off-road.cc

The OneUp Components Thick grips are a slightly ovalised, large-diameter grip for big hands and offer lots of traction. The large diameter provides plenty of cushioning, which helps reduce vibrations and the grip pattern allows for plenty of purchase, with or without gloves, wet or dry. They’re well priced, tough, and well finished, placing them among the best MTB grips currently available.

• Best MTB grips 2025 - options to improve your comfort and handling
• ODI Reflex grips review
• MTB cockpit setup - How to clean up your handlebars

OneUp Components Thick Grips - Technical details

OneUp Components offers three grips based on their diameter, handily named thin grips, grips, and thick grips. The thick grips are slightly oval-shaped, measuring 35mm tall and 32.5mm wide and 138mm long. The soft rubber compound is a commonly seen 20a durometer measurement.

The grip pattern is left and right specific, with markings to indicate which is which. A solid end cap is designed to be durable and keep the grips going after plenty of crashes. Mini cushion pads are featured on top in the palm area with a small bulge to help reduce fatigue, more material is also placed here to aid that cushioning.

OneUp Thick grips 2.jpg, by Ty Rutherford

Underneath the grip, there are finger ridges to maximise rotational grip, and the innermost portion of the grip has diagonal ribs to lock in the thumb. Finishing off the grip pattern is a mini flange on the inner edge, which keeps the thumb away from the hard edge of the lock ring.

A single lock ring on each grip rounds out their construction. There are seven grip colours available, all with black lock rings, so there should be an option for everyone’s style.

OneUp Components Thick Grips - Performance

Fitting is a simple affair. OneUp recommend a light tap on the end with a hammer to ensure the grip is all the way onto the bar, and then 4Nm to tighten the lock ring.

OneUp Thick grips 1.jpg, by Ty Rutherford

There is no doubt these are thick grips. For someone who usually prefers a thicker grip, these are on the edge of being too thick for me and, as a reference, I wear size large gloves. The bonus to such thick grips is the excellent cushioning with plenty of material to dampen the trail vibrations transmitted through the bars.

OneUp Thick grips 3.jpg, by Ty Rutherford

Grip with gloved hands is excellent in the wet and dry, with plenty of texture to get a hold of. The finger bars took a bit of adjustment by rotating the grip to get the perfect positioning, but, once in place, they gave a locked-in feel. I would argue those finger bars are a little on the tall side for my preference, they made it feel like my fingers weren’t contacting the grip quite as much as I would have liked, however, this issue wasn’t noticed when riding. 

Ungloved feel is also excellent – the 20a durometer rubber has enough squidge without losing control, and it's sticky enough in the wet.

The end caps are moulded into the grip and have proven tough, withstanding several hits from crashes.

OneUp Components Thick Grips - Verdict

Retailing at £25, these grips are right on the money, especially considering the performance on offer. Other options for thick grips include the Race Face Chester grip, which is also £25 and is available in 34mm diameter with a range of colours. Another extra cushioned grip on offer is the Ergon GDH team grip, which retails for £35. It has a contoured shape to maximise vibration dampening, but not to everyone’s taste.

If you have big hands, you’ll benefit from the extra cushioning, which noticeably reduces on-trail vibrations. The hand feel is excellent, gloved or ungloved and there is plenty of grip even in the wet. A well thought out grip and excellently executed as we’ve come to expect from OneUp.

• oneupcomponents.com
• The reader's guide to off.road.cc's review scoring system

You might also like:

• 7 trailside fixes every cyclist should know
• 11 tools every home bike mechanic should own
• Five sneaky bike marketing terms you shouldn't trust