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Kickstarter for Imprint Bicycle Grips - what does the forum think?

(22 posts)

  1. LaidBack
    Member

    Although this is semi-commercial I've asked chdot to allow here. I think you'll see why if you take the time to look at. Tom studied up here so knows the city well.

    Background:

    Tom Bird is a young guy from Cumbria with an ability to invent. i met him a few years ago as he prepared to do Lands End - John o' Groats. His expertise in mechanics impressed me and he was of course interested in all sorts of bikes and cycling.

    Several months ago he showed me a neat idea that I think would appeal to cyclists across the board. Basically this is a product that will easily mound to your hand shape and size.

    Please watch this and see what you think. Tom and his colleagues have worked very hard to get to this stage as you'll see. This video is fun and if you're in doubt about the idea you'll feel on board by the end. He has already worked through versions of this so this is a real product able to go into production. (Video shows the ease of use of the product. Will of course be basis of an ad when they get to next stage!).

    Nice video of what TMR is all about

    More here: TMR Designs - Custom Hand Grips

    Personally I think it's a great idea as it covers comfort and personalisation.
    Anyone else think the same?

    Creativity & invention does need encouragement so please have a look.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  2. duncans
    Member

    sugru already did it.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  3. Morningsider
    Member

    Perhaps I'm being daft - but I'm pretty sure my hands move position quite frequently on the grips, simply through gear changes, braking, dealing with bumps etc. I also wear gloves of varying thickness at different times of year. Would these create problems for personalised grips - or have the guys got this all sorted?

    Posted 10 years ago #

  4. condor2378
    Member

    @Morningsider From their video I understand that the grips can be remoulded multiple times, so you could maybe change it when you swap to winter / autumn / summer gloves?

    But as Duncans said sugru already did it (3 years ago) though I don't think these can be changed once the sugru has set. An interesting concept nonetheless.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  5. Focus
    Member

    I'm also doubtful it would suit me as I too move my hands around the grips a lot. In fact, as my current grips on my hardtail have the larger area to support the carpals, I even have them just barely lose enough to enable me to rotate the grip on the bar. I don't think such a rigid design as this would work for me personally.

    However, a memory foam-like solution might - something that conforms to the hand but adapts to changes on the fly. Conventional foam grips tend to be too spongy (and of course they get waterlogged too easily - something else which would need to be addressed).

    Posted 10 years ago #

  6. Try Cycle
    Member

    This reminds me of something I read years ago.

    Anyone remember Winning - an american cycling magazine from the 90s? I read a product review of something similar in it except it was molded plastic.

    You put something like plasticine on your handle bars and gripped it, once you were happy with how it fitted your hands you got out your blow torch and melted the plasticine into hardened, molded plastic! Think it got a 2 star review and the reviewer had to replace his handle bars

    Posted 10 years ago #

  7. LaidBack
    Member

    For anyone feeling supportive this is the Profundia link.
    TMR - Imprint Bicycle Grips

    Posted 10 years ago #

  8. TBird
    Member

    Thanks for the feedback on this so far. There has been some interesting points raised here. All of these we have addressed through the lengthy development of Imprint Grips.

    sugru already did it.
    - Sugru produce a mouldable material for one time use as you wish. This link is simply to someone who demonstrated it being clad to a handlebar and moulded to a hand. We trialled sugru way before this photo was taken and found it to be unsuitable for a number of major reasons. We have developed the worlds first dedicated mouldable bicycle grip (as far as we know!) Further feedback would be great, thanks!

    Posted 10 years ago #

  9. TBird
    Member

    Morningsider, thanks for the queries. You will be surprised at how little your hands will actually move around when braking, changing gear, bumps etc. Some riders move hands simply because the constant hand position on conventional and unsupportive grips causes discomfort and aching. I completed a 900 road mile tour through Scotland's beautiful islands and highlands this summer and found the grips to cause me zero discomfort or callusing through the entire trip. There was no evidence of callusing or damage to my hands.

    We added the imprint mesh to not only provide further grip and styling but to also remove any peaks and sharp angles in moulding. This makes the grips a lot more suitable for any small movements and the use of gloves of varying thickness. We can't guarantee the thickness of ski gloves or similar will fully allow the benefit of imprint grips though! Further feedback would be great, thanks!

    Posted 10 years ago #

  10. TBird
    Member

    condor2378 thanks for your post. Yes the grips can be remoulded any number of times although unless, as said in the previous post, you are using skiing gloves this will likely not be required.

    Please see the previous response regarding Sugru. You're right Sugru is a one time mould material, the packets we received also produced a greasy feel to the end product, which did not make for a grip with much grip! Sugru cannot also be easily removed or adjusted once bonded to anything like the handlebar in the link you posted. All of these are problems we have covered in R&D. Further feedback would be great, thanks!

    Posted 10 years ago #

  11. TBird
    Member

    Focus
    Member
    PM this user

    I'm also doubtful it would suit me as I too move my hands around the grips a lot. In fact, as my current grips on my hardtail have the larger area to support the carpals, I even have them just barely lose enough to enable me to rotate the grip on the bar. I don't think such a rigid design as this would work for me personally.

    However, a memory foam-like solution might - something that conforms to the hand but adapts to changes on the fly. Conventional foam grips tend to be too spongy (and of course they get waterlogged too easily - something else which would need to be addressed).

