So my dad has thrown me a wee bit of a curve ball regarding the grips on his touring bike (I say touring, it’s a high end Specialized Sirrus with carbon forks/zertz dampers etc).

He uses Specialized’s equivalent of the Ergon paddle shaped grips but is still getting a lot of discomfort, and is now looking for a foam grip instead.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I actually wondered if a double wrap of some thick bar tape might be the answer instead…

I’d have a look at Superstars Silicon grips, I’ve been very impressed with them.

I got the Fizzik gel pads under mine and some decent tape over the top, fat & comfy after the thumb & hand fractures

ESI chunkies. Having been through lots of grips, these are the best imo.

Having Superstar on my commuter and ESI chunky off road I’d definitely say ESI for off road use.
They’re just a bit more comfortable and thicker than Superstar ones.

Thanks guys, I just spoke with him on the phone and what he describes sounds suspiciously like ulnar nerve compression, i.e. slightly numb fingers! He’s a tinkerer like me though and he’s decided he must try foam grips, so I’ll grab a set of ESIs and see how he gets on.

Does he use gloves? They could be causing the lssues if the pads aren’t in the right place for him.

I also recomment trting some different bars, with lots of sweep.
Mrs M had a similar problem which disappeared when she swapped to On-One Mary bars. I also find them much more comfortable than straight bars. They are also cheap enough to experiment with – not much more than a pair of Spesh grips.

Not wishing to curb experimentation, but I took foam grips off my Whyte for Ergons .. as I was getting what I thought was ulnar nerve compression!
I felt curling my hand round the bar was making it worse – they sink into the foam and make a tight ball for me. Worth trying though.

ah my mistake thought we were on drop bars, using ESI’s and thought they were very good thoug ended up with standard SRAM lockons from the grip shift and seem to be good with them now. Might be all to do with pain/perception and the position on the drops after my hand injuries.

Mary bars look interesting, shame I’ve already bought him all his christmas presents! Might be worth getting a set anyway at that price…

+1 for the ESI, worked for me

I have struggled with Ulnar compression for years, fitted ESI chunky grips to one of my bikes on a whim a couple of years ago, now won’t use anything else! In fact I always have a spare set in the workshop just in case they need replacing, seem to be lasting fairly well at the moment though.

Edited to add, I’m also a tart and like the bright colours!

I asked the same question a few months ago. Esi chunky grips and also carbon bars was mentioned too.