Reviewed: Wolf Tooth Mega Fat Paw Cam grips

While most mountain bike grips fit in a range between thin and average, some of us want more. If you’re looking for something to fit your hefty hands, Wolf Tooth has several options. The Mega Fat Paw Cam takes their widest grip option and adds an ergonomic twist.

Mega Fat Paw Cam by the numbers

The Mega Fat Paw Cam takes Wolf Tooth’s Mega Fat Paw and cuts away material to create a faceted, ergonomic grip. The idea is to combine the comfort, vibration damping and width of a large grip with a slightly smaller circumference and better control. The girthy grips target riders with slightly smaller hands, but who still want more circumference or padding than the Fat Paw.

Cutting away material on the Cam line of grips creates four edges. Orienting these to your riding position makes the grips match the natural position of your hand as it wraps around the bars. At 11.5mm thick where the grip meets the palm, they provide plenty of padding and vibration damping in the direction forces travel from the bars to your hands and wrists.

Overall, the Mega Fat Paw Cams have a slightly smaller circumference (123mm) than Wolf Tooth’s widest, the Mega Fat Paw (129mm) but larger than the Fat Paw (119mm). The grips are 135mm long, and weigh 116 grams. Wolf Tooth makes its grips in the U.S.A. from its own proprietary dual-density silicone compound. The grips have a tacky texture, said to add traction in all weather conditions.

Riding the Mega Fat Paw Cam

For anyone with larger hands, who has experienced numbness while riding, or fatigue and cramps holding onto grips that are tiny relative to the gargantuan grabbers, these are an interesting option. I started riding these while returning from a broken thumb, and the extra damping was a noticeable and immediate improvement over harder and narrower grips. They dampen a good portion of the rattling and, since they naturally fit my grip, my weakened thumb didn’t have to work as hard to keep hold of the bars.

The cammed surface area not only conforms to your hand, creating a natural grip, but the reduced surface area under the fingers still lets you react fast while padding the palm. The grips tacky texture is easy to hold on to, even riding gloveless in the wet of a Victoria winter. I imagine the traction would be appreciated on a gloved wintery fat bike ride as well.

Like any silicone grip, the Mega Fat Paw Cams could get cut up in crashes or catching trees. The extra padding seems to help with this, though. As you can see in some photos, I’ve knicked a couple of trees and dropped the bike once or twice. While there are dents in the foam, there are none of the chunks or deep cuts that can cause thinner foam grips to start falling apart. Wolf Tooth ships the grips with bar end plugs, which also helps. These fit in securely and haven’t budged yet.

A note on installation

It can be tricky to get the orientation just right, though. You can do it on your own without much trouble, just a bit of fiddling. But you definitely want to be somewhere where you can hop on the bike to check the angle before they’re set on the bars. Having a friend look at your riding position and help you line up the grips might make it easier.

Conclusion: These big dogs hunt

If you’re looking for a grip that fits your massive mittens or just a bit more padding at the bars, Wolf Tooth’s Mega Fat Paw Cam’s could be the answer. If you want more circumference with the feel of a thin grip, there are limited options out there. But if you like the feel of foam grips, and want a thicker option, these are a great upgrade.

At $46.00, the Mega Fat Paw Cam’s are near twice the price of the smaller Razer grips. I’m not sure what causes that price difference, as both use the same dual-density silicone. The Mega Fat Paw Cam’s just use more of it. Price difference aside, these are still worth it to me. If you’ve struggled with thin grips for years, it just might be worth it for you too.

Wolf Tooth Mega Fat Paw Cam grips are available online from Wolf Tooth or through bike shops.