ESI Grips
Handlebar grips,one of the smallest and least expensive parts on a bike, but they play a significant role.
Handlebar grips may be one of the smallest and least expensive parts on your bike, but the role that they play is significant.
Along with your saddle and pedals, your grips are one of the main contact points between you and your bike. They help in providing comfort, control and reducing fatigue but they can be a real annoyance if they don’t work properly.
For me, few things are more annoying (and potentially dangerous) than grips that slip or spin on the handlebars when they get wet. Most rubber grips turn into throttles part way through a muddy ride and I always used to wire or glue my grips in place to avoid this. In recent years I have relied on ‘lock-on’ type grips to eliminate this grip-slipping problem. Lock-on grips use a mechanical fixture to bolt the grip to the handlebar.
These ESI grips claim to be the best thing since sliced bread—comfortable, shock absorbing, durable, lightweight and non-slip. On first appearance they look like rather plain foam grips, which didn’t instil me with confidence.
The foam grips that I’ve tried have been uncomfortable, fast wearing items with low weight being their most salient feature. However the ESI grips are made from silicone foam and this material gives them a distinctly different feel to other grips.
The ESI grips have a feel that seems to be somewhere between foam and rubber—it is really quite hard to describe. They are relatively soft, shock absorbing and offer great hand traction, even though there is no real texture on their surface.
The grip profile is slightly thicker on one side, which gives your hand a little extra padding where it is needed the most. I found them to be just as comfortable as my thick rubber lock-on grips when used with gloves and less sweaty than rubber if you ever ride without gloves.
Fitting was easy enough. ESI recommends rubbing alcohol to help slide them on, I used disc brake cleaner (isopropyl alcohol), which is pretty much the same stuff. Make sure that you clean the bars and insert the bar end plugs before fitting the grips.
Surprise Package
I was initially surprised by their comfort but the real test would come with some wet and muddy rides. As instructed, I left them for 24 hours after fitting and they seemed to adhere to the bar nicely—apparently they stick best to bars that have a gloss or polished finish.
After four months worth of riding, which included being dropped bar-end first into a creek (much to the amusement of my riding buddies), the ESI grips have not spun on the bars and seem to be wearing well. The end of one grip did start to twist a little when forced. This was the result of being dropped on the ground and having dirt forced between the silicon grip and the handlebar.
This problem was easily solved by removing the grip and cleaning the bar and grip with isopropyl alcohol. Once refitted the movement was gone. At worst these grips crept around the bars a little but they never spun freely like a wet rubber grip.
The relatively soft grip material can be damaged in a crash but using the supplied end plugs and sliding the grip a fraction further onto the handlebar minimises the risk. If they do get torn at the ends, you can always flip them to swap the damaged part to the inside of the bar. This will extend their life a little further.
All in all I was very surprised by the ESI grips. They offer excellent comfort in a simple design that doesn’t require any fancy locking mechanisms. At $40 a pair they could be seen as pricy for a simple handlebar grip—most lock-on grips cost somewhere between $25 and $50.
However, my favourite old ODI lock-on grips weighed 150g a pair while the ESI Chunky grips are just 56g including the end plugs—$40 to save 100g with no loss in comfort makes them a pretty good deal.
ESI also makes a skinny version called the ‘Racers Edge’ which weighs just 44g. While they are light, their ‘on the handlebar performance’ is undoubtedly their best feature—I found them to be comfortable, reasonably durable and they didn’t turn into dangerous ‘throttle grips’ on a muddy ride.
The only real negative in my mind is that they are not as easy to remove and re-fit as a good set of lock-on grips but overall they get a big ‘thumbs up’ from me.
Rucsac Supplies (02) 6686 3388 /
Image: John Hardwick
View Top 10 List
