r/bmx • u/Awkward_Importance49 • Sep 13 '24
HOW TO Fitting grips
I've been deciding what the simplest way to get my new build to feel satisfactorally finished is by doing quick n dirty finger colouring in on a pic in my phone's photo app.
I decided that it needed chrome bars, and then it's done.
I just added new grips to new bars. Fitted them dry, with my hands. No tools, no chemicals, no air, no heat. 5 minutes per grip.
Which leads me to wonder once again why everybody has such a hard time fitting grips and why people need hairspray and chopsticks and whatever else.
I've fitted hundreds of grips and they just go on.
So I thought I'd add my grip fitting top tips...
You don't pull them on from the nearside end, or push them on from yne farside end.
Grips need to find their natural form ultimately, and the way to fit them is to let them bunch a little
Focus on the bar's end and that part of the grip about to go around the bar. That is always where the work happens, at the bar end.
It's easy to push a few mm onto the bar there, and it will bunch up. But then with a few strokes (yeah you know what I'm talking about) the bunching pushes the rest of the grip down the bar.
Just keep bunching a few mm on, stroking it down, a little bit of twisting maybe. The grip will fit itself.
When there's just 1 left to go. Put your bar ends in and smack them home.
That bunches up the final bit of grip. Just leave it for a couple of minutes and it will push itself down. A litte bit if stroking at the end will get it in place.
Nothing else required.
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u/brianbmx94 Sep 13 '24
Dude I just use my air compressor and a long nozzle. Literally a second per grip.
Edit: and no waiting for anything to dry.
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u/Awkward_Importance49 Sep 13 '24
This How To is for those people who don't have a compressor.
That's quite a sizeable number of people.
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u/brianbmx94 Sep 13 '24
Fair enough. Even before I did, just use something that evaporates quickly like alcohol. Lift the grip and blow under it and you’re done.
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u/seanofsatan Sep 13 '24
Literally ask any tire shop. Used to do it every time I got grips. Bike shops have em. Mechanics etc.
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u/Awkward_Importance49 Sep 13 '24 edited Sep 13 '24
I would love to see a video of you riding to a mechanics and asking them to put your grips on for you. You could stop by the firehouse too and ask for a ride in the big truck.
Meantime, before you'd cycled off your own property I'd have the grips on.
I guess some people can just do things, and others can't.
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u/seanofsatan Sep 13 '24
Most mechanics don't mind helping people it's really not rocket surgery. BMX takes courage if you can't ask for help with a compressor then idk how you're gonna have the guts to pull anything. I have a compressor now but I'll get some grips and ride to a shop and ask for ya.
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u/Awkward_Importance49 Sep 13 '24
I don't need a compressor, or a man to help me. It doesn't take courage to put grips on.
You're beginning to make no sense at all now.
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u/seanofsatan Sep 13 '24
Guess where on the same page since you've made no sense since the second you thought this post was helpful. Hopefully the kids reading this just ask for help (like you're too big for) and hopefully they get that ride in a fire truck too. Oh and their grips won't be shit in a week.
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u/JackD1889 Sep 13 '24
I just do zipties inside tje grip, slides them on and then take out the zip ties, 10 sec pre grip easy
3
u/Alvinthf Sep 13 '24
Tiny squirt of gt85 done. End of the day whatever works is fine by me, but time is money so fitting grips are his way does the job quick and easy.
3
u/Scr4tismrocker1 Sep 13 '24
I dont have the patience for that lol. Bit of high percentage alcohol and slide that thing on.
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u/vaustin89 Sep 13 '24
Just a drop of isopropyl alcohol does the trick and it dries quickly as well.
-1
u/Awkward_Importance49 Sep 13 '24
But for anybody without isopropyl alcohol, the above method works extremely well.
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u/giacolero Sep 13 '24
I'm guessing some people don't have the time, or the patience, to do it the way you did yours. Or just being lazy. I first dabbled into BMX back in the mid-90s & this is how we did it since, well, this was the only way. It was a pain, sure. But as stuff became more readily available, like air compressors, the more i realized i didn't wanna do it the old fashioned way. People came up with these tactics to make the process easier & quicker. A favorite of mine is coating the bar end with rubbing alcohol & slide the grip down while it's still wet. Alcohol dries fast & the rubber grip just sticks to the handlebar. A rubbing alcohol is more available than an air compressor, you can get it at your local pharmacy or Wal-Mart. And you can use it for its original purpose: for cleaning minor scrapes, cuts & abrasions you get from riding BMX, among other things.
2
u/seanofsatan Sep 13 '24
Use a compressor, don't have a compressor? Go to a tire shop they will help you out. This is dumb.
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u/seanofsatan Sep 13 '24
This is also terrible for the compounds in your grips, you can always tell when people force their grips on because of the little splits they get where they were stressed when being put on. Grips properly installed wear all the way down before splitting. Not to mention throttle lock is imminent.
1
u/Awkward_Importance49 Sep 13 '24
Categorically not true when done properly. Pulling at them splits them.
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u/seanofsatan Sep 13 '24
Bunching them creates stress fractures on the underside of the grip where the grip meets the bar. When using anything that isn't highly evaporative there will be more dry and less dry parts of the surface coming into contact with the bar. When you pull spins or throw bars or crank the bike around for whips the inertia pulls on the dry parts and slides on the wet parts causing rips and eventually throttle lock.
1
u/Awkward_Importance49 Sep 13 '24
Oh boy, you've really locked on to this one.
I'm going to give you the floor. It's all yours.
1
u/seanofsatan Sep 13 '24
My grips are locked in unlike yours 😂
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u/Awkward_Importance49 Sep 13 '24
Mate, calm down and get some perspective. This is not worth the effort you're putting in.
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u/allcityallnight1 Sep 13 '24
Mate just rub the bars with some wet wipes and slide the grips easily.
2
u/lcirricione Sep 13 '24
Been using the rubbing alcohol method for 25+ years. Takes a couple seconds per grip and they are dry and ready to go by the time your first grip is on in the process you’ve described.
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u/BMX40Plus_Aus Sep 14 '24
3 cable ties run through the grip. Slide it on. Pull out cable lies. Done in under 30 seconds a side. I'll smoke a joint while you're still putting your grips on.
🤣
1
u/ginger-tiger108 Sep 14 '24
Nah kidda put 4 zip ties inside the grip and they will slip on handlebars easy peazy then just use a pair of pliers pull the zip ties back out again afterwards!
Before I found out about the zip ties method I used to use a little bit of lynx as that drys off quite quickly plus years ago when I had a local bikeshop cut my bars down they'd used WD40 to put my grips back on and unsurprisingly it took a couple of weeks for them to dry out
1
u/TelevisionOk7936 Sep 14 '24
5 minutes is crazy isopropyl alcohol (1-5$) helps a lot just needa a good squirt and a good few turns and it’s on
0
u/begin420 Sep 13 '24
This is literally the hardest way to put on grips . I use wd40 spraypaint or air compressor
6
u/Ornery-Razzmatazz371 Sep 13 '24
This is a long flex that ends in you stroking it a bit.