Sincitycycler

I've never changed grips before on a bike. I'm restoring an old Schwinn Varsity and got rid of the cruiser handlebars and bought mountain bike bars and some cheap foam grips .

How do you get them on? Do you have to use two sided tape and ligher fluid like when putting on golf grips. Any help appreciated

markhr

try lube and glue

nymtber

i always use soap/water for my grips...i use schwinn mtb grips, i got two pair left and i hope they last a while cuz i dont know if they are made anymore...they are clean with little schwinn "S" in them. i think black versions used to come on the moab hardtail bikes...

never had a grip fall off or slip enough to cause an accident on the trail. but i cant ride offroad without gloves...doesnt feel right i guess...

Raiyn

White Rain Hairspray in the aerosol can.
Spray the crap out of the inside of the foam and slide them on.
You may need a bit more on the bar to get them in position, but this is seriously the best method I've found.

Plus it holds those suckers on harder than a Flock of Seagulls hairdo.

sakarias

Bar soap and water have worked well for me, too.

scrantr

Rubber cement works pretty well.

Raiyn

It would need to be a LOT runnier than the rubber cement I'm used to using

Brian

And no one even asked "Why?".

Retro Grouch 

Another vote for hairspray. I've been told the cheapest ones are better for this use than the more chi-chi hair sprays. I just spray the inside of the grips and they slide right on. Then the hair spray sets up so you never get throttle grip (let 'em rest for a couple of hours before you try to ride the bike). If you have to take them off again, slip a thin screwdriver under the grip and spray in a little more hairspray. It'll dissolve what's already under the grip and they'll slide easily off again for you.

When I haven't had hair spray available I've used Windex but it's a lot more work.

Applehead57

I've always used a thin coating of dish detergent. Works well & cheap too.

DieselDan

Hair spray
Clear coat spray paint
Air nozzle

Raiyn

I save the clear coat for MTB grips

mswantak

Forget the soap; all you need is hot water. Soak 'em in water as hot as you can stand for a couple minutes. They'll soften and expand enough to slide right on, and once the water evaporates, there's no residue.

WorldWind

For foam grips Hair spray is the way..




word

Bikewer

For many years I've used rubbing alchohol to remove and replace grips. To remove, slide a slim screwdriver between the bar and the grip with the bars tilted up, and dribble a little alky inside. A couple of twists to spread it and off they come. Same to replace; just a little bit makes em' slide right on. Once the alchohol dries, they stick fine. No smoking, please.

dbg

There's a close similarity between golf grip installation and bar grips for bicycles. I've done literally hundreds of the former and dozens of the latter. Golf shops typically use a dedicated solvent that lubricates the installation and then evaporates away. But they also use two sided grip tape to hold the finished product in place. Golf grips probably get much more stress and twisting pressure. The common grip solvent used to be trichloroethylene, also called Carbo-Chlor or Carbo-Sol in the hardware store. It's carcinogenic and brain damage inhalant dangerous, but its apparent big advantage was non flammable. I think it was (is) also used in dry cleaning. It's not so popular anymore. I use mineral spirits now for golf grips. But for bike grips I use warm water with a small amount of detergent added. Works great.

And there's a tool I use for bike grip removal that comes directly from the golf tool industry. It is a shim tool with a channel in it for squirting solvent under the grip. It works great.

https://www.golfsmith.com/products/8218?fcst=GSI_WEB

Brianjlennon

hairspray in scarce supply... hot water works great! Muchas gracias!