ESI Chunky Grips, Because Your Hands Are So Much More Pleasurable Without Calluses

About 8 years ago I got tired of having numb hands all the time riding single track with a hard tail 29er. I started pouring through the reviews on mtbr.com (a totally awesome site) for handgrips. The ones that seemed to really shine were the ESI Racers Edge (50g/$15) closed cell foam handgrips.

Available in a rainbow of colors that quickly fade and discolor and look like crap, I would suggest you choose black.

Once I switched to electric fatbikes last year I started using the ESI Chunky (60g $15 street price) hand grips which are much thicker and provide much more cushioning for vibration for only 10g more of weight. The endcaps are a joke and will quickly fall out unless you use silicone on the grip fins to hold it on. The handgrips go on easily using a tiny amount of windex or rubbing alcohol to help them slide on. I usually cut off the old grips with a mat knife and throw them away.

With the combination of ESI chunky grips and a thudbuster under my rump I can honestly say that I don’t see any real reason to spend the added expense and weight of a suspension on your electric fatbike. With a larger 4.8″ tire you can control your level of suspension with tire pressure and the only thing you lose is the dampening effect. Unless you are hitting huge drops, a suspension on a fatbike is just an overkill. The cushioning ability of these handgrips is unreal, the only downside I’ve found is that mice really love to nibble on them.

These grips can be found in almost any color for cheap on ebay or by using the froogle search engine.

Ride on.