Original subtitles

installing handlebar grips can be fairly

straightforward thanks to the locking

collar style grips that are fairly

commonplace however there are a few more

things that you might want to consider

side specific grips or position specific

grips a different profile in shape there

or of course the classic push-on grips

that need to be safely secured to the

handlebars in today's video we're going

to be looking at all the different

methods for putting grips safely on your

bike and of course how to get them off

again

handlebar grips come in all sorts of

different shapes and sizes you can get

locking collar style grips like this one

have a single collar you can get twin

collar grips you can get long grips you

can get short grips fat grips thin grips

and of course push-on grips now push-on

grips are very much the classic uh

they're simple rubber or foam grips and

they rely on friction to hold them in

place which means it's absolutely

essential no matter what you get your

grips on safely because no one wants a

grip that turns which is something that

can happen with these we call that term

throttle grips because they can slide

around or worse still slide straight off

when you're riding i shouldn't need to

tell you that you do not want that to

happen so let's dive into the world of

handlebar grips

[Music]

okay so bar end plugs let's start here

because you absolutely must have these

on your bike you get various different

types you get hammering types you get

expander wedge types and you even get

ones that are built on to the grip

whichever type it is make sure your bike

has some and make sure they're in good

condition what you don't want is a

handlebar grip with an open exposed

handlebar in the end if you have a crash

you could be really unlucky now i'll say

this in an advisory tone first hand i've

seen a horrific injury where someone

crashed the handlebars crabbed and

basically impaled his leg so it core

sampled his leg there was humor flesh on

the inside of his handlebar and a

massive gaping hole in his leg loads of

blood

it took a helicopter to get off the

mountain and i do hear that he was fine

but the point is it's a really horrible

injury to have and i've heard many other

horrific stories you also will not be

allowed to enter a bike race and quite

often even take part in a bike event if

you don't have them on for safety so do

yourselves a favor and just double check

them from time to time

the most common types you get that

aren't built onto grips are ones that

hammer in place like these and they tend

to stay in for the life of the grip but

in a crash you can loosen them and if

yours are loose there's a chance they

can come out so replace them and the

other type are expanded wedge types you

get metal ones and you get plastic ones

or nylon ones like this they work great

but again the same thing if they're

struck in an impact sometimes it stops

them doing a job and they can come out

so from time to time just check them

it's not worth the risk

okay first things first

push on grips so you get very simple

grips that can be made of types of foam

all types of rubber like this one and

they push onto the bar well it's not

quite that simple but essentially

they're held onto the bar using the

friction of the rubber against the

handlebar now they're super light which

does appeal to cross-country races and

people trying to save weight but

ultimately the reason you would pick

these over a locking collar style grip

that slides on and bolts onto the

handlebar is comfort now of course you

can get comfortable grips in all kinds

of different ways but it's very easy to

accomplish this with one of these

handlebar grips because it simply is all

rubber is all cushioning when you have a

locking collar style grip you have a

very thin plastic sheath and the collar

is part of that and then over that

sheath you have rubber so of course it

limits the amount of rubber that can be

used if you have a full suspension bike

it might not even be a consideration for

you if you have a rigid bike or a

hardtail bike then you will definitely

notice a difference having a bit more

rubber between your hands and the

vibrating surfaces of the bike

now the point is with these they have to

be installed correctly because of the

fact they're a friction fit so if

there's any movement they're either

going to move around or they're going to

come off okay so the first question is

dry or wet installation now obviously

this is a friction based product so

getting it on dry is nearly impossible

but there is a way and i know a lot of

people that work in bike shops they like

to use an air compressor and they will

partially slide the grip on sometimes

using a spoke or something thin to get

underneath the bar there just to get on

the inside and use an air compressor to

kind of blow it over and get it onto the

handlebars now if that works for you

that's great but that is quite a

difficult way of doing it and i can feel

people out there saying no it's easy i

do all the time but let's face it not

everyone has access to a compressor more

to the point which leaves you with the

bonding option of getting the grips on

of which there are a few different

options so there's some specific

products available on the market and

there's some products you probably have

laying around the house so the first one

let's go into the more specific things

you can get grip glue and you can get

grip cement both of these do a near

permanent job of getting your grips on

the bars but they do take a bit of prep

you have to make sure your grips are

completely clean you have to make sure

the handlebars are completely clean

ideally a new set of bars you know to

get the optimum bond on there and you

want to make sure there's no chance

there's been any grease or any oils or

anything on the bar there

now the grip glue is something that

takes effect in three minutes so it's

fairly quick you simply put a load on

inside the grip a load on the handlebar

slide it into place get it in the

correct orientation for what you like

and leave it do not touch it for at

least three minutes now you want to make

sure that basically if you touch it in

that three minutes you'll end up with a

