Yup, I've had that exact experience. In fact, I gave up on the wings after suffering from what felt like thumb tendonitis for about a month after a ride in an extremely rocky, rooty area where it seemed like my thumbs had to be hooked hard the entire ride to keep my grip. But I think part of the problem there was that the GA3s had not yet come out with a larger size. The original size of the GA3s always felt like I was trying to grip a pencil.
I went on my first ride over the weekend with the SQ 711 lock-ons in the largest size. They're girthy, and feel like the first grips that actually fit my hands. I love the squish and the thickness, but the flat ends still aren't close to the comfort of winged grips. I had to rock the GA3s a couple of weeks ago when they were the only thing in the parts bin after finishing a new bike build. It reminded me how much more comfortable the wings are than anything else in non-technical terrain, and also how much I hate the narrowness of the original GA3 width. I'll keep playing around with the 711s for now. It feels like they can get to a much better place with just some tweaking to their orientation.
July 19, 2021, 6:16 p.m. - Enurjetik
Yup, I've had that exact experience. In fact, I gave up on the wings after suffering from what felt like thumb tendonitis for about a month after a ride in an extremely rocky, rooty area where it seemed like my thumbs had to be hooked hard the entire ride to keep my grip. But I think part of the problem there was that the GA3s had not yet come out with a larger size. The original size of the GA3s always felt like I was trying to grip a pencil. I went on my first ride over the weekend with the SQ 711 lock-ons in the largest size. They're girthy, and feel like the first grips that actually fit my hands. I love the squish and the thickness, but the flat ends still aren't close to the comfort of winged grips. I had to rock the GA3s a couple of weeks ago when they were the only thing in the parts bin after finishing a new bike build. It reminded me how much more comfortable the wings are than anything else in non-technical terrain, and also how much I hate the narrowness of the original GA3 width. I'll keep playing around with the 711s for now. It feels like they can get to a much better place with just some tweaking to their orientation.