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My nearly 7 year old has been on his hoy bike for 9 months or so now and getting along with it pretty well with it but gear changes are still not natural to him. It looks like a fair bit of effort for him to go up the cassette and he still looks down at the shifter which makes things harder again. I was looking for something else and came across the 7 speed sram gripshift and thought it might make life easier for him and its only £9.
Any advice on it gratefully recieved
My kids both struggled with the gripshift on the Islabikes, despite cable changes and regular lubing. I changed the gripshift to 7sp / 11sp triggers and they got on much better with the gear changes.
They found the gripshift hard to rotate and also couldn't help riding with their hand on the shifter the whole time and ended up with blisters in the web between thumb and forefinger despite wearing cycling gloves.
Definitely triggers. Our 7 year old couldn't use the grip shift on his spesh I fitted a trigger shifter a couple of weeks ago & now he's flying up & down the gears😁
Trigger. Was fine from 5.5 yrs for my done. No chance with gripshift.
My boys didn't like grip shift when they were growing up, swapped all their bikes over to triggers.
Triggers worked for us but they also really appreciate the little shifter window - having the numbers helps them and it helps me guide them too.
Right then, that seems pretty unanimous 😁 we will stick with it, he will get it soon enough I'm sure.
I was going to suggest grip shift...
...only kidding triggers. When they were little I used small grips and mounted triggers swung towards rider so that their small hands could put a decent amount of pressure on them. Old 7-8 speed stuff seemed easier for them to push got a little harder 10 speed.
My 7 yr old couldn’t cope with triggers. He finds it much easier to twist.
Just swapped out a gripshift for trigger on my eldest's Frog. She gets on much better with the trigger. Will be doing the same for my nephew's bike too.
Triggers for mine too. Couldn’t do the twist thing.
My daughter couldn't get on with grip shift so fitted triggers and she still struggles but in a different way....
My son can use grip shift no bother.
Swapped to trigger here too.
With all the fuss the brands make about tuning the bikes for kids (small brake levers, short cranks and light wheels etc), I find it a mystery that grip shift is still considered the equipment of choice by the big brands.
The responses here, and my own experience, suggest Isla et al should try a different approach.
What are we all missing?
Another swapper here. Trigger all the way. In fact i've even gone for the old school over bar set up on one of them. Even easier.
Trigger here as well, my daughter (also 7) struggles a bit with downshifts sometimes but all in all I'd rather she was using that than a gripshift.
Interesting my then 5 year old picked up the gripshift idea very quickly, and has been fine on it for the past year and a half.
Not a parent #humblebrag, just makes me think it's a bit horses for courses.
I've never tried him on paddles though!
I went the other way and removed the SRAM X5 trigger shifter from my 5 year old daughters Early Rider as she didn't have the strength in the thumb to do the downshifts and was struggling to reach the front lever for the upshifts.
Put on an X0 9 speed gripshift which I modified to reduce the spring rate making it easier to rotate. She can now use it properly and can shift up and down the cassette whenever she likes.
It was ridiculously stiff before modification though.
Another vote for triggers.
My 5 year old didn't have the strength to twist the gripshift on his new Isla (handed down from older son), even after cleaning it & new cables, etc.
Upgraded to an X3 7 speed shifter and no looking back:
To quote him verbatum "It's like a new bike" 😀
My youngest struggled with trigger shifters. Especially with the required leverage needed for the thumb push on the trigger shifter. Plus it never seemed that intuitive to him, didn't seem to change gears that much, you could see him thinking about it.
He's had gripshift on his Cannondale Cujo since he was 8 nearly a year ago and that has made a massive difference. He finds it so much more intuitive, I'm not having to remind him to change gears or which thumb/finger to use, and it's not at all stiff to use.
I think its a cheap but recent Shimano unit, not SRAM. SRAM could be stiffer? I'd say definitely worth a try.
It's a Shimano Revoshift. I personally wouldn't be swayed by any older but possibly higher end models.
The SRAM gripshift are very stiff. Cutting about 6 mm off the long coil spring and bending the other flat spring a little removed a lot of the force required while still remaining positive engagement.
I'd have gone with Shimano except I didn't want to change the mech as well as the shifter.
Biggest issue with the SRAM trigger is, at 5 years old, her thumbs are too short to comfortably reach the forward lever without rotating her hand around the bars. Wouldn't have been an issue with a Shimano trigger as she could use her index finger to upshift.
9yo copes fine with 8sp trigger on her Trek; 7yo doesn't really understand the concept of gears… I have an X3 trigger in the cupboard that's on my lost of things to do, as the cheapo SRAM grip shift on her bike is quite stiff.