portion of the grip that will be bonded

another portion that just won't bond

properly and it will drive you potty so

great stuff

kind of share similarities with other

glues out there but it's designed

specially to use with handlebar grips

the next option is a cement now i know

people that use this stuff over that

this creates a really really strong bond

but this is like at least eight hours to

let it set and i don't know many people

that patient to be fair although i know

more people use this than that

same principle smear a load on the

inside of grip smear some on the actual

handlebar get it in place do not touch

it for a minimum of eight hours

if you do overnight is a good way of

doing it

your next option is household products

so you've got a couple that stand out

spray mount

if you're an artist or you work on

anything like that you might have some

of this laying around this does work

well but it doesn't always give a really

strong bond so again when you put it on

you have to make sure everything is

clean and prepped slide it into place

and leave it to dry don't be tempted to

check it's dry just do yourself a favor

go out go do something come back to it

later hopefully it'll be stuck in place

well my current favorite and the only

the agile favorite is hairspray now of

all the hairsprays that one is the one

trust me i know about hairspray i've

been doing that and that for many years

works really really well

when it comes to freeing the grips off

the bars bespoke is your friend if you

have alloy bars

now you can do this with carbon bars but

you've got to take it with a pinch of

salt here because you can score the bar

as it goes through the idea is you

literally want this to slide underneath

the grip peel it open the teeniest bit

and then spray a bit of hairspray under

there don't be tempted to use anything

like gt85 wd40 bike protect spray any

sort of loops

unless you're planning on throwing those

grips away if you want to use them again

make sure you use something that can

either be used to stick it on there

again or something that will evaporate

if you won't use something like that

isopropyl alcohol is a good option to

get it off the bars there but like i

said if you've got a carbon bar you need

to be extremely careful that you're not

going to score it when you slide this

down now i know people that use push-on

grips and they won't ever do this and

what they'll do instead is just slip the

grip at either end and then literally

peel it off afterwards so they'll wait

until the grip is absolutely finished

but you won't always have that option

available to you because in fact

sometimes your controls will need to

come off for certain maintenance jobs so

just bear that in mind with the methods

you're doing

now i have heard of people in the past

using paint

like as in like the top-up paint that

you might get with your frame to stick

on grips yeah that will work but it

makes a little mess of the handlebars

and stuff so i generally wouldn't

recommend that i've also had nail

varnish being used again i just stick

with some of the hairspray because it's

a household thing you see a lot of it

it's easy to get hold off it's cheap and

essentially it's a glue so it works

great

now the final option is the best method

but not a method that everyone likes to

use and this is wiring the grips on now

this is safety wire you see this in many

sort of engineering applications and you

might have seen this on motocross bikes

where it's still quite common today

despite the fact you can get lock-on

style grips on motocross bikes now you

have these special pliers which are

designed for tightening this i'm going

to run you through this process but the

point to make if you're going to wire on

grips you can't really do it with a grip

like this you need a specific style grip

now nothing really changes on the grip

this particular one is just by rental

it's a bmx grip

but it has these little channels in

there and those channels are designed

for you to use the wire to get the grips

on now i'm going to run you through the

process of putting on a push on grip and

using safety wire to hold it in place

now you do see this with some downhill

races i know danny hart has done this

many times and i believe on his 2016

world champs bike he actually wired on a

set of these very grips which i chose to

use these to demonstrate in the video so

again you slide these in place using

your preferred method

using the spray mount as i mentioned for

this one and then once in place then you

need to cut some sections of wire so

this is 0.8 mil thick wire especially

designed as safety wire for this type of

job you wrap it around the bars twizzle

a bit of the wire together and then you

literally clamp on these special pliers

now if you look here as i clamp on the

plier it has a little silver sheath if

you pull this back it locks the pliers

in place then simply you hold the little

dial on the end and you pull that dial

which in turn spins the actual pliers

around and tightens that cable you might

find you have to do this a couple of

times now you want this to be nice and

tight because it basically grips them

onto the actual handlebars but don't go

so tight that you end up snapping the

wire

then how you trim it down is up to you

if you want to go trim but obviously you

then have to push it all the way back

into the handlebar grip there so you

have nothing protruding this is why when

you wire on a grip you need a grip that

has wire grooves in it ready otherwise

you would be able to feel that

underneath your hand and of course

that's not very nice once the grip is

wired on that is good to go that is not

going to slip in any amount of rain muck

or filth now just note one thing

obviously i did the grips with the

wiring on the top there so you could see

it on camera that's not the position

you'd want them in because you wouldn't

want any chance of actually resting your

hand on top of that joint now although

it's completely flush with the grip

because of those channels and you can't

feel it you'd still want to do it on the

underside of the grip says out of harm's

way again that was just there for

reference there we go

[Music]

