Before you even start counting colours, Lizard Skins have 23 different grip designs to try, and I’ve been working my way through a bunch of them recently. The ones that have stood out so far in comparison to the best mountain bike grips on the market are the ‘ergonomic but not so wonky they look weird’ Gradients. So what’s so special about them?

The Lizard Skins Gradient grips have a subtle ergonomic shape.

Design and specifications

The main feature of the Gradient grips is their transition from a conventional round inboard section to a deep airfoil shape at the outer end. The underside of the tapering flange is also cutaway and ribbed to form a ‘finger flat’, with the wrapped tips resting against the underside of the ‘wing’. The rest of the grip uses a mix of diamond/polygon shapes over the upper/front, and then a shallow mushroom flange and lattice design under the meat of the palm and thumb.

Performance

Even more so than most grips, the question of whether this will work for you depends on your hand dimensions/feel preferences, but for me the Gradients immediately felt both comfortable and control-enhancing. The wing gives more pronounced support than Ergon’s asymmetric GE series grips without going to the extent of a full orthopaedic platform. The tacky compound, slim (30.5mm diameter) inner section and shallow – and therefore stiff – mushroom sections give accurate trail and traction feedback too. If you like to throttle your grips to adjust weight balance for climbing traction, or attitude adjustment in the air, then the finger flats and palm wings help you add load without excess pressure too. The tapered shape and outer edge flange reduced the risk of my paws slipping off the ends in really wet conditions, or when my arms were pumped out from an epic descent. The minimalist lock-on clamp minimises the chance of a pressure spot while still using a decent sized 3mm hex key, so I could crank it up tight. Lots of colours for bike matching never hurts either.

The outer ‘wing’ give additional palm support.

Obviously any grip with a prescriptive ‘set position’ fit can potentially feel as wrong to some riders as it feels right to others, though. So if you tend to shift hand positions a lot during a ride, or you want a fatter inboard or thinner outboard diameter, then look at one of Lizard Skins’ many other designs. Riders who want a plushy feel under their mitts might also find the shallow rubber and stiff core too punishing if the flange/wing doesn’t take enough weight off the rest of their hand.

At £35 and 116g for a pair they’re more expensive and heavier than similar grips from Ergon too.