Anything better than gripshift for kids?

My 6 year old is struggling with the revoshift twist shifters on her bike – are there any decent alternatives? Thinking about thumbies or triggers but guess reach is the problem for smaller hands.

(It’s 6 speed by the way – but if needed I guess I could get a 7 speed freewheel to get the right shifter…)

I swapped gripshift for some regular shimano trigger shifters on my 6yo’s bike and he much prefers them. The gear indicator is also easier to read and understand so I can call out gear numbers to help him remember to shift into 1 for hills for example.

Gripshift is the work of the devil for kids. I was quite vocal about it a few years ago when my kids were little.

Isla bikes are the worst gripshift enthusiasts (or at least they were a couple of years back.

ANY trigger system is better for kids. I found SRAM X4 to be good for littler hands. Just play about with the angle of the mount so they can press the ‘big’ button with their thumbs well.

If they are tried, cold, wet etc then I still think triggers are better, my daughter used to get into easier gears with the palm of her hand; whereas gripshift just is impossible to turn in similar conditions.

Thumbshifter also good – they can grab it with their whole hand if needed.

Thanks all. I’ll start shopping for triggers 😎

Singlespeed?

shimano Altus , excellent value for money .

Shimano Tourney. These are much easier to use than gripshift. I replaced on my nieces bike. They have. Pretty light action.

https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Shimano-Tourney-TX50-Thumb-Shifter_33594.htm?sku=121966&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=google_shopping&mkwid=sGl1PFcKx_dm%7Cpcrid%7C77920712813%7Cproduct%7C121966%7C&pgrid=20395410653&ptaid=pla-80838945533&gclid=CjwKCAjwt7PcBRBbEiwAfwfVGGtDdKIYv0VxdEMNDrKek-zOxLC2NJmx7ddoN8XkWdY6dfQWS0_l7RoCNyAQAvD_BwE

https://www.retrowow.co.uk/retro_collectibles/70s/raleigh_chopper.html

I’ve just got this for my lads new bike, didn’t even show him grip shift. Unfortunately it’s gone up I paid £8 like 10 days ago

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EXU0WBK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_nizJBbTZJVVEK</span&gt;

As above.  Swapped my 7 year olds gripshift to trigger.  She tried it then asked (with a look of distain) why she had been forced to use those horrible shifters for so long!

Grip shifters are not good … Trigger style shifters be it sram or shimano are much easier to use.

Voice of descent here, sorry.

I imposed a trigger shifter (9 speed LX) on my daughter when she was 7 and she really didn’t get on with it, instead of just refitting the old revo-shifter though I fitted a SRAM gripshifter (Rocket) which was definitely easier for her to operate.

When it came time for a 24″ bike I asked her what she would like, and let her try the various clicky things on my bikes, she still wanted gripshift, this time I fitted an all SRAM drivetrain, the lower cable pull ratio definitely requires less force to move it which is a pretty major benefit for smaller handed people.

So (IMO/IME) yes ‘Revoshift’ are toss, but SRAM gripshift are a better and more viable option for kids, and most importantly actually ask your kids what they would prefer to use…

I think triggers are much easier, once they have enough power and movement in their thumb…

My 8 year old took about 5 minutes to tell me he much preferred triggers, but my 5 year old is struggling a bit with them, just pushing the downshift lever far enough to engage a change.  I’m going to give it another week or two before I get him some thumbies or Gripshift.

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>My daughter loved the SRAM grip shift on her 20″ bike and my lad hated the Revo on his 20″ bike.</span>

I got a SRAM grip shift off Amazon for about £7 not too long back to replace one on a friends kids bike .

+1 swapped the gripshifts on the islabikes to rapidfires almost immediately. Girls got to ‘grips’ with them pretty much immediately.

Are you lot fitting front shifters or staying with 1x?

My daughter now wants 3x after seeing it on her sister’s bike.

Are you lot fitting front shifters or staying with 1x?

1x all the way – for kids mountain bikes, there’s really no reason to have the huge range that a 3x setup offers. Just make sure they are geared nice and low.

Regarding Gripshift, I think only Islabikes seem to still insist on it for their kids bikes and while I adore their bikes, they couldn’t be more wrong with their choice of shifter. SRAM gripshifts are just about acceptable when new from the factory, but after a few months of use, stiffen noticably. Chuck in some wet hands (kids do like to ride in the rain!) and you’ll find that you get very good at the “dad-shift”, leaning over to change gear for them when they can’t do it.

We kept it on the early Beinn 20s for the first 6 months until it was obvious that the kids were sutrggling and then ditched for the equivalent SRAM thumb shifter (£10 + new grips) and the improvement was immediately noticeable. Subsequent Islabikes were swapped for thumb shifters before they were even ridden for the first time and, when resold, most buyers seemed very grateful that they had been swapped!

Mine were happy on either. But the gripshift can be stiff so we flushed it out and used a light oil instead and it made a big difference to the feel. Keep on top of cable replacements too to keep the action light. So its more of a faff, but once done and the action is light it’s fine.

But the gripshift can be stiff so we flushed it out and used a light oil instead and it made a big difference to the feel.

Yup, did this and one wet and filthy ride later and it was back to unusable again. I found that I was spending more time faffing with the gripshifts than I was doing all of our other bike maintenance combined, which incidentally also reflected my experience of the damn things in the mid-90s when I used to ride X-Rays. (Back then, I was a skint student, so had a legitimate reason to do so!)

My 3 kids all have twist shifters

8 year old has a 6 speed RevoShift

10 year and 12 year old have 7 speed GripShift,

Never had any complaints, until I replaced the worn out GripShift on the eldest’s bike with a SRAM X3 trigger shifter and was asked to change it back because they weren’t strong  enough (due to hypermobile joints ) to actuate the shifts.

I hate  gripshift but my fingers are strong enough and generate enough throw to acuate a trigger shifter which has been designed for <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>adult sized hands</span>. I think kids get on better with twist shifters as they have enough grip strength and range of motion in their hands already from holding on to the handlebars

My 6 year old couldn’t operate the thumb level on trigger shifters as teh level throw was too long for her to reach.  She can easily operate the 6speed revoshift shifter she has (Aged 6 on 20″ wheels).

I thought triggers would be loads better based on comments on here and my preference, but it turned out twist shifters were the better option.

Maybe a thorough clean/lube/recabling of the shifters would help?

My 6 year old couldn’t operate the thumb level on trigger shifters as teh level throw was too long for her to reach.  She can easily operate the 6speed revoshift shifter she has (Aged 6 on 20″ wheels).

If you hadn’t already tried it, we found that the shifters need to mount quite differently from how an adult would use them. When my son was that age, his were mounted almost vertically – i.e. he was pushing down to shift, not forwards. This has the advantage of reducing the travel for the child’s thumb and also giving them more leverage to operate the lever, albeit at a cost of some ergonomics.

I don’t have any really good pictures (this bike is long gone!) but hopefully this gives some idea of how we set it up on his last Islabike when he was a bit older and didn’t need them quite so steeply mounted: