Double Your Ride Receive A Second Battery With The Purchase of Select Marin eMTBs! Learn More

Get a Grip! A Quick Guide To Marin’s Grips

Marin's bike grips kick-ass. Here's a quick guide to Marin's grips and some advice on which ones are right for you.

Marin Mountain Bike Grips

Got a bike? Then you need to get a grip... Two of them, actually.

Let’s start with the basics. What are grips?

Bicycle grips are those soft bits on your handlebar that you hold onto when riding your bike. You know, the bits you wrap your paws around and hold on tight when cruising the means streets or ripping the trails.

They can be made out of foam, rubber or soft plastic and chances are high that many of you rarely give them much thought. Let's try and change that.

Bicycle grips are one of just four contact points on your bike that you physically touch, alongside your two pedals, so they’ve gotta be good if you want your bike to feel good.

Remember - grips are only found on bikes with a ‘flat’ or ‘riser’ handlebar - that’s a handlebar that’s pretty much straight and pretty much flat. You know, like on a mountain bike, city bike or similar.

If you have those funny-shaped, curly bars, AKA ‘drop’ bars, you’ll need grip tape which is something else altogether.

Marin Grizzly Grips 1

What Makes Great Grips?

Good grips need to get a few ingredients right.

They need to be comfortable in your hand with a soft, but not too soft, material. The boffins that design grips spend hours scratching their heads to find the perfect ‘durometer’, meaning the ‘hardness’ of the grip’s material.

Grips also need to be grippy, obviously. Grippy grips mean that your hands don’t move around, slip or spin when it’s rainy or you’re hot and sweaty. That’s partly down to the material and partly down to the pattern, with manufacturers creating all sorts of weird and wonderful lumps and bumps across their grips to add friction. Personal preference plays a big part here.

Grips also need to be durable so they won’t wear out too quickly or get damaged when you take a tumble. The material needs to be soft enough to be comfy, but long-lasting enough to stay undamaged and not wear out, even after miles and miles in the saddle.

Last but not least, they’ve got to be the right size and shape to fit your hands. They can’t be too fat or too thin and they need to be the right length for your hands, neither too big nor too small. Get the wrong fit and you'll get sore hands, achy forearms and have a sucky time on two wheels.

There’s a lot to get right!


Marin Grizzly Grips 3

How to pick the right bicycle grips for you.

Picking your ideal bicycle grips comes down to picking the right thing for you and the right thing for your riding style.

Then, it comes down to personal preference.

As always, we’d recommend visiting a good old-fashioned bike shop and getting some expert advice in-store, then trying a few pairs for yourself. You can find your local Marin dealer here.

Don’t be afraid to visit a store, grab ‘em off the peg, get your hands on and give them a feel in-store. Don’t just settle for the first thing you see, really try a few pairs on for size.

Go on, don’t be shy, grab a grip!


Marin Grizzly Grips 2

What’s wrong with standard grips?

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the grips that come supplied on your bike… If you’re riding a Marin. Our ‘stock’ grips are kick-ass and have been designed from the ground up to look, feel and ride way beyond what you’d expect from ‘standard’ grips.

But many other grips are just a bit meh. They’re cheap, they’re made with hard plastic. They’re uncomfortable. They’re made to cut costs, not boost stoke. Meh.

We’re on a mission to give you the best possible experience on your bike, right down to the grips. We’ve designed 4 of the greatest grips ever, to give you the best ride experience ever.

If you’re riding a Marin, you probably have these fitted already. If you’re not, you can always upgrade to them, transforming the comfort of your bike with one low-cost, easy-to-install, low-hassle upgrade.

Yay.


Marin Grips Line Up

Which Marin Grips are Right For You?

We've created a collection of four grips that, between them, are perfect for every type of rider and riding style out there.

Here's the complete collection:

Marin County Grip

Marin County Single Density Grip

The Marin County Single Density Grip is a big old comfy bear hug of a grip. Designed to be familiar, affordable and low hassle. Soft on the hands and soft on the wallet. Just the right amount of engineering where it matters, without anything expensive or over the top.

The County is a one-size-fits-all, designed to fit hands of all shapes and sizes. It’s available in black and tan colours and has a natty ‘flange’ on the inside to help keep your hand in place. There’s no lock-ring on the County, simply slide it on to install and it’ll lock itself in place. It’s is chunky, soft and comfortable meaning it’s perfect for beginners or anyone that just wants to keep it chill.

Tech Note: A grip’s ‘flange’ is a lip on the inside end, nearest your thumb. It’s adopted form motocross and BMX grips and designed to stop your hands slipping and help you ‘locate’ your preferred hand position quickly and easily.

