Another small upgrade that I wanted to do for the Brompton P Line is to use Ergon grips. These are so much more comfortable than the standard round grips, and I have used them on all my flat handlebar bikes, such as the Fnhon DB12, the Birdy AXS 12 speed, the United Trifold, and the Bike Friday Haul-A-Day cargo bike. In fact, I had also changed to the Ergon grips on my previous Brompton M6R, but that was so troublesome as I had to cut the old foam grips off the handlebar.
While changing the grips, I also decided to change the handlebar as well. This change should be easy since it is just a flat handlebar and not a M type handlebar.
Stock handlebar width with grips is 540 mm, which is a bit narrow.
Stock aluminium handlebar width is about 520 mm.
Stock aluminium handlebar weight is 135 mm.
New carbon handlebar!
New carbon handlebar is wider at 560 mm.
New carbon handlebar is lighter at just 95 grams.
Using the old trick of pushing open the clamp, to make installing the new handlebar easier.
Stock lock on foam grips are light at just 54 grams.
Stock foam grips are 130 mm long
Side by side comparison of the stock foam grips with the new Ergon grips.
Apparently these are OEM spec and thus it has black clamps, instead of silver clamps. It is also a large size.
Large size Ergon grips are heavy at 185 grams!
Large Ergon grips on top, Small Ergon grips at bottom. Can you see the differences in shape and size?
When the Large Ergon grips are installed on the Brompton, it tends to get in the way of the thumb when operating the gear shifter due to the large grip diameter.
Quite a large difference in wall thickness and external diameter between the Large and Small Ergon grips!
Another view showing the difference in grip diameter
Small Ergon grips have a diameter of 28.2 mm.
Large Ergon grips are quite a lot larger at 32 mm diameter!
For reference, the external clamp diameter of the stock lock on foam grips are about 29.6 mm.
With the Small Ergon grips installed on the Brompton, it does not get in the way of the thumb, when I'm operating the gear shifter.
With the Small Ergon grips installed on the carbon handlebar, the handlebar width is around 570 mm. Just 15 mm longer on each side, which does not affect the folding.
In the end, I moved the Small Ergon grips from the Birdy over to the Brompton, while the new Large Ergon grips are installed on the Birdy instead. On the Birdy, the larger grip does not interfere with operation of the SRAM AXS shifter, so it is fine.
Large Ergon grips installed on the Birdy instead. Black clamps match well with the bike!
Ergon grips and carbon handlebar installed on the Brompton!
So much more comfortable than round grips.
Out for a test ride! Shown here is near the Ulu Pandan Park Connector, at Clementi.
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