Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Custom Corner Old style hand grips?

Has anyone used the old vintage grips from NewSpeedmaster on their bike? Are they plastic or rubber?

Just curious if they are an easy swap. I'm sure the left is easy enough to slide onto the bare 1" handlebar, but is there any issues getting the right one over the throttle housing?

I have similar vintage grips, but I bought them elsewhere. Newspeedmaster is a great company, and will answer an email in short order, if necessary.

On my 05, the factory rubber grip is held in place by plastic tangs on the throttle sleeve that fit into the fat part of the rubber grip. Roll back the rubber, and they're they are. You may have to cut these tangs off to allow for the new grip. A sharp wallboard or matte knife will raze them in a matter of a few minutes.

Be aware that the throttle sleeves are a bit fragile when forces outside the realm of their intended throttle on throttle off duty are applied.

This is perhaps my opinion alone, in that my thought is to cut the old grip to remove it. If you do wish to save the old grip, some aerosol silicone and a very thin screw driver or seal pick should do the trick to open the space between the grip and the throttle sleeve.

I've installed three sets of grips, but I don't recall now if it's best to disassemble the bar mounted metal bracket to do the job. (CRS syndrome) If you do open the metal bracket, it's no big deal, and no spring loaded parts will go flying to and fro.

If you need to remove and re-install the throttle cables, let me know. I've discovered through trial and error a very easy way to do this without the need of any pliers or tools that could fray the cables or otherwise disturb the throttle cable ends.

Thanks for the reply LJ3000

I bought the old vintage "football" grip advertised in Newbonneville.com
They cost me $50 bucks Aussie by the time I revceived them. They lasted just under 6 months.
I ride to work once a week, park my bike in the carpark (read SUNSHINE).
With just that amount of exposure to UV and sweat from my hands they split and fell off inside 6 short months. The top changed to an off white cream colour and hardened. I tried rotating them to make them last and get some value from them .... but....
While they made my bike look fantastic (I bought the white ones and have added white stripes and white walls to my black bike) I won't be buying them again.
Still looking for another type of WHITE hand grip.

The grips from the old 60s bikes that were so popular were made in Italy called Gran Tourismo. They are not rubber based but a vinyl composite so don't change color on you or crumble.

They have a small air chamber in the center so are a cone and have small ribs for grip. Just about every Triumph owner in the 60s grabbed a set of them from the Honda and Ducati dealers.

Try e-bay for them. IMHO Brents from the review above are way too much money for too little quality.

I didn't know that (rubber based) What I can tell you is the grips from Italy made in the 60s were indestructable!! Lasted forever if you didn't crash and scrape them up.

I got my grab tourismo grips off ebay too.

That be them.

I ended up ordering a white pair from Newbonneville.com, but unlike michael888 my bike won't be seeing the sun or regular use that much so hopefully they'll last a lot longer than 6 months. If not, I'll be hunting for something else too