I have a colleague who is suffering from arthritis in both hands that means that, while she can still grip the bar ok and operate the brakes, she has very little ability to push with either of her thumbs. Sadly, this means that at the moment, she can’t really ride her mountain bike so she’s asked me for advice and I, not having any real clue, turn to the more knowledgeable Singletrack collective mind for assistance.

FYI, we’d already considered a couple of the more obvious ideas:

1. Gripshift – I suppose this is the easiest, but she thinks that she’ll struggle to grip the bar tightly enough to get enough friction to operate the shifters. Having been through this with Islabikes when my kids were younger, I feel she may have a point here.

2. DI2 – This is probably the most obvious solution, but it would need a big chunk of cash spending on her bike just to bring it to the point where she could actually use an 11 speed groupset, so at the moment it’s not looking very appealing.

Can anyone suggest any other options that might help her out?

singlespeed?

My sympathies, hadn’t really thought how thumb dependent we mtbers are.  Maybe some friction shifter and slippy cables?

singlespeed?

Sometimes it’s so easy to overlook the simplest answer 🙂

I’m not sure it’ll suit her, but it’s one for the mix for sure.

What about a bar end shifter rigged up in a way that she can use fingers to adjust it? Seen it on drop bars a few times (genevalle?) but it can probably be done for flat bars too?

Di2 shifters perform exactly the same as mechanical but are a tough lighter to operate.
I think gripshift is the way forward.

1. Gripshift – I suppose this is the easiest, but she thinks that she’ll struggle to grip the bar tightly enough to get enough friction to operate the shifters. Having been through this with Islabikes when my kids were younger, I feel she may have a point here.

SRAM X9/XO is very light in the 10sp, 11 is similar, if she is back on 9sp then it can be had for peanuts. I used to roll the GX11sp and XO 10sp with my hand. I went grip after breaking bones around my thumbs

This is all great advice people. Thanks!

I have arthritic thumbs especially on my right hand.  Not badly but I have weak grip and pain if I use the thumb a lot.  ~Trigger shifters are painful for me to use.   I use Sram rocket twist shifters.  Much better made and lighter to use than gripshift as we remember it.  My bike is 9 speed and sram rockets are oddly the right ratio for shimano 9 spd  gears.  My other bikes are single speed or hub gears – both hub gear bikes use twisties as well – alfine using a nexus twistie and rohloff

Could SRAM thumb only shifters be used the wrong way round? So all the clicking is done with the index finger?

Raleigh Chopper Stick shifter?

Not entirely a joke answer – I seen to recall that some were connected to 5 speed derailleurs.

would take some modification but Im sure someone here would relish the challenge 🙂

There is one on ebay for £17!

Convert to X01 – Personally I think this would be super cool – almost sub zero

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Raleigh-chopper-mk2-Gear-shifter-base-leaver-knob-Originals-in-very-good-conditi/132501597347?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D48421%26meid%3D75526de1a8474b6f944a9bbb92c48921%26pid%3D100011%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D282490511783%26itm%3D132501597347&_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850

Perhaps mount the shifter upside down so it is on top of the bar like a two lever thumb shifter, she could then use her whole hand to shift.  might need to swap left to right as well.  this assumes she is ok pressing the lighter click down lever.

My bike is 9 speed and sram rockets are oddly the right ratio for shimano 9 spd  gears.

SRAM used to always produce two versions of their shifters – the ‘numbered’ ones used their own pull ratio, the ‘named’ ones Shimano – so Rocket would always have been designed to work with Shimano derailleurs.

This was in the days when Shimano were hugely dominant and SRAM wanted to get their shifters OEM specced on bikes using mixed groupset components.

How about searching out a dual control setup, assuming the bike is 3×9? No thumbs needed for them.

Thumbshifters.

Ten speed shimano road bar end shifter shoved in the end of the bars the older version can be set to friction so will work with any rear mech. Might need a bit of bogging with the cable

daern – if you are anywhere near me ( Edinburgh) you could borrow mrs TJs bike – med ladies with sram rocket twisties to try out to see if it works for your colleague.

I thought the deore lx and may be later versions had 2 way thumbshifters so rather than push with your thumb you could push with your fingers from the other side of the bar. I am not entirely sure if i am remembering this correctly or if i have just made this up. I am sure somebody more informed than me can confirm if i have totally lost it.

Have you thought about ergon grips. I’m assuming your friend can wrap her thumbs around the bars, if her grip isnt brilliant these are really good as they spread the weight over the palm.

edit: dont think they will work with gripshift if you go down that route.

Rohloff?
Has a very light touch on the grip shift as the two cables are push/pull.

My own thumbs get sore and have been usein grip shirt for years. The High end ones work very well and are worlds away from the tat on kids bikes

But Ive just built my new stumpy with 1×11 di2 and it’s amazing. Mines set up with one little button on each side of the bar and only a light click makes it work.

If she’s happy with 3×9 you might be able to find some of those odd combined mountain bike brake/gear levers that Shimano brought out for a season (I think that you shifted by pushing and pulling the brake lever up and down). They didn’t catch and might be hard to find, but might just work in this situation.

— Edit —

adam1330 got there first!

Have you thought about ergon grips. I’m assuming your friend can wrap her thumbs around the bars, if her grip isnt brilliant these are really good as they spread the weight over the palm.

edit: dont think they will work with gripshift if you go down that route.

Ergon do 3 versions of their grips, standard, gripshift and Rohloff/Nexus versions so she should have all bases covered.

