Best shifters for small hands

doublem_1

I have been looking at various different bikes and some of them in my price range come with microshifters. I have read good and bad things about these, but they don't seem friendly for people with smaller hands. I am 5'3'' and have fairly small hands so need something that will be comfortable to use.

Any help on this would be hugely helpful!

racingcondor

SRAM shifters have had a reputation for being pretty good for people with small hands and I believe Shimano make a wedge to shorten the reach of theirs.

There is more to it than just the shiter though, reach in the drops of a road bike varies with your choice of handlebar as well as shifter and the position of shifters on the bar.

alihisgreat

The Shimano DI2 hoods are smaller than normal.. feel very nice -> that's if you can afford Di2!

StillGoing

SRAM are easy to reach from the hoods or the drops with small hands and can be adjusted to bring the shift and brake lever very close to the bar.

danmitch

As racingcondor has said, I think it is as much about the bars as the shifters - I recently built a bike for my sister who is small, with 105 shifters using the included shims - what made them easy to reach and use was the Deda Elementi Speciale bar (80mm reach and 134mm drop). There are a few photos on my blog.

rolf_f

Compact bars. Campagnolo make the smallest shifters, Shimano insanely enormous ones - though there is a small version you can get but irrc they are Dura Ace level so not cheap.

lc1981

It might be worth checking out what shifters tend to be used on female-specific bikes?

StillGoing

Rolf F wrote:

Compact bars. Campagnolo make the smallest shifters, Shimano insanely enormous ones - though there is a small version you can get but irrc they are Dura Ace level so not cheap.

That must be why with my small hands I can't reach Campag shifters but can reach SRAM with ease then.