ODI Elite Grips launched. Not just any grips...

We actually saw these for the first time at Eurobike, but ODI asked us to be quiet about them for the few weeks leading up to Interbike. Their new Elite grips put the padding where your weight rests, and take it away from where it doesn’t, leading to the same overall diameter of grip, but with more padding where it’s needed. It’s such a startlingly obvious idea in retrospect, we’re surprised no one thought of it sooner. They start shipping on October the 1st from distributor Ison.

P1040479 — Outwardly they look like many other grips.

P1040477 — A cross section should make apparent what’s going on.

P1040480 — This is the burliest of the three new grips. All are single clamp designs.

P1040481 — The Elite Flow has a knurled design with a waffle on the back for grip.

P1040483 — The Elite Pro has extra padding to dampen vibrations, waffle underside, and a more heavily reinforced end than the other grips.

P1040484 — The Elite Motion has a simple knurled design all over the grip.

P1040486 — Indexing marks to help you put the padding exactly where you want it.

David Hayward

David started mountain biking in the 90’s, by which he means “Ineptly jumping a Saracen Kili Racer off anything available in a nearby industrial estate”. After growing up and living in some extremely flat places, David moved to Yorkshire specifically for the mountain biking. This felt like a horrible mistake at first, because the hills are so steep, but you get used to them pretty quickly. Previously, David trifled with road and BMX, but mountain bikes always won. He’s most at peace battering down a rough trail, quietly fixing everything that does to a bike, or trying to figure out if that one click of compression damping has made things marginally better or worse. The inept jumping continues to this day.