When I say easiest I mean requires less force my lad is 11 and sometimes his Alivo is hard to shift.

Going 1x and trying to decide between SLX and SRAM NX. Any advice welcome. Thanks.

I’ve asked a similar question below. My lad is 8 and can use deore shifter but not sram gripshift properly

my kids never struggled with srm grip shift though i was able to get X0 at cheap prices

they found grip easier than triggers when younger

Nx is lighter than slx. In fact nx probably the lightest of all the 11spd shifts.

My lads stuff is older low end spam but it’s very stiff

Have you tried new inners and outers before replacing the whole lot? Can make a surprising difference.

NX on my 2nd bike and very light shift action my other bike has x01 and would say even lighter than that, (NX uses type 3 clutch) it could be that.

SRAM 11sp is easier than my old XT, go for it. Lucky kid – Remember getting dumped with a Shimano Tourney as a kid grrrrrr.

Might give new cables a bash, do sram use same inners as shimano, I’ve never used sram
Thanks

Yep, same inners.

I adapted my daughters gripshift by adding an old Onza bar end and attaching with an exhaust clamp to make a big lever to twist it.

But you could use anything (broom handle, pan handle, etc) just add a lever to make it easy

Stop being a cheapskate: http://bike.shimano.com/content/sac-bike/en/home/components11/mountain/xt-di2.html

😉

My boy’s just got a new bike and we had the gripshift changed to rapidfire.
He really struggled with the gripshift on his old bike and I’d changed all the cables and even fully stripped the shifter.
I think it’s an Alivio shifter on the new bike and he’s fine with it. He’s 9.

When replacing cables… Don’t bother with anything other than genuine Shimano SP41 for the outer IMO, anything else just degrades in shift quality far too quickly. Also make the cable runs as straight as you can, any unnecessary bends will affect shift quality. Use a good quality slick inner, preferably a 1.1 rather than 1.2, and decent sealed ferrules too.

I’ve had customers with XTR wonder why their shifting felt crap, and shown them how good Deore can feel with brand new cables. Then replaced the cables on their XTR and blown them out of the water!

To answer your original question though… SRAM NX will have the lighter shift action. But the cables are still the most important thing to shift quality.

Cheers all for my question

Thanks guys I’m going to get the NX for him seems like a good deal at 250 online.

my eldest (6) has been running saint shifter to zee rear mech for a year, no problem.
I will use this same setup again on his younger brothers bike when I can get a freehubbed wheel to replace the freewheel one.
120quid, saint, zee mech and xt11-32.

The upside of NX is that you can get shorter cranks at 155mm.. which you should seriously consider.