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Just I the process of upgrading a kids bike for Yetigirl.
question is, for those little hands, (7yr old) keep with the gripshift or use rapid fire? She had gripshift on her last bike, but found it quite hard. Anyone use rapid fire and found them ok with those little thumbs?
Cheers
My lad has only ever had rapid fire shifters, he's not had a problem. They need to get used to them at some point!!
No issues with my 8 year old, go for it.
perfect.
Not quite what you asked but I'd go one-by what ever you choose. The added complexity of two shifters just seems a bit much based on my (limited) observation. Trigger shifters seem to be okay though.
Rapidfire, but you need to teach them to lock their thumbs and rotate the wrist to get the necessary torque. Thumbshifters were popular too.
On road, mine liked the sora buttons to shift from the hoods.
Not 'Gripshoft' but the Shimano version 'RevoShift' is the way to go if you can. Very light action, nice and click and little hands can grab the whole thing to turn it. That's what I fit given the choice. Cheap too.
XTR Di2 has nice, easy shifting 😉
My 6 year old has been on triggers / rapid fire for a year or so. No issues.
It doesn't matter, they'll use whatever they've got, but no issues with triggers for my girls, now 6&9, but 5&8 when I got them their first proper bikes with gears. The 9 year old took to them straight away, the 6 yr old is still trying to get her head around gears full stop, but has no problem actually shifting once I tell her to change gear or she decides herself.
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These are the easiest-shifting option ime, Tourney thumbies. 6 or 7s only though.
I've put a set of those on my 9 year old's bike and it's OK, but pushing the lever forwards is a little tricky for small hands.
I much prefer the Shimano Acera style ones which came on my other son's Frog 62.
Two of my boys have complained about their hands getting sore using twistshift grips, though I can't remember whether these were Sram or Shimano ones.
SLX 1x10 trigger for a 9 year old girlie coming from a grip shifter. She finds it much easier to use the trigger.
My son's Islabike Beinn 20 came with Gripshift (Sram X3), which he understood but struggled to get into 1st gear. I swapped it to triggers (also X3) and he finds it much easier. Enjoy your rides together!
My 7 year old is using X9 triggers and took just a few minutes to get used to them
6yr old has thumbies on her frog 62, I spent some time cycling along behind shouting out which button to press but no,problem
1x is definitely the way to go. 😮
That leaves their left hand free to work the dropper. 😉
Liking the idea of 1*9 but that would require a wheel rebuild...
That leaves their left hand free to work the dropper
can be quite an effort for a child to use a dropper. My 11 year old struggles with his reverb.
XT or SLX shifters, and keep the cables in good order... one of the best upgrades we made to my son's bike - the previous Deore shifters were OK but required just that bit too much effort.
i put my lad on rapid fire age 5/6 he's fully conversant now at 10...
It's definitely worth looking at xo or txt at that age the weight saving really helps.
I found all of them were imperfect* and currently on x09 speed gripshift - you can pick these up for about £20 a set and they are very light and any kid can use them
Possibly better as 1 x as the left hand does seem stiffer than the right even to me.
* tried the tourney up there , the revo as per poody and some others and they struggled to varying degrees with them all. I guess it depends on the size and strength of your kid but none worked perfectly- ie the child could not use it without help from me.