A lot of my riding buddies rave about the benefits of the slide on foam grip versus the more popular lock-on variety. They have more material between hand and bar, they’re lighter, they have better cushioning blah blah blah, but I always viewed them as boring to look at. They always look a bit tatty and ripped at the edges, and how do you remove them easily for that brake service/shifter swap? So I never gave them a chance. But when these LizardSkins DSP grips turned up I thought they looked pretty cool.
There’s the good old black foam bit (Durasoft Polymer) but now they are sheathed in their coloured feather-lite lock tape which gives added grip and protection from tearing . Installation involves sticking the supplied double-sided tape to your bars and then sliding the grip on with a bit of window cleaning fluid (not supplied). Pretty simple really. These grips never moved a muscle and after numerous trail and tree attacks they kept their shape and slowly formed to the shape of my hands, getting very comfortable, and working well in the wet and without gloves too. I had the large 32.3mm diameter size but they come in a 30.3mm also. The big problems came when I tried to remove them without cutting them off and it was near impossible. Ten minutes later with a lot of spray lube and cajoling, it was done, but then I spent another 15 minutes trying to get the sticky tape off my bars.
DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!
A great grip on the bike, but if you want them off at any stage, then maybe miss the sticky tape part and try some other method.
Super comfortable when they’re new and in the dry. But they suck in the wet or with sweaty palms. Longer term, they start slipping. And the bar plugs they come with are rubbish.
mmmm, i liked them wet and if your palms are sweaty then stop riding illegal trails. hahahahahahahahahahahaha
I’ve had my ESIs for almost 3years now… on and off multiple bars, neverslipped once, couple of nicks from crashes but otherwise all good. These Lizard
Skins are great too from what I’ve heard from others.
ODI Rogues FTW
What he said
Nope – ESI Chunkys bro. silicon or GTFO
Oury makes the master’s of all grips and have done for decades. Slides on’s rock for comfort and space, lock on’s don’t.
I ditched the adhesive tape instead using a layer of electrical tape then sprayed with isopropyl alcohol, slid the grips on & bingo! Solid as a rock. I can’t budge them! 😆