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Looking to replace the Sram grip-shifters on my 5yr old lads Islabike. No amount of fettling can make them any lighter. Given its a 7spd cassette, any recommendations for child friendly shifters ?
Now this is a thread I am interested in. Be interested to see if there is any options out there.
is the bike new?
Most low range gripshift shifters are already pretty light action and they only really become stiffer to move when either the cables need replacing or a mech (in particular f.mech) becomes stiff at the pivots.
there are no cable tension springs in a gripshifter, simply a ratchet and spring (bent piece of metal rather than coil). so changing to new shifters may not make any difference.
have you had the shifter apart? is it a smooth action without a cable?
GW, I put new cable on, its as smooth as anything. Shifter is stiff on its own. I had the shifter apart, & tried re-profiling the spring to take some of the tension off (obviously without it slipping back down the cassette), but it just seems to have an inherent tightness. Wondering if there is a trigger type shifter that might be lighter.
Bike's not new, couple of years old. Gears shift smoothly by just pulling on the cable.
So, are you saying the shifter was smooth to turn with no cable or spring in but too too stiff with the spring in place (still no cable in?)
do the plastic splines/ratchets inside the shifter look damaged at all?... if I understood you correctly and they're fine it does look like the spring is the problem, you know it has a correct orientation I presume?
don't know if Islabikes have always spec'd the same shifters on their bikes or not but I recently set the gears up on 2 fairly new islabikes (a 20 and 24 if it makes any difference) and both shifters were light and really easy for the kids to use.
the problem with trigger style shifters is they are pretty much all designed to work with adult hands rather than little uns.
Try some Shimano Revoshifter, ( [url= http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/7-speed-shimano-tourney-rs43-revoshifter-right-hand-prod18901/ ]THESE[/url] ) I've always found them to have a much lighter action than gripshift which seems to suit small hands. Failing that try [url= http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/shimano-tx50-6-speed-thumbshifter-plus-right-hand-prod15170/ ]THESE[/url] , kids seem to get on with them better than rapidfire style shifters (depends on the age though)
Having gone through several kids bikes with gears, the Shim Revoshift are a bit better than SRAM gripshift. However, the latest bike has Shim alivio trigger shift and that is the most succssful of the lot. Kids are a bit older now thuough, so a 9yr old using them.
I put 8 speed shimano rapid fire on my sons bikes in place of the grip shift. 7 speed cassettes have the same spacing as 8 speed, so it will shift over all the gears and leave a "free" click at the end that if you set the high stop on the mech, will do nothing apart from give more cable slack.
I had the same problem on my son's Isla... changed the shifter to an X3 trigger and he's never looked back.