Gummy, Sticky handlebar grips!

Conventional wisdon holds that Japanese houses are famously small - but "Small" is a matter of opinion, and a matter of degree.  I would disagree that the houses are small relative to human needs since most people are perfectly comfortable - but there is no denying that the average size of a house or apartment is smaller than in say, the United States.  For that and other reasons, the vast majority of people leave their bicycles outside, just as with their cars and motorcycles.

The typical Japanese bike has hard plastic handle grips, and so even if you leave the bike outside for 5 or 10 years, there is no problem.  A good example of a typical handle is shown below:

The vast majority of bikes you will find used by adults in Japan are also utility bikes.  Typically electric assist utility bikes.  

Fancier bikes, however, tend to have softer, more comfortable grips.  There is a downside to this, however: Softer grips age faster when exposed to the weather.  The grips on my Giant cross bike basically melted into a sticky goop that would stick to my hands like hot tar in the summer.  It was a pain to get off my hands and made the bike unusable, so I replaced the grips.  

More recently, my Panasonic XM-D2 started showing similar signs, so I changed the grips.  Both bikes spent their lives in front of my house, exposed to rain, snow, and direct sunlight.  

My older XM1 has been in storage, and so actually lasted a bit longer, but recently I took it out to inflate the tires, charge the horn, check if it was in working order, and I took it for a quick ride.  

I haven't sold the XM1 because it has skinnier tired than the others which will fit into parking racks, and it also has a sturdy kick stand, making it more convenient for shopping trips than my newer bikes.  

My hands were covered with black goo by the time I was done with my trip, though, indicating that it was time for a change.  

I ordered the same Race Face Half Nelson grips that I used for my XM-D2, but this time I chose black instead of red.  I like these grips because they have a soft, tacky, sticky feeling without actually sticking to my hands - and they are also reasonably priced.  

These are the original black grips:

These grips were very good, but since their time had come, I ventured off to the parking place to swap them out.  The hex bolts they use are a larger size than the new Race Face grips, and they were on there increadibly tight, at least 10N.m, I would say - despite the fact that they are labeled 6N.m max.   There is a locking ring on the inside, and also a locking cap on the outside.  I undid these until their were loose, but the grips still wouldn't budge at all despite great effort.  I discovered that there were another set of bolts on the bottom!  After loostening those, the grips finally came off.  I don't know what brand they were, but I really like the design.  (I I like the fact that they lock on both ends, and I prefer the aluminum and cap to the plastic stoppers that come with the Race Face grips).  

Since the inside is hard plastic, they slid off easily, revealing the bare handlebars once all 4 of the bolts on each grip were loosened.  

I tried to install the new grips straight away, but alas life is never that simple.  The new grips are longer than the orignal ones, and the brake levers were in the say.  To move the break levers, I had to move the assist controller on the left, and the suspension lockout lever on the right, which took a bit of time since they all conveniently uses different sized hex bolts.  

Once all of this was done, the new grips slid into place and installed easily.  Despite only having one single bolt each compared to the 4 of the previous grips, they seem sturdy enough.  

So there you have it.  If you have an XM-1 and need to change the grips, then you can probably use any standard grips - or at least the Race Face Half Nelson's fit!