Ergon GX-1 Grips Review
Like many mountain bikers, I have been struggling with wrist and grip pain. Try as I might, I could never quite find a set of bars whose bend angle properly supported my hands. The Ritchey WCS flat bar came closest, but even it just wasn't quite right.
I had tried a set of Sertrab ergo grips before, but they lasted about a week before I got rid of them; they just didn't work for me. This experience kind of soured me on ergo grips for a while. But then I saw the Ergon grips being used on a number of pro race bikes, and I figured I'd give them a shot.
I picked up a set of GX-1 grips, their XC race grips. Ergon makes dozens of different grip profiles, some with integrated bar ends. The first two letters indicate the grip profile, and the number indicates the length of the bar end ("1" meaning "no bar end" - I wonder why not a "0"?)
Success! The "wing" on the grip fits comfortably in my palm, and supports the whole hand. When riding, I can actually release most of my grip and just rest my palms on the grips and the bike steers fine. In more technical terrain, the wing is small enough that I can still get a good grip and still reach the brakes and shifters with no issues.
These grips completely solved my wrist pain issues, and mostly eliminated my hands falling asleep on longer rides (the full solution to that problem is more core strength and not leaning on the bars so much). These things work!
You do pay a small weight penalty compared to traditional grips, but that's an easy tradeoff to make.
The only issue I had was that even with the lock-on feature, the grips just would not tighten down enough to resist twisting - and the wings give your hands that much more leverage to twist the grip. Ergon's installation manual (in a very German manner) provides a minimum bar diameter specification, and the carbon bars are a fraction of a millimeter smaller than this minimum spec. To solve the problem, I wrapped the bars with a layer of electrical tape, and tapped the grips on with a mallet. They are fully secure now....
My only regret? That I didn't get the limited edition white version. Bling! Very highly recommended.
|
Buy Ergon GX1 Grips at 
|