I’ve ridden with a pair of these this entire season, and they rock the socks off all the other grips I’ve used over the years. Granted, I’ve never had any issues with numb hands/wrists, but I personally will never ride anything else again. They are THAT comfortable. The ONLY downside that I’ve found with this grip, is that the bar end is a much better conductor than the grip body so in cold weather the bar end can suck some heat away from your hands. It’s a minor issue, but I’ve really noticed it during a few cold races/rides. To each their own, but I’ll never ride without a set ergons on my bars.

These things are friggin awesome. Comfy beyond belief. First bar setup I’ve found that lets me ride for 15+ hours a day without ANY hand discomfort. ‘nuf said. I like the additional hand positions and climbing power the just-big-enough bar ends provide. Setting them up and getting used to them takes a while, be patient. It should be noted that I like the small size, even though I have average hands for a guy nearly six feet tall.

My grips of choice as well. I run the carbon barends instead of the magnesium. Been on these things since 2006, and WILL NOT go back to a normal grip.

Do these work well with slightly swept back bars? (Soma Odins, for instance?)

mike – I haven’t tried them on big sweep bars but I think they would work pretty well there too. Mike Curiak had something similar on TU this year – some pics and thread at http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,470.msg5500.html#msg5500, although the bike shots don’t show the bar he actually rode. You could ask him in that thread?

thanks dave. the bars i’m running are similar in bend to a riser, without the rise. 11 deg of sweep if i remember the specs. have looked at the ergons and some specialized things. need something out at the end of my long bar to keep my hands from wandering off when i start to climb. still getting used to a wide bar and the whole ss thing. i’ll check out the thread.

Ah, well I use the Ergons on riser bars. They work great there – for SS use I prefer the round grip style (I think it’s the GA1 model), for gears the ones above with carbon barends.

I have had numbness is my right hand off and on for a few years and I still have it with the Ergon, BUT, it takes a LOT longer to present and is easily mitigated by acting as a reminder to change hand positions. The climbing ends are very useful and they protect the hands in the event of a crash/nicking a tree when hugging a line at high speed. In short, I don’t use anything else for rides of 2 or more. I’d give 4/5 stars. Oh yeah, they function fine in technical situations (step-ups/drops/rock gardens/etc.).

I put these on for ultra distances and have loved them. I went with the smallest bar ends and have found that the grips and bar ends perform well on techy single-track also. At this point, grabbing a standard round grip feels odd. The installation was simple and fast. I only had to tweak the grip angle twice and the bar ends once and haven’t changed them since. They are the difference in ‘pain’ and ‘no pain’ when riding centuries. =)

Ergons web page states that models with bar-ends should not be installed on carbon handlebars. Anybody have experience doing it anyways?

I have them installed on a set of crank brothers carbon bars with no probs. But they are specifically designed to accept bar ends as long as they are not cut. In fact I snapped the alloy bolts in both grips without any damage to the bars.