i'm thinking about throwing some Origin8 rubber grips on my new K-wings while i test-ride the bike and tweak it. I know i'm going to be terrible at tape wrapping, so i don't want to do it until i'm sure i'm ready.

If it works i may just keep it. easy to clean, and i didn't plan on wrapping the tops of the bars anyway. has anyone done this? impressions?

this is what they look like:

no image.

Broken image

smart
I have an OOOLLLLDDDDD set of Grab-On foam grips for drop bars which I use exactly that way. When I put together a new (to me) bike; I tape on the Grab-Ons (with a few wraps of electrical tape) for as long as I need to until the controls are set 'right'. Looks goofy for a while, but works great. Once I'm real happy with everything, they come off and the bar underlay and top tape goes on...

I googled "origin 8 rubber grips," and I am coming back with a "no way, man!"

A long long time ago, I had an old cheap Fuji road bike. It was the cheapest of the cheap, but I was like 13, so it was fine. It had this black foam stuff over the handlbars instead of regular tape, and I always hated that. I ended up putting some regular bar tape on there after a while. But that cheap black foam grip left a bad impression on me. To this very day, I refuse to even use black bar tape because it reminds me of the old foam grip. It just looks too "walmart" to me.

So I would probably throw up in my mouth a little bit if I saw your fancy bike with fancy handlebars covered with some one-piece black rubber/foam grip. Yuk! Please don't do it.