As I get older and keep mountain bike riding on rugged gnarly terrain, I have been having some severe issues with my hands. I have suffered swelling, numbness, and pain, especially with my right hand, which is exasperated by thumb arthritis. Over the past couple of years, I have been using SQlab 311 handlebars, SQlab 411 Innerbarends, and Revolution Suspension Grips on my mountain bikes. These ergonomic steering control systems and designs have alleviated some of my hand and wrist issues.
For further information, refer to sqlab-usa.com and revgrips.com.
SQLab 411 Innerbarends
Their Innerbarends or ‘Inwards mounted bar ends’ are innovative and unique and were designed to be positioned inwards of the grips. The Innerbarends are made from fiber-reinforced plastic, have a single clamp bolt design and weigh 102 grams for the pair and retail for $44.99. Bar grips help alleviate stress by offering multiple hand positions on the handlebars and by just providing the ability to move things around while riding.
The Innerbarends provided additional leverage and positioning when using wide handlebars, and they resided just inwards from the standard handgrip locations. I could pistol grip the Innerbarends while I rested my outer palm on the padded inner portion of the grips, which provided some excellent comfort to the Ulnar nerve. Holding the bars differently offered muscle relief for the hands, arms, shoulders, neck, and back and were advantageous for fire roads, flat trails, mellow climbs and long days in the saddle. Their hand positioning felt very natural and ergonomic, and it helped with hand numbness and tingling. Being able to move my hands around on the bars along with pulling the elbows towards the torso provided additional comfort and decreased fatigue. I was also able to apply pressure backward on them to help with traction and control on steep climbs, where they offered some additional leverage for my hands. I was able to brake without any issues, though it was only light braking and wasn’t useful for anything technical or abrupt.
The Innerbarends are wicked cool and highly functional, and the hand and arm relief and hand position alternatives they provide are much appreciated. SQlab 411 Innerbarends Long-Term Review
SQlab 311 Handlebars
The ergonomic bars utilizes functional sweeps and rise and designs to improve comfort, optimize positioning, and decrease hand fatigue and hand-related issues. The 7050 aluminum alloy bars have a prominent 16º backsweep and 50mm rise and 740mm width, a 31.8mm clamping diameter and weigh 290 grams and retail for $89.99. A unique design of the bars is that they also have a 10mm forward sweep and 5º upsweet, which keeps you up forward in a comfortable heads-up position. The backsweep prevents hyperextending the wrists and provides ergonomic hand and forearm and elbow positioning and reduces Carpal Tunnel Syndrome issues and hand numbness. They optimized the bars wall thickness for lightness and have ovalized the tubing between the stem clamp and the ends which offer a functional balance of rigidity and flex and vibration damping. The bars can be shortened to 700mm if desired, and they also come in 15 and 25 rise options.
I found the sweep and rise extraordinarily comfortable and easy to get used to, without any hand or wrist distress. The 10mm stretch places you out over the stem slightly, and that offers a more comfortable positioning and improved damping properties. The tubings ovality between the stem clamp and grips offered a functional blend of rigidity, damping and a touch of flex, and this balance provided a welcome softening to rough trails without feeling sloppy. I much appreciated the little bit of isolation the bars provided when thrashing through rugged terrain where they offered shock and vibration attenuation.
The 311 Handlebars offer excellent ergonomics and a comfortable and natural hand orientation, along with a functional combination of backsweep, forward sweep and upsweep, and a soothing blend of rigidity and damping. SQlab 311 Handlebars Long-Term Review
Revolution Suspension Grips
The Revolution Suspension Grips is an innovative system that isolates your hand’s and upper body from the shock and vibration propagated through the handlebars from the trail. Their design helps decrease fatigue, repetitive injury, and arm pump.
The system features a two-collar lock-on configuration, an inner plastic sleeve that is larger than the handlebar and floats within shock-absorbing inserts or dampers in the collars, and finally a nubbed rubber grip. The lock-on system doesn’t allow the grips to spin entirely, and when used in person, you can feel the minute amount of circumferential rotation, which is only 3-4mm of movement.
It comes in two versions, the tuneable Pro Series Shock Absorbing Grip System for $89.95 which I tested and the fixed Race Series Shock Absorbing Grip System for $59.95. The Pro version comes with tuning washers that provide an adjustable feel from firm to soft, and it comes in various grip and lock-on clamp color options. The fixed tuned Race version offers a medium-soft feel, comes in a Black only color option. Both versions come in three grip diameters, Small (31mm), Medium (32.5mm), and Large (34mm).
They offer isolation of your hand’s and upper body from the shock and vibration that comes through the handlebars and grips, which provides decreased fatigue, injury prevention, greater control. I prefer to call them an isolating grip system instead of a suspension product. There is a minute amount of rotational play and a little vertical movement during use, and the latter soon is hardly noticeable. The softest tuning setting offered a better overall ride, due to improved shock and vibration absorption, and it significantly helped with my troublesome thumb arthritis.
Though the Pro Series version is expensive for a set of grips, the added benefits for tuning, decreased fatigue, impact absorption, injury prevention, comfort, greater control, more than makes up for the pricing deficit. I am spoiled after using them, and I am not sure if I could ever go back to using standard grips. Revolution Suspension Grips Review.
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