In a somewhat logical move (considering they make bars) Easton are about to start offering grips. Apparently they were fed up with seeing their carbon bars getting damaged by some other lock-on designs and so as of the beginning of June you should be able to get you hands on these ones which have been designed to be as carbon friendly as possible. The metal clamps never actually come into contact with your bars, only the plastic liner of the grip does. As you’d expect from Easton the clamps themselves are very nicely finished, especially the outer ones which have an integrated end cap. The fact that the grip extends over the clamps to protect your hands is also a nice touch, but if you like to ride with your hands overlapping the end of your bars then you might not get on too well with the little raised flange at the end. Personally I like grips with a definite stop at the end as I like the reassurance they give me that my hands aren’t going to fly off the end.

As for the main part of the grip, I really like this too. The larger, and smoother Easton logos are designed to sit under your palm for comfort, and then the smaller ones are angled kind of like sharks teeth to give you the grip that you need. These definitely feel like they offer a great balance between comfort and grip. The Elastomeric Polyurethane which Easton have used to make the grips out of is also different to the norm. Easton chose to use it over the more standard Kraton rubber because they’ve found that it offers far superior longevity. When developing these grips they made them out of both materials and gave one of each to their test riders and when the Kraton one had died a death the Elastomeric Polyurethane one was still going strong. Crucially it also feels good with a welcome bit of ‘squidge’.

The final thing that we really like about these grips is that Easton will be offering them in two different thicknesses. The skinnier of the two has a 30mm diameter whilst the fatter one is 33mm. A 3mm difference might not sound like much, but you can really feel it. Riders have different tastes when it comes to grip thickness, so it’s good to see a company offering this kind of choice. Of course Easton will also be offering these grips in several different colours, six to be precise. UK pricing is still to be decided but with a price of $25 in the USA these should be competitive in the UK.