NOTEBOOK: BCycle puts a cork on sticky handlebar grips

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If you check out a BCycle this spring, you may notice the handlebar grips no longer feel like the last user just finished a melting Thelma’s frozen cookie (unless, of course, someone happened to do that). No, they’re less sticky because the Des Moines Bicycle Collective replaced some 80 pairs of the worst plastic grips with new cork grips that don’t deteriorate. Turns out that constant sun exposure makes for sticky grips, said Carl Voss, one of the Bicycle Collective’s founders. Voss, who is helping expand the BCycle fleet, told me he noticed my comment about sticky grips that I made last August in a Notebook item. He was already aware of the problem then and had the grips on back order, and they’ve been replaced over the winter. Des Moines’ BCycle fleet is now up to about 125 bikes — ranging from some of the original bikes bought 10 years ago to others that are new this year.