The Perfect Partner:

The County grip’s perfect partner is a rider that keeps it fun and cruisy. The rider that doesn’t need to be worrying about hardcore, rough and ready off-road.

They’ll be riding to work or the store, the bar or the park. They’ll be on the roads and the bike paths, enjoying the ride without anything too bumpy. They’ll enjoy the occasional wander into the wilderness, but they’ll stick to the smoother tracks and trails.

Marin Bear Paw Locking Grip

The Bear Paw Lock is a spicy number - perfect for singletrack, XC and trail riding and with heaps of neat details.

Our thinnest and lightest grip, the Bear Paw features a unique bear paw pattern and half-waffle design that’ll keep your mitts tightly in place, even in the wet or when your hands are sweaty. It’s 135mm long, has a 29.75mm diameter and is available in black, grey and blue.

The Bear Paw Locking Grip has a single locking alloy ring that keeps it locked in place and makes fitting and removal a cinch, just pop it on your bar and tighten up with a hex key. The lock ring is perfect for anyone that rides in the wet, stopping it from spinning on your bar when everything gets soaked.

The Perfect Partner

The Bear Paw Locking Grip is a likeable beast that’ll partner nicely with a few different mates.

Its perfect pawtner might be a hardcore, featherweight XC racer that wants a super light, super simple grip.

It might also be a singletrack and trail mountain bike rider that wants a simple, affordable grip that’s great in all conditions but doesn’t need the bells and whistles of our top-spec Grizzly grip.

Or it might even be someone that’s tried the County grip and decided they want the added benefits of a lockring.

Marin Bear Paw Grip
Marin Bear Paw Grip Wing

Marin Bearpaw Wing Grip

Ever seen a bear fly? The Main Bear Paw Wing Grip takes our Bear Paw and gives it wings.

The Bear Paw Wing Grip is an ergonomic and super comfortable grip that uses wing-like extensions to add extra support for your hands, relieving pressure on longer rides. It’s great for bike packing, longer-distance touring or simply anyone that wants a bit more comfort on the roads and trails.

And just like the classic Bear Paw, it has a single lock ring to keep it clamped in place and a natty bear paw and waffle pattern to offer plenty of grip when you’re hanging on tight. At 113.5mm long, the Bear Paw Wing grip should fit hands of all shapes and sizes.

The Perfect Partner

The Bear Paw Wing Grip matches beautifully with folks that need to cover some distance. It’ll keep the pressure light on your hands, spreading it evenly across a larger area than ‘normal’ grips. That means it’s perfect for long-distance riders, bike packers or simply riders that stay sat in the saddle for long periods of time. It’s great if you suffer from achy, sore, numb or tingly hands when riding.

Marin Grizzly Grip

The great grizzly bear of grips! The Marin Grizzly Grip is our best-of-the-best, top-of-the-tree grip, designed from absolute scratch to change the way the world looks at ‘stock’ grips.

We took everything we knew about grips (which is an absolute truckload), started from a blank sheet and made a grip that’s fully loaded with the best features you could ever need between your paws.

Bringing ‘big grip cush, without big grip feel’, the Grizzly is super soft and super comfy whilst staying crazy grippy and as tough as an old brown bear. We went full-science to create a grip that twists and compresses just the right amount under pressure, meaning no arm pump and plenty of control. We created cushioning ‘pillows’ to absorb impacts add traction. We built in long, horizontal ribs for even more grip, especially in the wet. There’s a one-of-a-kind recess for your thumb, there’s a tiny flange, there’s a limpet-secure lockring. There’s even a freakin tree pattern as a tribute to our California roots - cool right?

In fact, the Marin Grizzly Grip is so good we wrote a whole story just about it, read it here.

The Perfect Partner

The Marin Grizzly Grip is the king of grips - and it’ll suit all styles of rides and riders. But, Griz is especially good for mountain bikers, flat-bar gravel riders and off-road adventurers.

It’s for anyone that needs perfect grip, comfort and control when they’re hanging on tight. Rough, nasty and gnarly off-road trails, epic descents, long punishing climbs, whatever and whenever. The Grizzly Grip is designed to go harder than a Grizzly chasing a picnic basket!

Marin Grizzly Grip

You Might Also Be Interested In

Deep Cush - The New Marin Grizzly Grips

The new Marin Grizzly Grips are here and they're more badass than a grizzly bear. Time to learn all about what makes them so special... and so cushy!

Learn More

Adventure Time With The Marin Bedroll Handlebar

Ladies and gents, boys and girls, please be upstanding for (drum roll) ... The all-new Marin Bikes Bedroll Handlebar.

Learn More

How To Set Up Your New Marin Bike

Just bagged your new Marin? Time to get that perfect setup for maximum good times.

Learn More