    Thanks for your feedback! Imprint grips provide far superior support than any previous grip with any kind of larger extended areas. Tried and tested. Why do you find you move your hands round the grips as much as you say? Again further feedback would be great. Any compressible material such as memory foam will not support the hand as well because the compressed portions of material instantly create a harder part of the given material giving a high pressure point, rubber, silicone, memory foam or whatever. Imprint Grips provide complete even pressure on the hand while still offering a soft, rubbery feel. Thanks for your queries and any more feedback would be great

    Posted 10 years ago #

  12. Baldcyclist
    Member

    @TBird You need to design moulded hoods for road bikes... ;)

    Posted 10 years ago #

  13. TBird
    Member

    Trycycle - This sounds hilarious! We would love to see the article if you have a copy (I am confident we would have found it online already if it were available though). This would make a great facebook post for us.. how not to do it! Yes the easy application and moulding was one of the major criteria behind the development of Imprint Grips and you can see from the product how we have clearly achieved this. Any more feedback would be great! Thanks!

    Posted 10 years ago #

  14. TBird
    Member

    Please take a look - We are a team of 3 engineers / cycle enthusiasts and have been developing and testing this product for over 2 years now. We have come up with something quite special.

    http://www.tmrdesigns.com

    http://prefundia.com/projects/edit_content/460/

    Keep updated on kickstarter too, thanks!

    Posted 10 years ago #

  15. TBird
    Member

    Many thanks David @ Laid Back Bikes!
    #laidbackbikes
    #laidback

    Posted 10 years ago #

  16. neddie
    Member

    Oh man. It's why I don't like straight handlebars...

    All I can say is... Drop handlebars - they give you 5 hand positions...

    Posted 10 years ago #

  17. allebong
    Member

    Have you considered how these will work with bar-ends? With bar ends I spend around 90% of my time with my palms facing inward, my fingers wrapped round the bar end itself, and then just the underside of my thumb in gentle contact with the end of the grip. But anytime I need to brake or shift I obviously need to grip normally and pretty hard at times. Under these circumstances what would they have problems molding themselves due to the constant changes in pressure at the end of the grip?

    You will be surprised at how little your hands will actually move around when braking, changing gear, bumps etc.

    Position changes during braking, shifting and other transient events wouldn't concern me with this concept. It's the fact that no matter how comfortable a grip or position is, you can't stay in it constantly. Hence with bar ends even though I spend most of my time on them, I have 3 positions on the bar end itself, then the normal grips as well and I continually move between them and subtly tweak my finger positions. So if you are relying on people keeping their hands in one position for this to work many people aren't going to find it useful. Essentially, I'd rather have 2 or 3 reasonably comfortable positions I can swap between rather than a single very comfortable one as I need that variety.

    Anyway I'd certainly want to at least these out to see how I got on with them. Grips are a very personal thing and often I've found what I thought was my 'final' grip setup only to come across something better. Good luck with it.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  18. Focus
    Member

    @ TBird

    "... Why do you find you move your hands round the grips as much as you say? ..."

    Good to see someone taking "negative" comments in a positive manner. I move my hands around for a couple of reasons. Hand fatigue would be only one and not a big one at that a lot of the time. As a roadie, I use different positions for both easing or preventing neck and back fatigue, changing my aerodynamic profile and so on, and I tend to do an adapted version of that on a flat barred bike as well as using bar ends.

    I could also be switching from mitts to thicker gloves to lobster mitts on consecutive rides so I'm not sure that all of those would feel right.

    There's certainly merit in your concept so I'm not knocking it, but without trying it out it's hard to know if it would work for me. I'm familiar with "heat to form" products as, playing ice hockey, I have tried "boil and bite" mouthguards. I was never comfortable with them though and was glad when one of my team with a dental business supplied us with properly fitted guards. So maybe I have a slight aversion to the mouldable interface idea because of that!

    Posted 10 years ago #

  19. TBird
    Member

    Imprint Grips are now launched on Kickstarter. Sorry not to your more recent questions soon, but we have been inundated since launching. There is plenty of info online about the grips now so hope it will answer your queries. We sincerely hope you will decide to pledge and back Imprint Grips! Thanks, Tom@TMR

    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/782900080/imprint-bicycle-grips-make-your-mark

    Posted 10 years ago #

  20. LaidBack
    Member

    Good news from a few days ago.

    TMR have reached their Kickstarter Target.

    I see it's just made Bike Radar. Well done to Tom and the TMR team.

    Tom thanks everyone for their support and suggestions. Still more work to do but a great start for a young company!

    Posted 10 years ago #

  21. rust
    Member

    Damn, missed the start of that! Backed anyway, just missed out on the super cheap options!

    Posted 10 years ago #

  22. TBird
    Member

    Hi Folks,

    Sorry to not get back to you all individually. It's been a busy time and Imprint Grips been featured on all sorts of biking websites with an overwhelmingly positive response. Please feel free to ask further questions through kickstarter but we can't respond to all the different forum posts we've had about the grips unfortunately. All the early offers are now gone but I hope you will still choose to back Imprint Grips. The current pledge levels are still less than the intended rrp's when we go to market in the spring as we will be factoring in distributors and bike shops etc. So you can still get a bargain! Thanks for all your support and feedback and safe riding! Cheers, Tom

    Posted 10 years ago #

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