Few things are more subjective on a bike than contacts points. Saddle, pedals, grips… each has the potential to make or break your ride experience. While I’m certainly discerning when it comes to where I perch my ass, and I have a list of likes and dislikes when it comes to my feet, grips are probably the part I’m most picky about.

I’ve tried a lot of lock-on grips over the years. Really a lot. My all-time favourite is the ODI Longneck Lock-On, followed closely by the new(ish) Peaty’s Monarchs in Mushroom flavour. I’ve even tried some fairly esoteric ‘ergo’ grips such as the SQlab 70X… I actually didn’t get on well with these at all. I always did what most riders have been doing for the last decade or more – pick a grip that looks nice, slap ’em on, tighten a pair of 3mm hex bolts, and you’re off to the races. Why complicate things?

I can’t remember what exactly spurred me to give push-on grips a shot, but it didn’t take long for me to be a full convert. Where lock-ons win in convenience, push-ons are superior in practically every other way. Without a plastic core to enable the grips to slide on easily, you can have more rubber between your hands and the bar for the same thickness of grip, or a similar amount of rubber in a much thinner grip. As someone with fairly average ‘medium’-sized hands in most gloves, I found lock-ons either felt decent but were too thick, or were an appropriate size but offered less cushioning and vibration damping than I would have liked. The comfort window seems to be much broader with push-ons, possibly because they inherently just conform to your hands better.

That’s not to say they’re without issues. Without a locking collar to hold them secure, push-on grips can rotate around the bar, particularly if you manage to get water or dirt underneath… not ideal! Ask a hundred push-on riders (are there more than a hundred out there?) how they solve this problem and you’ll probably get a hundred different answers, but I’ve always had decent luck with glue and wire.

Gluing grips isn’t as much hassle as it sounds. I’ve used Renthal’s proprietary grip glue, which works great, and also had great results with Shoe Goo (good luck scraping this back off your bars, though!). Generally I’ll just use hairspray, the cheaper and nastier the better. Others swear by GT85, isopropyl alcohol, spray paint or just blasting them on dry with an air compressor. Likewise for the wire – a trip to an MX store will get you enough wire to last a lifetime, and a set of proper twisting pliers which make twisting grip wire borderline enjoyable (but regular pliers will work just fine too).

The process really isn’t difficult, once you have it down. I’d allow maybe half an hour to do a decent job of it.

1. Remove old grips – either slide them off with lubricant, or cut them if they’re trashed)
2. Clean bars with isopropyl alcohol and let dry
3. Apply adhesive of your choice to the inside of the grips and slide them on
4. Wrap wire around ends (and middle, if you want to be sure) of grips and twist with pliers
5. Trim wire tails and tuck the sharp ends safely back into the grip rubber
6. Apply bar end plugs (if not closed end) and leave adhesive to cure overnight
7. Ride your damn bike

There are other benefits to push-ons, besides the comfort. There are hundreds of different grips out there, in all manner of patterns, lengths, thicknesses and colours, most of them aimed at BMX but which will all fit standard MTB bars. They are also cheap – it’s less risky experimenting with new grips because you’re only out £10 rather than £30+ if you hate them. Likewise if you crash and trash your grips, replacing them won’t cost a fortune. Consequently I’ve tried quite a lot of push-ons as well…

The final upside, at least for me, is that I think they just look cool. I love the aesthetics of a long grip with no clamp (and some push-ons are really long!), especially since I tend to run my brake levers quite far inboard. Traditionally I’ve been partial to a flanged grip, but long grips without a flange look good too. Whatever your preference, I’m sure there’s a grip out there for you.

My first experiences were with a couple of pairs of Renthals – firstly the Kevlar compound, which are a slightly off-putting colour but they’re quite nice in the hand. I then tried a pair of the same, but in what Renthal calls their ‘Ultra Tacky’ compound, and the name does not mislead – they are easily the stickiest grips I’ve ever tried. Although I enjoyed the outright grip of these, they just felt a little too thin, albeit with a wonderfully direct bar feel. Both had a diamond knurled pattern which although grippy, can feel a little abrasive – possibly the main reason I also never liked the immensely popular DMR Deathgrip lock-ons.

Since then I seem to have settled on grips with the common mushroom pattern, as these seem to offer the right mix of squish, damping and directness that I want in a grip. I’m running Shadow Conspiracy grips on my Stooge and was, until recently, riding DMR Grids on my Banshee. Both are similar in design, although the DMRs feel slightly softer and have a waffle section underneath for added grip. I had to trim the flange of the DMRs to not interfere with my shifter thumb, but that was an easy job with sharp scissors. After ripping the DMRs in a crash I’ve replaced them with a set of ODI Longneck SLXs, which I’ve never tried before despite loving the lock-on version. They feel nice in the workshop, but time will tell!

Now, I’m not 100% against lock-on grips, particularly on bikes where controls may not have split clamps, and even more particularly when feeling out the cockpit of a new bike. The ease of whipping them off to move things around is appreciated here. But once a bike is dialled, and things are right where I want them, it’s hard to resist all the benefits of the old-school grips.

If you are even the slightest bit curious then I highly recommend giving push-ons a try, especially if you have smaller hands or suffer from arm pump or hand comfort issues. Maybe test them for a (dry) ride or two before committing to glue and wire. If nothing else, a £10 pair of grips is an easy way to make your bike feel fresh again! Who knows, you might even like them…