Fabric FunGuy Grip review

Fabric's aptly named FunGuy Grip – half of it is a mushroom texture – offers its other half in micro-hex texture and features a soft compound. They dampen a bit of vibration and give decent grip with gloves, though they're not great when used with bare hands.

The mushroom half is designed to engage with your palm, while the micro-hex part grips your fingers. The hexes sit at various heights too, for extra traction.

Rather conveniently, the end is closed and it uses a single lock-on design. It’s 135mm long and a pair weighs 105g.

With gloves, the FunGuy is super comfortable thanks to the slightly squidgy mushroom half which dampens a bit of vibration and gives a nice, slim feel. This half gets slippery under bare, sweaty hands however, to the point where I found myself gripping the bar far harder than normal.

Thankfully, the micro-hex half works far better with bare hands, and gives you something to hang onto at least. This section is good with or without gloves.

I found a couple of issues with the closed ends of the bars that are likely only personal, but they are definitely grumbles, nonetheless.

When I’m gripping the bar, I like to hang a small portion of my palm off of the end. The ends of FunGuy grips are very soft, so it feels as if the ends are bending away from the bar. While I haven’t seen any wear yet, the stress means it's likely to suffer here sooner than elsewhere.

Also, the casing of the grip isn’t snug to the handlebar, so there’s a bit of play between the bar and the grip. While this isn’t massively noticeable on the bike, it got me hunting for loose bolts on my cockpit.

If you’re looking for a grip that offers a smidge of damping but don’t get on with full mushroom grips, the Fabric FunGuy Grip offers the comfort of the mushroom texture but with added grip at the fingertips. It also comes in seven different colours for that custom looks – just be sure you can look past its quirks once you're riding.