Most mountain bike grips are terrible. They’re just BMX grips with different branding. Yet mountain bikers are often on their bikes for way longer than BMX riders are. BMX involves a bunch of sitting around watching people try to grind down a stair rail, followed by injurious attempts to do the same yourself. Mountain bike rides can be anywhere from 30 minutes to a whole day. The number one complaint I hear from mountain bikers is ‘my hands hurt/go numb’. Here’s why: bars with no sweep, and the grip design is sub optimal. Of course your hands hurt! The GA3 grips from Ergon are not a magic bullet, but if you combine them with a bar with more back sweep, they’ll help a ton. If you just install these, no new bars, they’ll help a good bit, but probably won’t solve the issue. Here’s what they do: spread out the pressure on that pesky Ulnar nerve, the one that makes your hands ache and your pinkie go to sleep when you ride. They do this pretty subtly, they don’t look super weird or anything. They’re more low key than the GP1 grips, which are the orthopedic shoe of bicycle grips. If your hands hurt, and you wanna keep riding a norm-core mountain bike bar, try these out.
