10 Best Mountain Bike Grips for Handlebars – Top MTB Brands Reviewed in 2021

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Your bicycle grips are some of the most important parts of your bicycle, as they’re one of the three things that connect your body to your bike, aside from the saddle and the pedals, so you can act as one entity on the road or trail.

This constant contact is also what makes the grips wear out fast. At a certain point, you’ll have no choice but to replace them with new grips that will serve you better. (Or, you could just do it anytime you want if you’re feeling an upgrade).

Either way, the market is saturated with plenty of MTB grips to choose from, and while that can feel a bit overwhelming, you’re sure to find the best mountain bike grips that work for your cycling needs. That said, it can still be difficult to know where to even start, and that’s why we’re here to help with this complete review and buying guide of 2021 best bike grips.

Why You Need Mountain Bike Grips

Many cyclists tend to overlook bicycle grips when caring for their ride. This is wrong. In case it’s not clear, you absolutely need bike grips as a mountain bike rider (or any kind of cyclist, really). For one, your grips can influence various aspects of your ride, from your control over the bike, your endurance and comfort during your ride, and your overall ride quality.

Moreover, as we mentioned earlier, the bike grips are an important point of contact between you and the bicycle, and if that contact is compromised, that’s just an accident waiting to happen.

As such, using good quality, well-made MTB grips can spell the difference between a fun ride and a painful one. If your mountain bike currently has standard grips that offer little to no value, it’ll just demonstrate a starker contrast once you upgrade them with better ones. You just need to be careful in choosing your new grips and base your decision on certain factors.

Top 10 Mountain Bike Grips

To make your life easier, we did the daunting task of evaluating and comparing bike grips on the market in order to give you this list of the best mountain bike handlebar grips. Ready? Let’s check them out!

Key Factors To Consider When Buying MTB Grips

As you’ve seen from our reviews above, there are vast options for MTB handlebar grips, and plenty of different types and designs too. What that really means is that you need to be careful when choosing a pair of suitable grips and that you shouldn’t rely on style alone.

Instead, you need to account for certain factors in order to determine the grips’ performance and viability. These key factors include grip type, profile design, material construction and quality, comfort and grip, and ergonomics, among others. We’ll talk about each of these factors below.

Type of Mountain Bike Grips

Your mountain bike grips are an essential part of your bicycle as they influence your endurance, control, and comfort while you’re riding your bike. How much of each of these things you get is highly dependent on the type, construction, design, and attachment style of the bike grips.

This is why you need to have some knowledge about bicycle grips so you can better understand what works best for your riding style, morphology, and riding conditions. Below are the common classifications of bike grips based on their installation/ locking mechanism:

Lock on Grip

Lock-on grips like the Odi Ruffian, RaceFace Half Nelson, and Lizard Skins Northshore are popular for a reason. This type of grip is preferred by most mountain bikers since they offer a more secure and reliable hold during difficult rides.

That’s because aside from the central rubber part, the grip also comes with a (usually metal) grip fastener at either one or both ends, with the use of a hex key to secure the grip in place. This design not only locks the grip firmly in place so it doesn’t slip or shift, but it also offers exceptional comfort and, well, grip.

Many lock-on grips also come with hard plastic cores underneath the soft rubber to make them easy to install and take off, since the core just slides over the handlebars once the grip fastener is loosened.

Push on Grip

On the other hand, push on grips are a more standard option. These are just your basic rubber with the addition of an end rubber grip to push onto the bar and stick the grip into place. It sort of acts as a substitute for the missing locking end/s.

That said, push on grips often make use of liquid adhesives for a better and more secure installation, as the adhesive not only helps the grips smoothly slide into place, but it also keeps the grips fixed in position throughout your ride. Now, unlike the mostly one-size-fits-all lock-on grips, push on grips come in a variety of sizes (and shapes) for different handlebars.

Profile Design

Bicycle grips also come in many different patterns and shapes, and this profile design is what makes a certain grip more ideal than another in certain situations. For example, bigger grips are more comfortable, while thinner grips offer a better grasp. There are even waffle designs that guarantee a firm grasp even when wet.

Length

When it comes to length, you want handlebar grips that are just the right size to offer a comfortable spot for your palms without overtaking a huge part of the bars that the too-wide grips start to push the brake levers and gear shifters further towards the center, making them more difficult to reach.

That said, getting the right size grips is a fairly easy and straightforward task. You really just need to base your decision on the size of your hands and where on the handlebars you typically rest your hands during the ride. For instance, if you have small fingers, shorter grips are a better option since you can have the controls closer to your hands.

Thickness

Aside from the length/ width, the thickness of the bike grips is also important as this determines your comfort level and grasp on the handlebars. Unfortunately, these two things don’t really go together, and that’s why bike grips come in various sizes- to accommodate different size rider hands and different riders’ needs.

To put it simply, thin grips let those with short fingers fully grasp the bars, but they don’t offer as much comfort, and can even make you squeeze the bike grips too hard. Meanwhile, thick and large grips are difficult to grasp but offer all that cushioning so your hands and wrists don’t feel as strained, especially after long and challenging rides.

