The Revolution Suspension Grips make some big promises about transforming your ride, and for £100 they better be good.
Ben hit plenty of gnarly bike park and DH laps to find out if the Revolution Suspension Grips Pro Series Grips are worth the cash.
Photos by Dave Price.
Key features:
- Modular, floating grip design
- Designed to reduce hand fatigue and arm pump
- Tuneable damping with different inserts
- 30-Day money back guarantee
- £99.99 RRP
- Revgrips.com
When you have a set of Revgrips on your bike, it goes something like this…..
Mate: “Are they those strange twisty grip things?”
Me: “Yes mate, Revgrips.”
Mate: “Any good? Can I have a feel?”
Your mate then rides round the carpark and twists the grips a few mm each way and comes back.
Mate: “Don’t seem to do much. How much are they? Any good?”
Me: “Hundred quid, mate. Yeah, they are rad actually.”
Mate then falls over and basically implodes about the prospect of spending £100 on grips.
Yes, £100 is mad money for grips, however if you look at it another way, it could be the best value and biggest upgrade you could ever make to your bike if it lets you enjoy riding and frees you from the constraints of chronic arm pump. In fact, even if you don’t get arm pump, I still think that there are few upgrades out there that will have such a dramatic effect on parts of your riding for this much cash.
First of all, let’s look at what they are and how they work…
Basically the grips are mounted to collars at each end that hold the grip slightly away from the bar itself. With the aid of rubber inserts that lock into the ends of the grip you can then tune the movement of the grip to your taste and where you ride. As you ride the grip then ‘floats’ on the bar, moving a few mm fore and aft and ever so slightly up and down. By separating you from the vibration and impacts of the bar, the Revgrip allows you to grip the bars more lightly, with the result being reduced arm pump and hand fatigue.
The Pro model tested here is the top of the range product. You can choose the colour, thickness and style of the grip body as well as the colour of the end clamps. It then includes a selection of rubber inserts and aluminium washers to tune the amount of damping required. Fitting is straight forwards, if you read and follow the instructions. For this test Ben rode the Medium, 32.5mm grips with purple clamps. As it is all modular, you can replace individual parts, like the grip sleeve, getting a longer life and better value for your investment.
When you first ride the Revgrips Pro Series it is fairly underwhelming. They just feel like another set of grips. You can’t feel any twist or vagueness that you may worry about. They just feel good, and as a rider who prefers not to glove-up I thought the rubber compound and grip design was super comfy and secure. At my local trails, they felt good, but they didn’t make sense to me, especially as I never get arm pump.
When these grips start to make sense is when you go to a longer, gnarlier track or when you hit a day at the Bike Park. Then, the cumulative effect of making each run a bit easier on your hands and arms makes a huge difference. Heading for a weekend in Wales, hitting Dyfi and Revolution Bike Park, normally the harsh surfaces and braking bumps would have my hands battered and tired by lunch time, but with the Revgrips, my hands felt fresh all day and over consecutive days of riding.
I felt like I was lighter on my hands and bike and as my body tired, the familiar death-grip claw hands didn’t materialise. I felt like I could keep on riding hard for longer. The more laps you ride and the longer and rougher the tracks are, the more these grips look like a bargain upgrade.
The other claim made by Revgrips is that it reduces arm pump. I do not get arm pump so it is hard to say whether these would help or not, however the sensations of holding on with a lighter grip and the reduction in fatigue makes me confident that these would be worth trying if arm pump regularly blights your riding. To help you make the leap of spending £100, they also offer a 30 day money back guarantee so if you try them and they don’t help then you can get a full refund.
As I write this, I am totally sold on the concept and will continue to run them on my enduro bike. I would not go to the Alps or on an uplift day without them. If arm pump regularly ruins your riding and racing then you need to try these out. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. If you focus on the idea that you are paying £100 for grips then you are missing the point. You are paying £100 to genuinely let you ride harder and faster all day on rough tracks. If arm pump stops you riding your £5,000 bike, then £100 is peanuts.
What do we think?
A genuine, ride changing upgrade to your bike, best suited to long and rough tracks or riders who suffer from arm pump.
We Love:
- Rubber compound and grip pattern
- Light feel on the bars
- They just work
Could do better:
- They cost £100
