Unless you find foam grips that fit on the bar ends, I would go with "cork" tape made for road bikes. It's fairly resistant, unless you actually scrape the tape on brick walls, branches and the like. Another point you could check is the angle of your bars (if they aren't totally straight) and especially of your bar ends. Usually, there is a small Allen bolt that you need to unscrew, then rotate the bar ends, then you tighten it again. I have no experience with straight bars – except for my daughter's trailercycle – but on touring bikes, it's incredible how rotating the bars by a few degrees improves comfort a lot.


Read Sheldon Brown's pages and Park Tools" pages . Both have hands on lessons on how to adjust your derailleur... which I think is the only (minor) problem your bike has. Not too hard to understand once you see the pictures.


Regarding fenders. I'm part of the "every bike should have fenders" camp. If you want to commute late at fall and even through Winter – why not? –, full fenders and mudflaps are the way to go. The only drawbacks to full fenders, I think are:
- geekiness factor (I don't care);
- riding in mud, because it packs under the fenders.

If you only ride on asphalt, snow and even on gravel or sand roads, I would prefer permanently installed fenders because you get real coverage. You could even add a mudflap such as shown on Alex Wetmore's page for total protection of your feet and drivetrain.