I use two different styles of Ergon winged grips (
the version for angled bars, and the straight bar version). The angled ones are noticeably more comfortable. Also I use Wolf Tooth
Fat Paw and
Mega Fat Paw silicone grips. After using both, I prefer the silicone Wolf Tooths. I have wrist issues thanks to a bike crash several years ago that put me on the deep cushioning track, as well as trying to find handlebars with a pullback that aren't cruiser bars.
I did the Wolftooths for many years. I wrap them, old-school bar-tape-style, with silicone plumber's tape, which is silicone-on-silicone so it sticks like it was glued on. Protects the grips as they are gouge-prone, and becomes a smooth, grippy surface after the initial stickiness wears off in about a day. If you dig a divot into one, you just wrap it in another layer of tape, although I have only had to do this once or twice over several years.
I am doing 1 1/2 grips per side here on Jones bars so its a tad pricey. You have to look very closely to see where one grip ends and its extension begins.
The Ergons just below have been extended a bit with scraps of Wolf Tooth grips because I bought the shortie version. I forget the exact reason why, but I moved them around to I think 3 different bikes before retiring them. You have to be careful on positioning this style of grip so the paddle is up, but not up so much it becomes a pressure point and thus a new way to induce pain.
And the latest from just a couple of months ago. I went back to the WolfTooth. And Cinelli gel bar tape which, back in the day, felt like a pillow cushion, and nowadays feels like a barely padded brick.
You can see I used a narrower thickness at the bend just behind the crossbar. Thats a length of Fat Paw, with the rest being a Mega Paw grip stuffed up against it, and wrapped in silicone tape. This is the second bar I have done like this since discovering the Surly Corner Bar early this year, and it has been an enormous help to my hands.
As for gloves, if the weather is storming, I wear Costco-sourced Wells-Lamont full finger water proof gardening gloves. Leather palms, no padding. Or if its not wet,
I wear these 'Fire Lion' Chinese specials who, most importantly, have thick padding for the meat of the palm down low where most of my pain shows up on my hands. I have at four pairs of these things and Amazon says my last pair was bought in June of 2021, so they last, although some are more worn-looking than others.