One thing you need to keep in mind is that when buying medium to hard compound bike grips, you need to make sure that they fit your hands well upon purchase since they’re not really flexible or pliant. Soft grips, on the other hand, offer more versatility in that you can wear them to better suit your preferences.

Contour

There are bicycle grips called plain gauge grips, which feature a uniform thickness from one end to another. These are great if you’re prone to shifting your hands along with the handlebars during your ride.

There are also contoured grips with either a middle palm bulge or inter-finger bulges so your hand rests better on the bars while also keeping them in place.

And then there are ergonomic grips that offer an even better anatomical fit and enhanced hand comfort. These are the best when it comes to minimizing pain and discomfort, but are not as suitable when it comes to technical terrain riding.

Many MTB bike grips also feature open ends on both sides of the grips, which allows you to slide the grip to the placement that you prefer in terms of comfort. There are many other unique features offered by various mountain bike grip brands, with each promising better comfort and durability.

Bar Plugs

Regardless of which design you choose to go with, always make sure to use closed-end bar plugs with your bicycle grips as this helps prevent the handlebar from stabbing you in the event of a crash or if you somehow fall onto the end of the handlebar. Plus, these things are great in helping protect the bars from damage and wear.

Material Construction and Quality

Handlebar grips are made with various materials with varying degrees of quality and durability. The cheaper bike grips, for example, are constructed from low-end materials that tend to easily crack, wear, split, and generally become uncomfortable to use after a while.

On the other hand, better quality and somewhat more expensive mountain bike grips use hard wearing and durable materials that make for superior, robust grips with a better and longer-lasting performance.

Tread Pattern

Bicycle grips with deeper grooves and more pronounced tread patterns are more suited to riding barehanded or without gloves. They are also great at maintaining grip when wet as they clear away moisture from water, sweat, and mud.

Meanwhile, low profile tread patterns along with half waffles and knurled diamonds are often more preferred by riders who choose to ride with their gloves on, since the extra grip is redundant, and their gloves offer better moisture-wicking anyway.

Compound

Aside from the tread pattern, rubber compound also matters when it comes to traction. Tacky and ultra tacky grips offer better traction than their standard counterparts but are not as long-lasting since the extra tack also makes the grips wear out faster.

There are also silicone foam grips which offer superior vibration damping capabilities, and even better conform to the shape of your palm. These foam grips typically come in a somewhat ovalized shape and in pretty much any color you can think of.

Dual Compound

Going back to rubber compound grips, some bike grips make use of two different rubber compounds, with one being a hard layer serving as the grip’s foundation, and another, softer layer on the surface.

What this does is the firm inner sleeve on the grip securely holds onto the handlebars in order to prevent slippage while also maintaining the bike grip’s form, while the soft outer sleeve offers better comfort. It works great too, for the most part, except you get thicker bike grips, which can be a pain for those who prefer thinner grips. And, dual compound grips typically cost more.

Comfort and Grip

We’ve been talking about comfort and grip again and again because they’re just so important. After all, these two factors are the raison d’etre of mountain bike grips. Hence, we just want to reiterate that the level of comfort you get from the bike grips and how well you can grasp them are highly dependent on the grip’s shape, design, and tread pattern.

What you want to think about here is what type of riding you usually do, and what riding style you prefer. For example, do you like to challenge yourself on difficult terrains, use your bike for daily commutes, or simply enjoy a leisurely weekend ride? Do you prefer wearing gloves, or going without?

Answering these questions will help you better identify how to choose the most ideal profile design, shape, and tread pattern of the bike grips.

Ergonomics

Speaking of shape, we’re really referring to the grip’s ergonomics here. That said, bike grips come in many different shapes and sizes. There are grips that are perfectly cylindrical and smooth to the touch, while others come with wings, bumps, and other design features.

If you’re particular about the grips’ ergonomics, you need to choose bike grips that offer plenty of palm support as this will make for better riding comfort. However, keep in mind that it also means you won’t enjoy as much grasp, therefore making the grips unsuitable for challenging rides and competition level trails where you’ll need firmer grips.

Palm Pressure

The most important part that defines the grips’ comfort level is how it relieves pressure on your hands and wrists. A good pair of bike grips will relieve this pressure dramatically as compared to standard bike grips.

This means you can go on longer and more demanding rides without having to worry about hand fatigue since the mountain bike grips effectively spread pressure across a larger area.

To Conclude

At first, it may seem like shopping for the best mountain bike grips is difficult, but if you know what to look for, the process can actually be simple and straightforward. You just need to base your decision on your personal riding requirements and preferences, along with your budget, so you can buy the best set of grips that your money can buy.

Fortunately, most bicycle grips available on the market are, for the most part, affordable, even the premium, top-of-the-line, competition standard mountain bike grips are likely within your spending budget.

Here’s one last tip before you go: If you’re buying bike grips online, make sure to read the customers’ reviews, and check the seller’s return policy along with the manufacturer’s warranty.

Need to complete your cycling get up? Check out this list of the best mountain bike shorts.

• Category: Buying Guide