New Liteville 301 build now underway in 160mm guise, but I’m undecided on the shifting system. Always used pods before but the Gripshift is about the same price as standard XO pods at the moment…..so :

For those of you who have it what are the issues / improvements if any.

I’ve read the article in issue 85 which talks about the grips being too long and pushing brakes inboard and I see that they found a fix, but ultimately one which wasn’t comfortable on long rides – Don’t like the sound of that.

I guess I could go for a non lock on type of grip – any suggestions ?

For what it’s worth this is my alpine bike (can I say enduro without getting toasted). I found that on long descents arm pump was hindering braking and gear changing hence the consideration of Gripshift.

I run X0 Gripshift, 1 * 10, think its brilliant, use it for XC racing and find it quicker than the XT shifters it replaced.

Not had an issue with brake placement.

Grips – cut whatever you like to the length you want. Sorts that out.
Love the shifting dropping through 7 gears in one is great. Reliable practical and robust.
Only issue I have is getting the remote for the dropper in the right place. Still working on that. Only issue is I wouldn’t use it for pure dh as it’s too much to rotate my hand that far with weak wrists from an old crash injury.

Went to them last year after breaking a thumb and not gone back. Have the xo ones not worth the xx

its the bolloxs IMO, great for racing.

light, cheap, reliable…whats not to like?

Swedish Chef, very tidy looking cockpit. What grips are those ?

I use gripshift on all my bikes now.
Great in all areas but I find them particularly good in winter with gloves.

I hate the grips which come with the 10 speed shifters so cut down a Ritchey foam grip.

minus points can be awarded as they do take up quite a bit of bar space.

Tried them about 20 years ago and they were rubbish on a trail bike. Quite tempted to give them a go again on the XC race bike though, probably be better without the front mech too.

I hate them as I’ve got small hands and seem like hard work got a mate who loves them has them on everything

I had 9-speed X0, which I ran for 4 years with no problems. They had a very positive action (a bit clunky), but I loved using them.

I recently moved to 10-speed X0. The difference is quite big with the new ones shifting feeling much lighter.

Overall, I really like the new shifters and doubt I will ever ride triggers.

SRAM foam lock-on grips, light, comfy, easy to cut, and cheap.

one problem actually – if ou have shimano brakes…the lever isnt that long and it cant get that close as the unit is wide…take a look at the pic above.

I have these on 2 bikes.

the bike with hope brakes is a better setup as the levers are longer

I’m running some very old SRAM Plasma shifters which I quite like and sadly the rubber has disintegrated so I need to look at getting some new shifters.
Does all of the 9spd SRAM stuff work with an XT deraileur?

Been using them for approx 10 months – just the old X0 9speed ones

My thumb joints ache like mad in winter and normal shifters were hard work – the gripshifters have solved my thumb issues / super fast accurate shifts / able to trim the front mech / no levers to get in the way under the bars

I was worried about them shifting / spinning on rocky downhills when I didn’t want them to – no such problems found though

I love them 🙂

Disco_stu

you can pick up the grips for Plazma shifters on ebay. Not cheap but still available.

try looking for the Sram attack or Rocket gripshifts as these will work with 9 speed Shimano. ( if you need a right hand 9 speed i have one i can part with )

for 9 speed SRAM shifter
if it has a name – it WILL work with Shimano
if it has a number – it WONT

All the best

I’ve been wanting to try the Gripshift on my XX1 for a while bug have read quite a few threads on MTBR forums about the shifters dying after next to no use.
If they were reliable I’d try it but £110 for a possibly ropey shifter doesn’t sound promising.

Happy XO nine speed user here. Got them on both my bikes and one pair must be pushing ten years old now. Can’t see me going back to triggers anytime soon.

Got it with new bike many years ago and was going to dump it for Shimano. Rode it once and was sold immediately. Fast shifting, multiple shifts, easy trim of front mech. The pooches balls.

X0 10 speed one in a 1×10 setup here and much prefer it to triggers for all the reasons given above. It’s got a much lighter action than the X0 9 speed version it replaced.

I use ESI chunky grips cut down and have never had an issue getting my (Hope) brakes in the right position.

The only issue I’ve got is getting the metal collar thing that fixes it to the bars to sit totally flush to the shifter body, so it rattles a little as a consequence.

Have the old nine speed kit which I really like. Running ten speed mechs on my Trance 29 and to be honest, they are more fragile than the previous generation. Mech went sloppy within a few weeks of use. A bit poor considering the cost.

Tried them about 20 years ago and they were rubbish on a trail bike. Quite tempted to give them a go again on the XC race bike though, probably be better without the front mech too.

Back then there wasn’t trail bikes. Just bikes!

My x9 10sp is holding up very well. As for trail vs XC I’m happy just ruling them out of other and out dh racing.

I’ve been wanting to try the Gripshift on my XX1 for a while bug have read quite a few threads on MTBR forums about the shifters dying after next to no use.

