Are foam grips better for numb hands

Yes, I swore by esi silicone grips for years.

Yes. I find the extra chunky ones great for this.
I have ergons as well and get numb hands from them.

Yes. I find the extra chunky ones great for this.

The esi silicones as well?

I'm going to disagree and say no, they are a little better but not a game changer. I found they had too many downsides to make up for the very slight improvement in comfort. They slip, they cut/tear easily and get destroyed by uplifts trailers that put straps around the grip. I would try and see if a change in hand position can help more than a change of grips.

https://esigrips.com/product/extra-chunky/

^ made a big difference on my commuter/gravel bike. Not the most durable but they're worth the expense. Fairly grippy too although I've never used them on a 'proper' MTB.

Even bigger difference for me was raising the front end / stack to take weight off my hands.

It might, it might not. I love ESI Racer's Edge and the ODI Float, but equally the fat ESI Chunkys were worse for me, for whatever reason. It's just something you have to experiment with.

(IMO the Float is almost as lovely and squishy as the ESIs, but much tougher- the only downside of foam grips imo, you can destroy an ESI in a mild tumble)

Do some rotator cuff exercises YTWL.

Better quality foam ones, yes. ESI thought were good.

Cheap Clarks ones, awful.

Another vote for ESi silicone foam... I suffer a lot from nerve damage & numbness in hands /wrists , these are the only grips that let me ride without issue...a few attempts at different Ergons didn't do it for me either.

Excellent info thank, and esi are available from my usual online place which is great.  I think I'm with Northwind in that like with saddles there is going to be a bunch of trying different things but happy to have a starting direction to go in

Probably depends on what is causing the numbness. I have carpal tunnel syndrome and they help. Find the fattest ones that you can, something that aggravates numbness is over gripping due to grips that are too small a diameter. I have pretty large hands so use wolftooth mega fat paws. Grippy, tough and lots of squish.

Do you wear gloves/mitts? I always used to find that made the biggest difference (Specialized gel ones), tried Ergon and some foam grips but never got on with them

Do you wear gloves/mitts

Yep. At the moment using gloves with gel pads but have also tried without.  They don't seem to make a huge amount of difference.  I did read on another thread here that's it's worth trying different brands as a different pad position might help.  I'll see how that goes

Esi grips arriving this morning, ordered at 8pm last night and only 16eur.  I have no idea how that works

As Shackleton says thicker grips for starters.

I’ve used Oury grips for years, bigger diameter and softer rubber.

I know I’ve been evangelical about it but since I’ve had my Stooge my comfort on a bike has never been as comfy.

I bought in to the short-tall-steep design and it’s been a revelation. Combined with wide bars that have huge back sweep compared to “normal” bars. Stooge Moto bars are flat, no upsweep, 17deg back sweep, the Stooge Junker bars are again flat but 20deg back sweep. They both place your wrists in a more natural position.

Something else to consider is how good your core strength is. If all of your weight is on your hands then any amount of swapping grips and bars will only be partially successful.

the Stooge Junker bars are again flat but 20deg back sweep. They both place your wrists in a more natural position.

I've been wondering about changing bars as well.  One thing at a time

If all of your weight is on your hands then any amount of swapping grips and bars will only be partially successful.

Added to list, thanks

Ok, off to fit grips.  Only got the chunkies this time but will try the extras if they don't work

I damaged my first set of ESI too quickly. For the second set I added an old lock on collar from some Fabric Magic grips. This set are still perfect despite a couple of uplifts and plenty of tumbles.

If its dry and warm enough I've stopped using gloves, they are that comfy.

Tried the ESI chunky's today and I found them a bit worse than the GP1s so I'm not sure that is the direction to look.  Next up I think I might look at bars with more sweep although they do seem to be a crazy price :(.  Got to work out if 12 or 16deg are better as that seems to be the standard choice.

I might possibly have been better with the extra chunky grips but they seem to sit funny in my hands which suggests that maybe I need to alter my hand position a bit hence the extra sweep

might try seeing if I can raise the bars a bit as well to get more weight off my hands.  Watch out for a new thread on comfy saddles to compensate for the extra arse pain

Have used foam grips for a few years now. As long as you're not someone who constantly wants to swap bits on the bar, you're good.

But not all grips are equal.

ESI are good and last a while (unless you drunkenly ride into some railings and rip them apart).

Bought some Arcos grips for my Bullitt and they're crap. Sweaty palms and lethal when wet.

Just on the off chance you are near Shrewsbury, I have a set of SQ labs 16x sat in my shed that you are welcome to try… I put them on all my bikes and sold my hardtail so they are waiting just in case I purchase a second bike again 🙂

Just on the off chance you are near Shrewsbury, I have a set of SQ labs 16x sat in my shed that you are welcome to try

I'm nowhere near which is a real shame as that was exactly what I'm looking at now.  Was thinking of maybe the SQ labs 30x 16 high which would raise me up  a bit to help take the weight off.  So nice recommendation, thanks

edit: the 311's look very nice too though.

@bigblackshed - inteeeresting! Regarding core strength aspect. Makes sense.

👍😎

ESI Chunky grips highly recommended for rigid forks too

I went from ESI chunkies to santacruz palmdales. I much prefer the SC. but YMMV...

Someone's already mentioned the 'weight on your hands' question. Have you looked at stem length and saddle to bar height in terms of your weight distribution? ie are you forcing your weight onto your hands? Worth a thought.

Have you looked at stem length and saddle to bar height in terms of your weight distribution?

It was a good point along with the one about core strength.  This bike is shorter than others I ride so I should be a bit more upright.  I'm also going to try bars with a bit more sweep and rise to get me up a bit more.  At 740mm the bars are also wider than I'm used to being an old school kind of guy so I'm wondering if it is my wrists being a bit more bent.  Don't really know but bars with more sweep should answer that question, I hope

I have pain in this area in both hands. Is this a sign my grips are toothick and/or hard?

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For folks that like closure on a thread, I bought a set of SQLab 311's which have a 16deg sweep and the highest rise set they had so I sat up a little more.  It hasn't completely fixed the problem but it's made more of a difference that the Ergon grips, foam grips or padded gloves.  I've gone from my hands starting to get numb after 40 mins to about 2 hours now.

I've also tried both Ergon and foam grips with the SQL's but they both seem to work equally well.  Sometimes the foams feel better, sometimes the Ergons.  I've also got to take a bit of care to keep my elbows bent and that seems to keep everything feeling better

So, more sweep seems to help a lot for me.  Pricey but worth it in this case

My experience is that moving your centre of gravity backwards (i.e. closer to bottom bracket) makes a surprisingly massive difference.

Shorter stem/reach will only move c.o.g. a little but the biggest difference I noticed was getting saddle back (obviously stem should get shorter by a corresponding amount). This 'tips' you further backwards and takes weight off hands

I wince with when I see some steep seat-tube MTBs as they look like they would just dump ALL your weight on your hands, in fact even my fairly old school Trek Superfly is less comfortable over distance than my gravel bike, probably because it has a steeper ST and 0mm offset seatpost...