Are you tired of numbness in your hands, hot spots on your feet, and bleeding elbows? Well G-Form may have the cure for your litany of semi-related woes. Word is the Rhode Island sports protection equipment company came to be as the result of a freak lab accident in the R & D department of an advanced polymer molding company. On a dark, stormy night, G-Form founders Ami Newsham, David Foster, Jeff Bowie and some guy named Bill (all avid cyclists, except for the guy named Bill) were running some tests on some., um..advanced polymers, and that’s when things went horribly awry. One of the, um…molds that they mold the advanced polymers in exploded, sending molten polymer flying all over the lab like napalm. When it all settled, the guy named Bill was covered head to toe with translucent gel compound, the other three watched in horror as a rapid change came over him, then he went for Ami like she was made out of waffle-fry-nachos. David fought him off in the only way an avid cyclist can effectively fight anybody: like a wallaby. He grabbed the guy named Bill by the ears with his spindly T-Rex arms and then proceeded to kick him in the Netherlands with his over-developed legs until Bill retreated, smashing through a plate glass window, disappearing into the black night. Jeff knew a bloody massacre would surely ensue if the mutant creature formerly known as some guy named Bill reached civilization, so he leapt onto his bike (that had been leaning against the lab wall) and took off after the Polymer-Man. As he blazed a streak through the driving rain, closing in on his quarry, he thought to himself “How odd. Usually by this point in a ride my hands are numb, I would be suffering from shoulder and neck pain, and I would be much more fatigued than I am at the moment…what’s going on?” Then he realized what it was —
Click “more” to find out what Jeff’s shocking discovery was and to see more photos of G-Form product…
the soft, low durometer gel coating his bike from the polymer mold explosion — it was damping the road vibration and making for a much more comfortable ride. He aborted his pursuit and rode back to the lab to tell Ami and David about his shocking discovery. “But what about that guy named Bill…y’know, the killer mutant-guy?” Ami asked. “Ah, he was headed straight for Warwick, they can deal with him.”
And that (in case you’re thicker than day old oatmeal) is the totally made up version of how G-Form was, er, formed.
The not-made-up part is that G-Form manufactures sports protection products, products like the brake hoods pictured at the top of this post (which will be available for Shimano and Sram levers December 1st). Those hoods are embedded with proprietary pressure relief gel, to “dampen the vibration in your hands, arms and shoulders, reducing fatigue and allowing you to ride longer.” They actually replace your existing hoods, but the product below, the Brake Hood Gel Over-Grip (available October 15th) adheres to your existing brake hood, no re-wrapping of the handlebars necessary.
The Gel Over-Grip accomplishes basically the same thing as the G-Form brake hood, although not in the most aesthetically pleasing manner.
G-Form also makes flexible, breathable elbow pads out of rate-dependent foam.
And hot spot eliminating bike shoe gel pads.
G-Form has a saddle gel kit in the works as well as a bike shoe insole. Check out their site for more info.