okay so bolt-on grips or locking collar

style grips often referred to as

lock-ons that's actually a name from odi

grips they invented the lock-on system

with those locking collars that clip

onto the actual grip itself and you'll

see that system used by many other

brands out there with the odi supported

collars now there's various other brands

out there that offer similar systems

same same but different like this one

from ergon for example it has a single

locking collar now you tend to see on

all of the locking collar grips ones

that have multiple a lot that have two

locking collars tend to have smaller

bolts on them and the ones that have

single collars tend to have bigger bolts

these ones have a three millimeter head

on some will have a two and a half i've

even seen two on some on the industry

there now the way they work is you have

the collar that slides over the end here

you have a sheath on the underside which

is made of plastic and you have the

rubber grip that's bonded over the top

of that obviously the collar holds it

all in place nice and neatly on the bar

and these particular ones one of the

things i really like about them is the

fact they have a bar end plug that's

kind of intrinsic to the design it's not

like an afterthought like oh you should

have buy and plug and hammer one in this

actually blends in with the grip there

as nice and strong and simple okay when

it comes to putting lock-on style grips

on the handlebars it's a little bit

different to putting on push-on grips

because when you put the push-on grips

on you can actually feel whether you're

at the end of the bar

and actually see it and stuff whereas

with locking collar style grips because

they've got that hard sheath on the

inside there to support the rubber that

goes over the top you don't always know

if it's fully on the bar especially if

it has a bar unplug that's built into

the design

for obvious reasons so what you want to

do is measure up the grip on offer all

the way to the exposed collar at the end

there measure up your handlebar real

estate and actually see if it tallies up

when you're actually pushing it on use

your common sense if you're thinking

hold on a second that looks like it's

overhanging do the math and work it out

if a grip like this is overhanging by

even like centimeter you could be

stressing at the end of the actual grip

they could end up cracking it for

example you don't want to be doing that

now we do know some people that do run

their grips a little bit over the end of

the handlebars just to get that little

extra extension and i've done it myself

in the past but really you shouldn't be

doing that because you can damage the

handlebar grip and the manufacturers of

those grips will be the first people to

be like you ran over into barton you

that's not covered by warranty so just

take care with that so

slide your grips into place now if your

grips are position sensitive or they're

left and right

specific like these ones so these ones

are left and right specific it says

right just above the collar here these

ones also have a very specific position

on the bark so an ergonomic pattern grip

so it's really important to get these

lined up the same on both sides and to

the correct orientation

per design i can't tell you for all

grips out there because they're going to

be slightly different recommendations

and then of course your preferences will

change

as with anything on a bike go to the

base setting go with what the

manufacturer recommends then you ride it

and you see what you like whether you

want to come back with them or go

forwards but the point is check don't

just bung them on like an old-school

style grip you've got to make sure these

are in the correct position

now because they have a tiny little bolt

these ones not so much so but once the

twin collars they've got tiny bolts on

they're very easy to round the head of

the bolt and they're also very easy to

break those bolts so i recommend using a

torque wrench

now ergon generally for the off-road

grips to have the three millimeter bolt

they recommend three newton meters odi

style locking collar grips tend to

recommend two and a half newton meters

and renthal which are the ones i ended

up using on that mondraker bike build i

did for shimano and that one has two

newton meters so just double check on

yours and it's a really good idea to use

the torque wrench for this sort of

purpose

now the last part of putting on any sort

of locking collar style grip is making

sure you get the bar and plug in place

now don't just clobber it with a big old

lump hammer tap it home safely make sure

it's going in nice and evenly make sure

it sits flush on the end of the

handlebars or in this case with the end

of the grip there make sure it's in

place test it make sure it feels good

and then you're good to go there we go

handlebar grips various different ways

to get them on your bike nice and safely

hopefully i've taught someone something

out there today and more importantly

make sure you use your buying plugs

that's probably the single most

important thing with your handlebar

grips so say goodbye to throttle grips

if you've been putting on push-on grips

badly and say hello to nice safe control

if you've got any pointers or anything

you want to say in the comments

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another video soon see you later