Grab On Grips for your road/Touring bike Who still using them ?
 

Ok, am I the only one out there who still love the old Foam Grab On Grips on my bikes ? lets see some pics !! will try to post some of mine, I am not having much luck with pics right now...

I have not seen them in years. They were sold in the old days when most "10 speed" bikes (a double crank and five speed cluster) often had thin plastic handlebar tape or maybe the cloth tape that was almost as thin.

Now, many bikes have a thicker cushioned tape, sometimes with gel and sometimes cork. On some of my bikes I also put a thin piece of foam under the cork tape for extra cushioning.

My point is that it is not really needed.

I've used them in the past. I even enjoyed using them. But they have fallen out of fashion for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that the cheap knockoffs gave them a bad name. The Grab-on version is stable to UV and doesn't degrade very quickly. The cheap knockoff versions weren't. They degraded into a crumbly mess that most people don't want to deal with.

The second reason is that they aren't all that compatible with modern brake and/or derailer cable routing. They were something of a bugger to get onto the bars as it was. Trying to slide them over one or two pieces of cable housing won't make them any easier to put on. It can be done but it's easier to use tape.

I still use the mountain bike grips and I prefer them over just about any other grip I've tried. But I just can't see using them on road bike bars. Not that I think they are unnecessary or they aren't useful, I just think they are too much of a hassle for use with modern bikes.

They are still out there:

https://www.thebikeshopstore.com/cat...CABEgJ4vfD_BwE

Wouldn't want to use anything that absorbs and traps water.

Wow, haven't seen those in many years!

I don't pad my bars, but the people I see with padded bars are using something underneath their bar tape, like this Bontrager stuff:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e85f7ab7e5.jpg

At one time I used Spenco gel grips but I haven't since the '80s. Pictured is my bike being assembled at the Zurich airport at start of trip into France. As you can see the grips squirm around the bars and slide down into and away from the brake levers...

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...bccca7cf2f.jpg


I keep them as a souvenir in a box along with my flickstand. toe clips and Biopace crankset!

Those are the cheap crumbly ones. Go with the original if you want to use them. They last much longer

I had some grab on stuff on a motorcycle back in probably 1980, does that count?

I installed a set of Grab On Grips on my rigid gravel/bikepacking bike and loved them. Now I have them on my paved road bike, and wrapped them with a gel cushioned bar tape for good measure. I like the extra large diameter it gives me to grip.

As for the toe clips, mine are still on my paved road bike. I wear some Merril trail running shoes when I'm on the bike so that I can walk normally when I get off the bike.

And I carry a Click Stand when I tour.

About a month ago I saw a lady with a nice 89 or 90 touring bike, miyata I think, and it had what I presume was the original grab on foam on the bars, which seemed in great shape.
Everything on the bike looked period, so it was probably the original foam. She was my age ish and it looked like the bike had been not used in a while and stored, because it was so clean looking, and she told me she had bought it new in those years.

I used them on a couple of drop bar bikes and installed plenty more of them for customers. I have since gone with padded tape instead. Also used Grab On grips on a motorcycle back in the '80s.

There's currently a set of the grips and a gen-you-wine sticker on my wife's MTB.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...997dea0aa6.jpg