Choosing the right grips for smaller hands – By Paul Knox

Kids hands are smaller than adult hands. Fairly self-explanatory, right?

OK, now take a close look at most mini grips… sure they’re narrower (so they’re “mini” in length), but how many of you consider the diameter when you purchase a new set of grips for your little rider?

There are a lot mini grips that are shorter than their full-length brethren, but the diameter remains the same for all the lengths.

And not all short grips are mini grips, sometimes they’re for adult sized hands just in short length, specifically grips for MTB grip-shift gear systems for example. This is not the fault of the manufacturer, they spend a lot of time and effort to categorise and brand the grips correctly, but if you don’t take time to do your homework, or read the packaging you could find yourself trying to install the wrong grips.

ODI Rogue Lock On Grips for MTB Grip Shift. Perfect for MTB not so much for a BMX grommet

Why is this worth considering? Control.

Adult sized riders typically use grips that have around 30-33mm diameter, which is fine with your adult sized hands. Now wrap a couple of layers of toweling around your grips and try to get a good grip on the bars with the thicker diameter – notice how it’s hard to get a secure grip on the bars? Yet we expect kids with hands quite a bit smaller than ours to use adult diameter grips? How much better control will they have if they can get a better grip?

Here’s an example that measure in at a 25.5mm diameter; it might be just what you need to give your micro sized rider a bit more hold on the bars.

A good comparison of an adult sized grip vs a true mini grip.

A nice grip diameter for a tiny hand – 25.5mm diameter

The ODI Ruffian BMX Mini Lock Ons might just be the grip for the mini BMXer in your family.

A little bit of research and a bit of shopping around, and you should be able to find a pair suitable for your junior rider.