Gripping The Sturdy Steed

Rockport, Texas

As you may have noticed labels are in progress to being added to all the blog entries. This will take a good while. They were not originally put on for some reason that is not now known. (Senility is alive and in good shape in my head) Exactly what will be done with them is yet to be seen. So far it looks very cumbersome to leave them up all the time. Any opinions out there?

One of several problems of longer distance bicycle riding is the handlebar pressing on the nerve bundle in the center of your hand. Most bicyclists wear gloves with special padding in the palms. The padding tries to spread out the force and save your hands from numbness and damage. They help some is the best that can be said about them.

Different large diameter grips have been out for many years. My bicycles have tried out many sizes of grips to little avail. The end result is lots of hand position changing while riding. Usually the rides end from misery rather than a specific goal or target.

My feeble senile memory has failed me in remembering where these new style of grips were introduced to me. These are made by Ergon and are rather expensive for a silly handlebar grip.
The first thing to catch my attention was the availability in small diameters. Since a smaller diameter yak paddle did wonders for my painful hands while paddling, it seemed logical that smaller diameter grips for my very short fingers might help.

The other thing that was impressive was the enlarged flat area to rest part of your palm on while riding. It certainly is an unconventional grip. Even just sitting on the kitchen table they look weird to me.
Naturally the instructions said they would not work with my Grip shift mechanism. Ah but the old fat man is a mechanical genius. My attitude is They will fit and fit well! As it works out they do both. The left side of the handlebar was a quick install. The new grip just slid right on and the locking mechanism was tightened to specification. The brake lever assembly was adjusted and everything was finished on the left side. At least that was the thought at first.

The right side appeared that some careful hacksaw work on the new grip would make things work well. After chopping my first guess amount off the new grip, it fit right on like it was designed for the situation. Like a fool the end caps was pounded into place as if everything was perfect.

To shorten the story, more chopping was done to each side. The new grips go on and off very nicely. The fit is so different that it required several small increment trimmings to get the finger reach correct for my small hands. After riding a few miles today at the beach park, it was necessary to change the orientation of the flat area for maximum comfort.
It is obvious that more small adjustments will be needed for the fit to be perfect. The initial observation is that these are a MAJOR IMPROVEMENT over standard grips. They were expensive but worth much more in comfort for my hands. However they do not do away with the need for padded gloves. A few minutes of riding without my gloves proved that they are still needed. With the gloves on and forty minutes of riding, my hands had no pain at all. It used to be fifteen minutes and the tingle in my hands would start.

Additionally a cyclist should always wear gloves for hand protection in case of a fall. My personal experience has shown that they do a fairly good job of protecting from road rash of the palms. Now if they made bicycle shoes in 9.5 EEEEE my feet would feel a lot better too.

There has been overcast all day with light sprinkles of what may be called rain. At least that is what a fellow told me it was called. When the Truck got me into the chosen parking lot at the beach park, even the seagulls were feeling the difference. Most of them were laying on the sand like this one.

When my riding was finished, that same sea gull was still there hunkered down in the wind and rain. It may have been that my day was better than his for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM