Rating:

Reviewed By: Tim Rodriguez on 12/8/22

The short version: yes, but with some fairly big caveats. First of all, these are a little bit of a bear to install. There's no sticky-back that holds them in place while you're wrapping handlebar tape. It's also not obvious how much of a difference that quarter inch of thickness makes when it comes to how much extra handlebar tape is required to wrap over them. It ultimately shortened the padded section of my bar tops by about an inch, after having to trim the ShockTec grips. Nothing remotely insurmountable, but it definitely took more work than I was expecting by a substantial margin. I think it took me about 45 minutes per side to install them. Not too bad, but not quick either. The difference they make is wild, and also a little bit of a mixed bag. When you're resting on them (especially on a flat top), they're very comfortable. 100% as advertised. They ease out bumps immensely. The mixed part comes back to just how thick they are. Luckily, my hands are very big (I wear 2XL gloves) and the much thicker bars aren't a problem for me. But they're MUCH different. I'm not sure I would recommend these for folks with smaller hands than a Large gloves size at maybe the smallest. The difference in thickness of the grip is especially relevant in winter-time when thicker gloves are needful. Plus it meant I had to figure out a new position to put my bell since the diameter of the bars (on the grips) is no longer anywhere near a diameter where things are designed to fit. Overall, my rating is needfully complex. For the comfort: 5 stars. For the relative difficulty of installation, 3.5 For the weird knock-on effects that you have to deal with after increasing the diameter of your bars by about 6-9mm... 3 stars. If hand and arm comfort are a primary importance and you're willing to deal with the hassle? Sure! For myself, I probably wouldn't buy them again, but then again they'll also probably last through a couple of rounds of re-taping, so... Hard to say for sure.