GripGrab Freedom base layer review

GripGrab moves into base layers with two winter weight long sleeved options

Cycling Weekly Verdict

The GripGrab Freedom base layer provides top-notch technical performance. It’s comfortable and wicks really well. But it is pricey and can get a bit smelly.

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Excellent weight for winter rides

  • +

    Very stretchy

  • +

    Good wicking

  • +

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Can get a bit whiffy

  • -

    Expensive

  • -

You can trust Cycling Weekly. Our team of experts put in hard miles testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

Danish brand GripGrab has built its business out of selling clothing that for other brands is a bit of an afterthought. Its range of gloves, overshoes, headwear and arm and leg warmers has consistently come up really well when Cycling Weekly has reviewed it. Now it’s moved into base layers, with the GripGrab Freedom being one of two long sleeved base layers it’s launched this winter.

Although it’s more expensive than the Expert base layer, the Expert is actually warmer than the GripGrab Freedom base layer. But the Freedom base layer comes with a more technical, very stretchy fabric mix. Its outside layer is made of polyethylene, while the inside face is made of polypropylene. It’s a mix designed to keep you drier, which it does effectively. Even worn under a gabba-style jacket and riding fast, although I built up a sweat on the inside of the jacket and the outside face of the GripGrab Freedom base layer, there was no clammy feel. It’s also very soft against the skin.

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Paul Norman

Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.

He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.