Grips. You don’t really think about the little things on your bike until they fail you. A grip that slips, or one that pains you to ride it, now those kinds of grips you notice. Otherwise, a grip just needs to do its job and not be noticed, right?

Well, grips are one of our contact points with a bicycle, so I think they are very important. That’s why we are looking at a variety of different grips here at The Bike Lab. Here we have a more traditional looking lock on grip. Let’s take a closer look at it though.

This Origin 8 grip uses a bit different clamping system. It uses opposing 2mm Allen head bolts that push on the band that you can see exposed on the inside of the grip. We’ve seen something similar before with the BBB grips that we recently reviewed. We are not huge fans of this arrangement; however, the Origin 8 set up does look to be a better executed design. The thing is that with the two opposing bolts, an unequal amount of force is generated around the bar. The two pressure points are not very friendly to thin walled aluminum or titanium bars and tend to warp carbon bars as well before the grips get tight enough not to spin on the bars. Thicker guaged aluminum or steel bars should be okay with these grips though.

If you look inside the grips, you will notice that the hard inner sleeve has been relieved in certan areas. This gives the effect of a softer feeling grip, and allows for your fingers to depress the outer covering and find a bit more purchase when necessary. Will it really work? Well, we aim to find out. The real benefit here that is obvious is the lower weight. These grips weighed in at 100 grams for the pair.

Origin 8 grips are available through your local bicycle shop.

We will report back with our impressions of these grips soon.