So my main man Jeff Kerkove, endurance racer for Topeak/Ergon,  sent me an email a few months back more or less saying: "Keller, white sex is being created and coming your way. You gotta try them!" And low and behold, voila, on my doorstep a few days ago I received a box containing the white, and very sexy, goodness. The Ergon GAS-1 ergonomic 'all mountain' grips.

Ergon is a company that takes two things extremely seriously: Design and Ergonomics. They are tightly coupled however to ensure that style does not compromise use and vice versa. It's fairly unique in fact and it's obvious that their industrial design is rooted in one part beauty, one part science with a huge dose of usability and comfort.

The GA1's came in some very attractive packaging. It made me wonder how profitable for Ergon (or reasonably priced for the customer) the product could be with such magnificent packaging! But alas, the packaging has its own design purposes. Ergon thought through how a consumer could 'feel' the grip before purchase on a make shift 'handlebar' (see exposed white grip in the picture to the left which is mounted to a solid piece of plastic tubing).

All the instructions were extremely clear and neatly wrapped inside the clear plastic tube of the packaging....in German (of course) as well as English.

Some data points...

• Color choice: The GAS-1's come in three colors, white (like mine), green/black team and black and gray.

• Sizes: They come in small and large (mine were small) and even with large hands, they felt perfect. Spongy and filled up my hand well, as opposed to having 'nothing' there. (I wonder what the larges feel like as these 'smalls', bottom line, feel perfect).

• MSRP is $30

• Ride: I have a couple of hours on them and thus far the feel is fantastic. It has an ergonomic shape (yet not with the 'palym' support such as their GX series grips have. These are more or less 'straight' but with some contour that you normally do not see on 'traditional' grips. The grip material's feel is somewhere between sponge and hard grip. in other words you get all of the benefits if having your hands sticky to the grip (with or without gloves) yet it provides a comfort beneficial to long haul days where your hands will inevitably suffer exhaustion. 
• Where to buy: Your local bike shop by this time probably has a connection to Ergon or their main suppliers can easily get them. They are widely distributed now here in the States. Certain online sites like Competative Cyclist now carry them too if you are having trouble sourcing them locally. Or visit their list on line.

So, all in all, I'm loving them. Once I have a few hundred miles on 'em, I'll give a status update as to their longevity, compound breakdown, etc etc.