Reviewing the Best Dirt Bike Grips on the Market

Dirt bikes are inherently dangerous. Two wheels, speeds up to 100mph, and your hands controlling your speed and braking. Your hands need to remain on the handlebars at all times to ride safely. That is why it is extremely important to have the best dirt bike grips on your machine before hitting the road or trails.

If only it were that easy, to just say you need the best dirt bike grips and then the search is over. Well it isn’t. The market is flooded with options making it difficult to know what grips will meet your needs. We learned during a recent review of the Best ATV Grips that there it a lot of crossover between the ATV and dirt bike grips: both need to be easy to install, must be semi-soft to ease the pressure on your fingers, wrist and forearms and should not allow your hands to slip. With Dirt bikes the need for grip in all conditions is critical to ensuring your safety. If your hand slips on an a ATV, you can keep driving, but with a dirt bike it can cause the bike to tilt or lose control.

To ease your search, we found and tested our 3 top dirt bike grips with a focus on grip, ease of installation and ride quality. Below you will find those reviews.

1. Scott Sports Full Radial Waffle Grips

If you read of our site often, you would notice a trend here. The Scott Sports Full Radial Grips were also featured on our Best ATV Grips review, and here they are again. Time and time again, these grips have proven themselves on the road and the trails as the best dirt bike grips. They use a softer rubber compound to improve grip and wrist/arm fatigue. The waffle design which covers the entire grip is perfect for keeping your hands on the bars when driving in an weather condition or road surface: rain, mud, snow, sweat, tears (you never know). These are set up to work with twist throttle setups, with one side diameter of 7/8 and the other 1 inch.

These grips retail for about $20 in store and about $11 online (Amazon). I installed a pair on a friends Kawasaki 125 last year, and it was surly easy. Remove the old grips, soap up the handlebar, and slide on these new grips. A year later of moderate usage and they still look and feel perfect.

2. Protaper Pillow Top Grips

My experience with these grips was a bit limited as I only rode a pair earlier this year while visiting a friend in Florida. On his Yamaha YZ250, these grips were legit. The pillow top design helps reduce the vibrations that travel through the handlebars and the increased surface area make gripping the handlebars much easier. It rained every afternoon while I was visiting and the wet grips kept their tackiness and made it possible to ride whenever we wanted. You can buy these in either a twist throttle set up or thumb throttle, based on what you need, as well as a variety of colors to match your bike.

If you are new to Dirt Bikes, Pro Taper is one of the best known brands when it comes to handlebars and grips. They are high quality, low cost manufacturer. These grips come retail for about $20 in store and $11.95 online (Amazon.com).

3. Protaper Pillow Top Lite Grips

The Pillow Top Lites are the same exact grips as the Pillow Top version above, however they have a lower profile design. What I mean is the little nodes (pillows) that stick out around the grip are smaller so allow for easier grip of the handlebars. These are ideal for riders with smaller hands, and allow for a tighter grips of the handlebars without having to squeeze the grips too hard. In my experience the grip is almost identical to the older brother version (original Pillow Tops) and these stand up to the mud, dirt, and rain you can throw at your bike. The lower profile does not impact the cushion too much and the ride quality is still favorable compared to other grips. These come ready for your twist throttle with inner diameter measuring 7/8″ on the left and 1″ on the right.

Another nice feature of the Pillow Top Lite grips are the variety of colors available. This allows you to customize your grips to match your bike, jersey or helmet. Similar to the other brands and models, these grips come in around $20 at retail stores and about $12 online (Amazon).