How about a jar opener mounted on grip shifters with cable ties and self amalgamating tape? On wide bars these could be placed at the end of the bars rather like bar ends, but with which you could change gear with your hand, keeping then out of the way of the brakes.

https://www.completecareshop.co.uk/kitchen-aids/bottle-and-jar-openers/universal-jar-and-bottle-opener

Shimano dual control shifter brake combo where the shifter is the lever (like road bikes) so she can shift bith up and fown with her fingers..

https://thebicycleplanet.com/articles/how-to-shift-shimano-dual-control-pg1013.htm

There are cheaper on ebay

https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/PAIR-SHIMANO-M975-XTR-DUAL-CONTROL-HYDRAULIC-GEAR-SHIFTERS-BRAKE-LEVER-27-SPEED/391940676713?hash=item5b417c1c69:g:JtIAAOSwUchaJ~lt

We have had this problem all the time at our accessible cycle group. Probably the best and cheapest option that we have found is to use a Nexus hub in conjunction with the ST-7S20 Nexus shifter.

The shift lever is on a rocker so that it can be operated either way with an arm, elbow, stump, prosthetic, ect. Has a really light action too.

If mounted as in  the picture but more level with the bars, you can just use the heel of the hand to knock it sideways or down without taking your hand from the bar.

HI
I have snapped my UCL twice on the same hand . Its the tendon that gives the thumb alot of its grip strength . I bought a road bike as the flight deck shifting could be done with 2 or 3 fingers and less pressure than a thumby shifter.
As above , the Shimano combined brake /shifter combo might work for a while. There might be an option to 1 x 10 or 11 if she has one hand stronger / less painful than the other , just get a Euro shifter .
I might have to get my thumb fused as the surgeon reckkons it will go arthritic eventually. Maybe keeping on top maintenenace and full legth cables to make shfiting easier will help. Or Rohlof/ nexus as they are light in use with new cables

My dad has this problem and suffered with using thumb shifters to the point he stopped riding.

He went back (30 year lay off) to a drop barred bike and hasn’t looked back. Seems like even with dodgy thumbs the drop bar Tiagra shifters are fine for him. Could be an option if your colleague is more into gravel type stuff than mtb.

^^^^^^^^^

You could go all retro but with modern road bike hydro discs.

Sort of monster cross and some

Some wacky ideas just to avoid the good solution 😉

Bar end shifters can be used on flat bars with an adapter to turn them into a thumbshifter (misnomer, can be used without thumbs)

st john st cycles do several different kinds, depending on which bar end shifter you have, i used dura ace 10speed with pauls adapter, bit pricey but works superbly. I use a 9spd mech with it, on a 10spd cassette.

i went this route because I already owned the shifters.

I would try the (potentially) easiest option first and try grip shift as mentioned a few times. 👍

Sounds like she is running 9/10 speed so will be pretty cheap to get parts too.

Could do 1x 10 wide range cassette (Might need new mech) so only need one gripshift then.

I’ve almost always used gripshift right from the X Ray days. Very under rated as gripshift  just isn’t in fashion these days which is a shame.

Sometimes one despairs at the cynicism that is so often seen in online communities these days (even here, it must be said!) and then I wake this morning and read all of the comments above that you’ve all taken time to write for my friend and it makes you remember that we’re all just a bunch of friendly, mud-loving bikers who want to help out a fellow rider in difficulty. Thank you all so much!

Thank you also for the offers of bikes to test. We’re located in West Yorkshire, so it’s a bit far to travel but the offer is very much appreciated.

There are some great ideas above and we’ll investigate all of them. I’d quite forgotten about Shimano’s ill-fated experiment in combined controls, so we’ll certainly take a look at them, even though they’re pretty expensive these days. The various Rohloff and Nexus suggestions are also interesting, albeit probably more expensive and inconvenient to retrofit. I also like the bar-end shifter conversions and I’ll look into this too. That said, I think the gripshift option is probably the one with most legs, being both cheap and easy to test and I suspect this will be the first one to try.

.. even though they’re pretty expensive these days.

If you did want to try the dual controls, there’s a pair of new M585 dual control levers on Ebay for £55 plus postage, but I reckon if you put something in the Wanted classifieds on here someone would have some lying around.

Also, if you buy stuff to try via ebay, it can be resold if it doesn’t work out for her.

What about swapping the shifters over, so the rear is on the left, with the buttons still under the bars but facing forwards rather than backwards? Not sure if it would end up in a workable position, but maybe worth a shot.

I have those Paul’s components adapters to convert bar-end shifters to thumbshifters.  You can operate them with your palm if you want, no thumbs required.  Not sure if they are still available mind.  Mine are for 3×9.

I’d part with my set but I am still using them.  At some point I’ll go 1×11 and they’ll be liberated.  I suppose I could maybe switch to a cheaper 1×11 group or go s/h but I am a bit skint.

TomD mentioned drop bars, how about some swept back ‘gravel’ style bars with regular STI shifters? they’d also give a wider variety of hand position that could help.

Molgrips, they’re still available, i got mine from brick lane bikes back in October.

We spent a bit of time talking about drop bars (she also rides a road bike) but she struggles with the brakes on her road bike now (didn’t have chance to go into more detail as to why) even though she can operate the gears fine. For that bike the solution was simpler – a set of top levers and some thicker bar-tape to give her a bit more padding on her hands.

I’m amazed the Paul’s Components are still going (didn’t they do a bonkers groupset in the 1990s?) but their thumb adapters are an interesting option. Bloody expensive things for what they are though.