Riding in Circle: Ergon GX2 Grips highlighted on Tempo Thursday!

I've been running Ergon grips for a long time now. My Dos has had Ergon grips on it since around August of 2007. I was doing a LOT of downhilling and shuttling that summer, so I don't know if I had a set on there before or not, but I'm pretty sure here are the first few instances of the winning combo:

(New wide Salsa bar for descending help, photo is at SART)

Early early morning sufferfest ride. We were on the trail way before sunrise to try to get to OC by 8 am for a newbie ride. Yikes. We were late, but it worked out well. Long day in the saddle, but it was awesome.

So, I have a lot of experience with Ergon's. The Dos was my main rig for most trails, racing, etc. other than the Enduro up until January 2008, and I put in a LOT of training time on the Dos. When I switched it up and rode the Canzo in early 2008 it had the same grips/bar set up, so technically I rode/raced/trained for everything except DH and the harder all-mountain trails around on Ergon's up until now.

For racing XC this year I'd been using the GP1's until Jeff sent over a set of the GX2's for me to try out. Justin was happy enough to switch out my GP1's to the GX2's for the Idyllwild race last weekend. I really wanted the extra leverage and hand positions for the long race and steep fire road climbing.

I was stoked to have the bar ends back! I've never had them get in the way of descending, and the extra hand positions and grip positions are beneficial. I haven't necessarily missed the bar ends for XC racing only, but for longer training rides, steeper climbing, etc. they are nice to have.

Prior to using Ergon's I had ESI foam grips with the light-weight plastic bar ends. I think it worked well enough, but ever since I first got into riding I've had hand issues. I used to get a LOT of ulnar nerve damage post-rides where my hand(s) didn't work for a few hours. I tried some Pearl Izumi gel gloves and those with the padding helped a lot, but I'd still get some hand pain on our training rides, which is why I eventually went with the Ergon's. I haven't looked back since!

Good for climbing

Good for a place to paw your camera case

Wide base for palm extension

I dig the green. All of my bikes last year were green (Dos Niner very verde, swamp green Canzo 29, and lime green Demo 7). w00t! Green is fast.

So, if you haven't checked out Ergon grips, I highly recommend them. Your hands are one of the main contact points, and contact points need to be happy.

A few other pics from last night's ride...

Literally about 0:01:30 in, and perspiring. It was really warm.

Contrast to the last Tempo Thursday...

Justin picked out some new rubber for the rig...The jury is out. The fire road was the sandy-est I've ever ridden it, and the tires wanted to push. It was like the bead was rolling over on the outside? Almost felt like flat tires, but they weren't.