It’s not since the introduction of Lock-On grips that I can think of a new and genuinely unique take on grips, but that’s exactly what these Imprint Grips appear to be. Basically after a bit of a dip in some boiling water these grips can be custom moulded to your hands, and they can be done time and time again too. We think these have the potential to be a bit of a winner, and for several reasons.
The most obvious advantage of these grips is that they should provide great comfort, simply because they’ll fit the shape of your hand perfectly. This in turn could well help to reduce arm pump because much of that dreaded problem is down to pressure points being caused by regular grips. They look like they’ll give great grip too.
TMR Designs are behind this new grip and basically they are three mates from the Lake District who have spent the past couple of years turning their idea for these grips into a reality, and now they’re looking to take the final step and put them into production. To make that happen they needed to raise some money, and to that they launched the Kickstarter campaign that you can see here. We’re pleased to say that they’ve already reached their target, but there are still three more days to go so if you fancy getting hold of a pair of these grips before they go on general sale then head over to Kickstarter and back their campaign now.
If you’re wondering exactly how the moulding process works then here’s the score…
And here’s their Kickstarter campaign video which shows the process, and the grips in even more detail…
As you can see the textured pattern of the grip is caused by the purple plastic mesh thing that you pull off, and so that’s already got us thinking that you could even experiment with making your own patterns, especially as there is no limit to how many times you can re-mould the grips. This quality also means that should the pattern start to wear out on the grips you can simply re-mould them and they’ll be like new again. The guys behind the grips reckon that these take much longer to wear out than a regular grip anyway, simply because of the lack of pressure points. If you look at your current grips you’ll no doubt see that they are actually only wearing in a couple of spots; the areas where you hands really dig in. With these the load is evenly spread.
As I said at the start we think these grips have the potential to be very good indeed, and we can’t wait to try some out. Two versions will be available; Standard and Premium, with the former having a plastic core and the latter having the one-piece aluminium core and clamp that’s shown below.
Both styles of grip will use a single in-board Lock-On clamp, and this ‘Full Metal Jacket’ grip sleeve will ensure there’s no twisting whatsoever. The lock rings and full metal jacket sleeves will also be offered in 5 anodized colours – red, black, blue, silver and gold, and initially there will be a choice of two grip material colours – Kickstarter Green or Magnesium. Oh, and by the looks of it the price of these will be in the same sort of ball park as a regular set of quality Lock-On grips.
So, what are you waiting for? Head over to their Kickstarter page now and make sure you are one of the first to get to try out these grips.
