Superstar lock on grip review. (Supagripa) Long term test.

Superstar components are a great little company out of Lincoln, they source high quality components from factories all over the world then supply them direct to the customer at very reasonable prices, I first became aware of them a few years back when I kept seeing their brake pads all over Ebay but the cheap prices made me a little dubious. As time went on some of my friends tried their pads, headsets, pedals and wheels and all the feedback was positive, so the time came to grab myself a bargain and see what this company was all about. A quick squizz around their website and I had found some very cheap replacement grips, the Supagripa. I did the custom grip builder for a tenner where you can choose a multitude of colours and different end cap options or if your budget is really tight go for the standard grip with standard plastic end caps for £7.99. The order was placed and in a couple of days the grips arrived and with free Haribo! (Big props whoever came up with that idea) I'd been looking for grips for a while, all the similar priced ones I had seen seemed to be substandard in finish and with few options, I didn't want to spend £19.99 on the ODI Ruffians either. 

Ruffians for me are a bench mark lock on grip, they fit my hands perfectly the grip is very comfortable and they look ace, the down side to the Ruffians and ODI's in general is the 2.5mm locking collar allen bolts which round off easy, I have had to remove a couple of old pairs with brute force, the Supergripas which I fitted about 5 months ago have a slightly chunkier 3mm locking bolt, In prep for this review I tried to undo them yesterday for the first time since fitting them and all was good. The grip pattern is similar to Ruffians except for the Superstar name printed across one face and a raised waffle pattern on the other. I'm not sure if there is a certain way round these should go but with the waffle pattern on the palm side of the grip and name across the front it feels nice, I did have some concerns about the life of the grip as the main grip pattern seemed to start wearing after a few rides, this seems to have worn so much and stabilized plus you can replace the grip cartridge for £4.99 so this is not really an issue here, the anodized locking collars are very nicely finished with the name printed on them, the finish seems to have got minimal marks on it after 5 months of being slung in the back of the car and lent against walls, the standard plastic end caps with logo on are still in pretty good nick too, initially I was worried they might go missing as they don't snap in like the ODI caps but this concern has proved unfounded, I will definitely try the pimped out end caps when these have had it because they look sweet. 

Overall I cant see any reason not to buy these grips, they are slightly less comfortable than the ODI's (and I mean slightly) but have better locking collar bolts, so it would appear to be swings and roundabouts until you consider that these are less than half the price of a set of Ruffians with locking collars, have a near endless selection of colour choices and seem to be durable thus far. If you like Ruffians you will like these, if you would rather spend twice as much money on a product that has no major performance benefits feel free, if you have had other more expensive lock on grips in the past try these and then ask yourself.
Why did I bother spending more?                                                                                                                                                                  

Reatin rides on.