Ergon GD1 Evo Factory Grips: Employee Review

Words By: Colin Reed

Ergon, as a brand, has long been spending time, money, and brainpower to deliver the best ergonomic (do you get the name now?) experience for your hands and butt. The GD1 Evo Factory grips do a great job of exemplifying the kind of effort that Ergon puts into designing their grips. These particular grips are meant for the more gravity oriented crowd, namely enduro and downhill racers. While you might be one to scoff at the idea of grips being anything more than something to grab on to, Ergon knows better. The GD1 Evo grips have several features meant to help you go faster. Well, they may not directly make you go faster, at least you’ll feel more comfortable going faster.

On The Trail

My hands are on the bigger side, so thin grips tend to result in more fatigue. A number of Ergon’s grips feel slightly small to me, so I was expecting my experience to be similar to other Ergon grips, but thankfully this wasn’t the case. While these grips don’t look significantly larger than other Ergon grips, it’s pretty noticeable right away that they have a larger diameter. For me, this meant a better fit and way less arm pump. My usual grip brand of choice is ODI, a brand that usually attempts to increase the grippiness of the grip by using a softer rubber. These Ergons use a slightly harder rubber, so I was a little concerned with how well my gloves were actually going to stick to the grip. As it turns out, Ergon engineered grip into the GD1s instead of just relying on soft rubber. A close look at the grips shows that there are directional ridges that grab on to your gloves when you naturally rotate your hands against them. This meant that as I was heading downhill, I ended up having a better grip on the bars than I expected. While I haven’t had these grips on for very long, I fully expect the slightly harder rubber to result in a longer lifespan than most other grips. 

The biggest questions for me when it comes to grips are: Do they grip well? And do I experience any undue hand fatigue? The answers are yes and no. Although the harder rubber doesn’t feel very sticky, the slightly leaning ribs would catch my gloves well and not let my hands rotate around the bar. As for comfort and hand fatigue, Ergon engineered extra padding into all the right spots to reduce any pain points. The usual arm pump that I felt wasn’t any worse than I normally experience with my ODIs. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it was better, but it was certainly on par.

Details

• Diameter: 32mm at thickest, 30mm at thinnest
• Tapered from outside to inside to provide damping on the palm and control at the innermost fingers
• Ribs at the top for maximum grip
• Single lock-on ring and endcap plugs for extra grip stability
• Inner flange to prevent hands from slipping inward
• 144mm overall length, 120mm usable area
• 145g for both grips
• Three colors: Frozen Stealth, Frozen Orange, and Frozen Moss w/ Oil Slick
• Two sizes: Regular and Slim

Final Thoughts

Grips are inherently difficult to review because they are such a personal choice. While I haven’t had the most luck in the past with Ergon grips because of my meaty hands, I think I’ve found a pair that I’ll hold on to. They grip better than they look like they would and they’re comfortable in all of the places where it matters most. Like I mentioned at the beginning of my review, the GD1 Evo Factory grips help you feel more comfortable going faster. No grip can bring you a measurable speed boost, but these ones certainly help you feel like you’re ready to race.