WHAT IT IS: Ergon GX2
WHY IT'S RAD: With the advent of riser bars, even cross country/casual trail riders tend to forgo bar-ends these days. After spending a few months, including one nine-hour trek through the Rockies, sans bar-ends on my mountain bike, I got tired of doing the 'fake bar-end.' You know, where you hold the ends of your grips and make believe you have bar-ends just so you can have an extra hand position. I switched over to the GX2 and my hands have never been happier. I tried the first iteration of the Ergon grips a while back and was pleased with their performance, but they had palm platforms that I found to be a tad too large and the angle between the ergo palm platform and grip surface was a bit funky. Ergon got it right on the GX2, and you can adjust the angle of the bar-ends independently of the grip angle. Killer. The surface area of the ergonomic palm pad has been reduced relative to the first-gen offering, and Ergon seems to have hit the sweet spot this time. If you're riding conventional round grips and haven't tried these, I highly recommend them, either with or without bar-ends depending on your riding preference. I was a bit doubtful that the shorty-style bar-end on the GX2 would be long enough to make much of a difference, but when you take the surface area of the palm ergo platform into account, it's a perfect equation—just enough length to fully support three fingers on the bar-end and your palm on the ergo platform. The bar ends are magnesium and don't add enough weight to be noticeable just the way it should be. These grips have made mountain biking much more fun, have greatly reduced hand fatigue on the trail, and make the long slogs I take through the city on the way to the trails much more bearable by giving me a few additional hand positions to work with. Like all modern grips, these have a bolt that cinches the grip down to the bar, so they will never spin no matter how hard you pull or how much you sweat. Bravo.
BUMMERS?: None.
$: $60
INFO: www.ergon-bike.comwww.andrewvontz.com
www.drillit.tv
@vontz
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