Grips are one of the most personal components on a mountain bike. Some people like that super sticky feeling, and others prefer something smoother and less tacky. Well if you’re in the former camp, then the new Chester grips from Race Face may be of interest. In their own words the new grips are: “the softest, tackiest, most advanced grip ever from Race Face.” And they achieve this through a soft 20A rubber compound and angled rubber ribs. Lovely. If you want to see how they stack up against the best, we’ve put together a guide on the best mountain bike grips for you to peruse before making that next purchase.

Race Face Chester Grip have angled rubber ribs to get that stuper sticky grip

Race Face Chester need to know:

• 10 different colour options courtesy of 9 clamp colours
• 31mm or 34mm diameter options
• 136mm length
• 20A Durometer rubber thickness
• $27 USD / $32 CAD

Race Face Chester Grips come with nine different clamp colour options

Race Face Chester Grips

So they are self-proclaimed super tacky grips, but how? Essentially Race Face has used a thicker layer of 20A Durometer rubber under the palm, which leads to what they claim to be more comfort and less hand fatigue. In reality, it might just be that they’re a bit thicker – which isn’t to everyone’s taste.

The makeup of the grip looks like this: a tapered end to keep hands secure when you’re leaning your bike in the corners. In the middle, you’ve got angled wafer-thin rubber ribs which move sweat away from your hands and provide “lateral support with compliant feel.”

Race Face Chester Grips are flared at the end of the grip for better control when leaning the bike

On the other side of the middle of the grip there are raised ridges, which are there to frame a recessed pad in order to keep your fingers securely in place. Then, on the inner part of the grip, there’s a convex thumb pad which has more rubber ribs, but less angled than the mid-part so provide support for your thumbs.

That’s all great, but what colours can you choose from? For a lot of us, it’s comfort first and style second – but there’s nothing wrong with carefully matching your grips to the rest of your bike’s colour scheme. So, Race Face has taken  this into account and gone with nine different clamp colour options. They are: black, blue, purple, kashmoney, forest green, turquoise, silver, orange, red. The final option is gum grips with a black clamp.

The Chester Grips will be available in 31mm or 34mm diameters, and weigh 112g and 135g respectively.