I have recently installed XX1 and decided to try Gripshift for a change. The shifter disintegrated whithin 5 minutes of me installing it! I am using a trigger pod now and am happy with that.

I use nothing but gripshift, never got on with rapidfire types. (ok, I confess, I did like flappy shifters, and my hack has friction thumbies)

started with Sachs extremes, wavy’s, then onto gripshift rocket and attack. always with a rapid rise mech.

they just work without fuss, never had a mis shift and are lightweight.

grips can be a bit of an issue for me as I don’t like feeling the lock collars between the shifter and the grip. ESI’s seem to sort that, they’ve not budged since install.

Back then there wasn’t trail bikes. Just bikes!

🙂 indeed, they came as standard on my one and only mtb at the time, a Cannondale M500 fully rigid. Don’t remember that much about it really other than I swapped them for some XT shifters and they worked a lot better.

I use a Sram attack gripshift on my dh bike after trashing 3 shimano shifters in as many months and am seriously considering changing my xc bike setup as well.

I have used Gripshift on all my bikes since the mid 1990’s (before SRAM).

The Shimano compatible gripshifts are a vast improvement over the old Wavey shifters, and the Attack 9 speed shifters are almost identical to 9 speed X0 (with different pull ratio’s). All of these are pretty ‘clicky’ and require a decent grip for up or down shifts.

The 2 x 10 X0 shifters are in a different league, and are much easier and quicker to shift than any gripshift I have used before.

I like them, always have done, and wouldn’t use anything else.

I have been using xo grip shift with a 2 by 10 set up for a year and a half now. I had to trim the grips down so I could reach my brakes but they are working well and I’ve never shifted unintentionally. I am about to do another build with xo1 but think I’m gonna go trigger purely because I think it looks nicer and less uneven than having one grip shift on the bars.

Got XO on both bikes. Wouldn’t use conventional shifters anymore. Gripshift wayyyyy better. Shift from 1-9 and back in one quick movement.

Decision made.

Grip shift ahoy !

I forgot to mention I use Ergon gripshift compatible grips.

I am using some old X0 gripshifts converted by Fantic26.de to run with 10 speed Shimano. Works a treat.

Have been running grip shift about 14 years now.

Anyone up for swapping an unused xo1 11 speed trigger shifter for a good condition 11 speed gripshift as I have broken my thumb badly need to swap out.

Does all of the 9spd SRAM stuff work with an XT deraileur?

For old XO you should be able to do the 9sp SRAM to 10sp Shimano mech bodge with the .236″/6mm spacer at the cable bolt on the mech. Obviously you’d still only have 9 speeds though.

I have XO 9sp gripshift on the race bike and it’s OK – light and nice to be able to do big shifts in one go – bit clunky but positive shifts. Downsides are as mentioned above you need to make sure your brake levers work with it OK – to get one finger braking I find Shimano levers get pretty close to the shifter collar area. Contrived to have a bit of a crash in a race when it turned out shed adjustment wasn’t up to downhill scenario….

Have also had a few instances of inadvetently shifting at bottom of steep drops followed instantly by steep climbs.

ESI Chunkys work brilliantly with gripshift, ran them for three years with my old 9 speed stuff.

Been using 9 speed for years and just got 10 speeds on the new bike (far better than the triggers and I can concentrate on riding my bike again rather than wondering what lever to press – I’d got so used to twisting)

The 10 speeds have a lighter action but they stil work very well.

Does all of the 9spd SRAM stuff work with an XT deraileur?

You can modify them but to keep it really simple just go for the SRAM models with names (eg Rocket) rather than numbers (eg X9).
I use Attack grip shifters with Shimano mechs and much prefer them to triggers. I have never had an accidental shift due to my hands rotating on the bars which I keep hearing about. My index finger covers the brake lever and I either use SRAM grips or cut down others to fit.
If you search hard enough you can even find short versions of lock on grips.

http://www.pro-bikegear.com/publish/content/pro_2010/nl/en/index/products/grip___tape/mtb.-productCode-PRGP0030.html
http://www.pro-bikegear.com/publish/content/pro_2010/nl/en/index/products/grip___tape/mtb.-productCode-PRGP0028.html

I had these grips with the single collar and just cut them down and used them with the collar on the outside.

I had Sram XO which was on a salsa moto rapido around 7 years ago. The bike looked ace but the first thing that had to go was that grip shit, but i thought well i will give it try as it’s the top of the range gearing, to cut a long story short i loved it! The shifting is very snappy positive, precise as long as you get the grips the right length i would defo have again if it came my way.

I had Sram XO which was on a salsa moto rapido around 7 years ago. The bike looked ace but the first thing that had to go was that grip shit, but i thought well i will give it try as it’s the top of the range gearing, to cut a long story short i loved it! The shifting is very snappy positive, precise as long as you get the grips the right length i would defo have again if it came my way.

Is this one of the most universally loved (>90% on the smilometer 😀 ) products going?

By STW standards there is hardly any haters!