintage | Classic Repro

Pair of Grips Porcipaws by ONZA, for vintage and retro MTB bikes. Reproduction thicker than the original for maximum comfort.

classic-repro.com

 

[Imlach]

OURY grips are probably the most uncomfortable I've ever tried and I found that very early ones tend to not fit well on all my bars.