Tools & Supplies Needed
- new grips
- Razor knife
- Some sort of solvent (paint thinner, acetone, lacquer thinner)
- Grip glue
- wire cutters
- Wire tie pliers
- Grip wire
- Hair dryer
Removing the Old Grips
Snip the grip wire with your wire cutters and cut the grips off with your razor knife. On the throttle side, be careful not to slice your plastic throttle tube.
Prepping the Bars/Throttle Tube
If your bars/throttle are not clean, the glue will have nothing to adhere to. Use your razor knife to carefully remove any chunks of old glue and finally wipe both sides clean with solvent, letting the solvent evaporate before moving on to the next step.
Installing the Grips
Make sure you have the correct grip for the correct side of the bars. The throttle side has a bit larger inside diameter.
Many of the top grips are well, grippy. This means that sliding them on the bar/throttle tube with glue can be a nightmare. There is nothing worse than getting the grip 2/3rds of the way on and it won't budge any more! To avoid this, plug in the hair dryer and warm up each side of the bar, installing one side at a time. With the bar ends heated, apply grip glue to the bar and inside the grip. Because the bar/throttle tube is warm, the glue will become more fluid, allowing the grip to easily slide into place. I like to give the grip a full rotation on the bars before orienting it, so that I know the glue is distributed throughout the entire surface of the inner grip. In terms of how much glue to use, you only need enough for a very thin layer. More glue is not necessarily better.
Let the glue tack up for a few minutes and now you're ready to install your grip wire. Most grips have grooves already molded into them for this purpose, typically three wires per grip. You can tie the wires using a pair of vice grips, but specific grip wire pliers are the simplest to use and yield the best results. Snip off the excess wire and make sure that the ends of the wire are resessed into the grip and groove as not to irritate your hands.
Using this method, I've never end up with grips that begin to spin on the bars, something that can be a real issue if you use hand guards (open grip ends) and you ride hard in wet/muddy conditions.
Also, it's debatable if this method applies to the throttle side. I personally use glue & wire on the throttle tube, but many don't. It very well might be overkill, but on the other side of the coin, I never have grip slipping issues. What method that is best is up to you.
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