Ride all the time, and always with gloves.... I have torn up my hands bad on mountain bikes when I forgot gloves, so I've never cared what my grips are, I have padded gloves with carbon knuckles ... I have chrome grips now.....
If allowed to go to it's natural state they would turn kind of green. So you keep the polish handy.
But I have to ask, don't you ride in the cold? Rain? Other than a indoor show bike, why?
see my other post... I always wear gloves. If I were to ever fall the first thing I'd do is put my hands down.... so, good gloves are a must..... with that in mind, I really like the look of Brass grips but have never seen a pic of someone that's been running them for very long.
I'm looking at the ones from Speeddealercustoms. ...