Jackson Goldstone has had a unique journey through the world of mountain biking. His balance bike video from 2010 introduced a very young Mr. Goldstone to the greater mountain bike zeitgeist. Chatter of that little kid on the balance bike spread across trailheads and bikeshops like wildfire, but that's not too unique as a standalone event. Viral videos featuring young shredders come around every day, but they're usually a flash in the pan that you don't hear from again. To state the obvious, that has not been the case with Jackson Goldstone. We've seen video after video over the years of this young phenom as he grew from strider toddler, to bike park grom, to slopestyle star, to the most exciting downhill racer of our generation.
Now, he’s diversifying again, and recently released his first signature product in collaboration with his sponsor OneUp Components. The Goldstone Grips have been the hottest product of the year, with demand far exceeding the supply. Maybe that demand comes seeing his story unfold over the years, or maybe it’s because he just smoked everyone in the Downhill World Cups last season, or maybe because it’s actually a unique grip that has some design choices we’ve never seen before. Regardless, I’ve spent the last couple months putting them to the test to see what all the hype is about.
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Specs
Starting with the basics, the Goldstone Grips are manufactured by OneUp Components, and while this isn’t their first grip, it’s certainly their most exciting. Their other three options are quite vanilla in comparison, and the Goldstone Grip is offered in five colors. White, Black, Dark Green, Tan, and Maroon. White seems to be Jackson’s choice, with his race bike featuring the white grips for finals in just about every race this year. Those winning runs are about as good of marketing as you can ask for!
Featuring some design choices we haven’t seen before, let’s dive into the specifics of the Goldstone Grips to figure out exactly what’s going on here. Prominently featured across the top of the grip is a raised section that’s meant to fill your palm. It’s made of a geometrically satisfying and incredibly flexible matrix of rubber flanges, and is elevated from the rest of the grip to match the ergonomics of your palm. On the backside are two long ribs to grip onto, and they’re angled to match where your fingers land as they wrap around. The end of the grip mushrooms out into a harder rubber cap for you to press your hands outward against, something we haven’t seen from other grips before. Around all these features is a pretty standard knurled pattern, and the rubber making up the body of the grip is a tacky 20A compound. For durability, the larger ends are a harder 45A rubber.
Inside the grip, there are some cutouts in the hard plastic core to increase damping and comfort. Those cutouts are right under your thumbs, and that extra rubber between you and the bar should mitigate harshness translated back to the rider. One single clamp holds each grip on the bar, and these grips are side specific. Those ribs on the back match the angle of your fingers when set up correctly, but I ignorantly ran them backwards initially with no issues.
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Installation
Installing the Goldstone Grips was much more difficult than I anticipated. There is a lot of friction between the grip and the bar, and it feels like the rubber grabs the metal as it slides past, making them quite difficult to get them on. The rubber mallet made an appearance to get them fully seated on, and luckily the harder durometer rubber on the end cap is a perfect striking point. Even making small rotation adjustments after they’re installed takes quite a bit of effort, but if you’ve got a personal world cup mechanic taking care of that for you, I suppose installation isn’t much of a concern.
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Taking inspiration from Jackson himself, I’ve been riding the white colorway. OneUp doesn’t kid around with “white”, and when new, these are a very white grip. When first installed on my white Sentinel, they made the frame look off-white in comparison, but they didn’t stay clean for long. The glowing white has now subsided to a stained brownish white, and no amount of scrubbing can bring them back to their former glory. In the future, I’d go for the black option.
The knurled rubber foundation of the grip is quite narrow, measuring to a slightly narrower than advertised 28mm at the thinnest point. Measuring about 32mm at the thickest section of the midpoint, these are overall a relatively thin grip. Finally, the large mushroom end grows to 37mm, and the total usable width of the grip between the rubber flanges is 107mm. The total length of the grip from one end to the other is 139mm. OneUp uses a 20A durometer rubber in this grip, which has proven to be a very tacky and comfortable choice. Not everyone discloses their exact rubber durometer, but 20A is tied for the softest publicly shared durometer I’ve seen.
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Ride impressions After riding these grips for the last couple months, I can confirm that they have not made me ride like Jackson Goldstone. But they are a fantastic pair of grips that fit my meat hooks quite well. As advertised, the raised palm section fills my palm, the ribs on the back give my three wrapped fingers something to pull on, and the mushroom end provides a supportive platform to push against. Of the three, the most advertised and talked about feature is the raised palm section, and while it does fit my hand nicely, I can’t say that I noticed it much or that it solved any problem I’ve had with grips before. The ribs on the backside of the grips actually made a bigger difference than I expected, and provided some good purchase for pulling on the grips. They’re like mini crimps that sit in the creases of your fingers, and while quite small, make very effective use of their surface area. OneUp calls them “finger ramps”, and while I’ve tried other grips with similar designs to give your fingers something to hold onto, this is the most natural and effective feeling execution I’ve tried yet. |
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ODI’s Elite Pro grip also uses a slightly raised palm section and some gridding on the back for your fingers to hold onto. Those grips are incredibly popular, but I think OneUp’s execution of both concepts suits my hands better. The raised palm section of the Goldstone Grip is much softer and more pliable than the Elite Pro, and fades into the background quite seamlessly. ODI’s more robust palm construction sends a bit more feedback to the rider, and overall is less comfortable in my experience. On the back of the grip, the large grid pattern feels less intentional than the finger ramps on the Goldstone Grips.
At the end of the grip, the large outer flange is my favorite feature of the Goldstone Grip. Having a strong, stiff support for the side of my hand is something I never knew I wanted, but has been exceptionally functional. Introducing that support allows your hands to remain slightly more relaxed while riding, and has me wondering why this hasn’t been done before. This wider flange feels like a true performance advantage, and I would expect more grips to incorporate something similar in the future. Some other World Cup level DH racers have been playing with large bar ends for the same reason, and this experience has me interested in trying those even larger applications of the same idea. Another benefit of this hard end cap is how durable it is during a crash. I’ve had so many grips with tons of life left get chewed up in a super mild crash, and after laying these grips down a few times, they still look good as new.
Lock on grips with inboard clamps have become the norm. They employ a plastic core running through the center of the grip, and several grips including these Goldstone Grips cut out a portion of that plastic core to reduce vibrations and increase comfort. More rubber means better vibes, so cutting out as much plastic as possible and replacing it with rubber accomplishes that. Push on grips remove all the hard plastic from the equation, making for a much more comfortable and damped ride than any lock on grip. The only downside is the installation/removal, which isn’t super easy, but these Goldstone Grips aren’t easy to get on either, so I’d be very curious to try a push on version if that ever becomes available.
While I’m no grip designer, my only complaint is the knurled design that makes up the foundation of the grip. I personally find that a knurled pattern feels more slippery than a ribbed design like found on the ODI Longneck or the Burgtec Greg Minaar signature grip. Knurled grips don’t give me the same locked in feel as a ribbed grip, and I think that’s because they don’t compress as much as I grip them. With how squishy their intricate triangular palm section is, I’d be curious about a larger surface area of the grip made of that same pattern. Although it would make the grip a bit larger in diameter, I think the grip would be fantastic.
Conclusion
Overall, the Goldstone Grip has very intentional design choices throughout, and isn’t just a product with a famous name slapped on there for marketing. It’s truly a high quality grip that has clearly been engineered for riding at the highest level. If you’re in the market for a new grip that offers performance advantages over other grips, these are absolutely worth a shot. Just be ready with the mallet to get them installed.
