Raleigh531

I recently put some Oury grips on my town cruiser with no probs...just a little water, they slid on, and they stuck. But the Oury's on my mountain bike did not have the same luck...they're the exact same grip, but after two days, they just slid right off with almost no effort. I cleaned the bar surface with alcohol and the inside of the grips as well. I put them back on and they currently slide with no effort whatsoever.

I've read hair spray, hair gel, spray paint, rubber cement, gasket sealer, etc as suggestions by various folks. What really works?

I should say that my town bars are smooth metal and the mountain bike bars have a slightly textured surface. I'm guessing this has an effect.

capwater

Probably a slightly undersized bar diameter as I have used them on a couple of bikes with no problems. My advice would go to a hobby store and get some spray on adhsive.

cyccommute 

AquaNet. Cheap. Effective. Clean. What more could you ask? It does take about a day for the stuff to dry completely, however. Water will work but it takes a while for the water to evaporate. Rubbing alcohol works a bit better and evaporate more quickly but try AquaNet. One $2 bottle will last you a lifetime

Severian

+1 for aquanet. And it'll last a lifetime if one of your mechanics at your shop isn't a crazy ******* and decided that he wanted to use half a can to do up his hair for your very informal bachelor's party after you all got off work.

though for MTB I would usually avoid basic slide-on grips and urge my customers to get locking grips.

SirMike1983 

I've had fair luck with hairspray-- I put a set of Raleigh grips on some Eastman bars. The sizing was right, but they were still a bit slippery on the bars. Some hairspray helped it out. If you have sizing issues you may well want to go with a full-on spray adhesive. Hairspray will work for those situations where you have the right size, but just a little bit of slide in the grips. Beyond that it won't help much.

Tyrell

You guys are all missing the point!! He's trying to get the grips to stay put once they're on, not make it easier to slide them on. The problem is that they slide off too easily.

cyccommute 

The hairspray does two things. It allows you to slide them on easily and, once the hairspray dries, it keeps them from slipping. Water will allow you to slide them on easily but it won't dry as quickly nor will it stick the grips to the bars as well.

Raleigh531

After researching the hairspray idea further, I still had concern about some folks saying that it did not work for them. So I decided to go with some 3M #80 Rubber & Vinyl Spray Adhesive. It was $12 for a can at Home Depot, but it does not seem the grips are going anywhere now. We shall see how they hold up on the trail.

cascade168

I have put on many Oury grips and learned a few things. First is that any grips, especially Oury, that have sealed ends, should not be installed with hairspray. Without an open end, it may never dry out and will slip indefinitely. Next, if you use any kind of wet stuff (hairspray, windex, alcohol, whatever) to remove grips, and, plan to reinstall them, then the inside of the grip needs to be cleaned out with alcohol and dried completely. Last, to properly install Oury grips so they don't slip, clean the bars with alcohol and then install the grips using compressed air. They will never slip if you use this method. And, easily removed using - again - compressed air.

These are great grips - most excellent, IMHO - if installed correctly.
But, if they are slipping, they are no good. If you don't have access to compressed air, go for the Oury Bonus Pack grips with the lockrings and ODI end caps (make sure and sock down the end caps super tight). These are my favorites ;-)))

If you insist on using hairspray, use only the tiniest amount you can get away with. Very important. Compressed air is always the superior method for installing any grip.