Gear change on a Luath 24, Bar end Shifters?

paulintheforest

My daughter has just moved up from an Islabike Beinn 20 to the Luath 24, at 6 1/2 she is tall enough and has the reach except for changing gears. The STI shifters need to go at an angle of about 45 degrees to change and she just does not have the reach. I was wondering about putting a bar end shifter on for now, but wondered if anyone has done this? I am wondering about
1, Will a standard adult shifter fit in the bar ends of the Luath 24?
2, Are bar end shifters allowed in racing? She has done a little crit racing and wants the 24" to be competitive, but she needs to be able to change gears so I thought this might be a solution.

Any advice or tips would be appreciated.

othello

paulintheforest wrote:

My daughter has just moved up from an Islabike Beinn 20 to the Luath 24, at 6 1/2 she is tall enough and has the reach except for changing gears. The STI shifters need to go at an angle of about 45 degrees to change and she just does not have the reach. I was wondering about putting a bar end shifter on for now, but wondered if anyone has done this? I am wondering about
1, Will a standard adult shifter fit in the bar ends of the Luath 24?
2, Are bar end shifters allowed in racing? She has done a little crit racing and wants the 24" to be competitive, but she needs to be able to change gears so I thought this might be a solution.

Any advice or tips would be appreciated.

My daughter was a similar age when she moved to a Luath 24 and she has struggled with the levers. What I did was encourage her to only change one cog at a time. Yes, you can change multiple cogs by pushing the lever right across, but a single cog change doesn't need the full throw of the lever. This also made them think a bit more about gear changes in advance, rather than hitting a slope, being in too high a gear and trying to change to a low gear instantly!

Both my children only really change from the hoods -- they really struggle to change when on the drops. Thats fine.

A bar end shifter would be fine for racing. I don't think there is anything in the BC regs to stop that. You will need to find a matching Tektro right hand brake lever, unless you want to keep the current lever.

Mike Healey

May be teaching granny to suck eggs, but have you tried moving the saddle forward to its maximum extent? We've tried that with some of our Luaths when kids have moved up a size and that has solved the "reach" problem in some cases.

paulintheforest

Thanks for the responses.

I just checked the saddle and it's already as far forward as it can go.

To be honest she doesn't fit quite yet, she's a bit under on the height chart and needs to grow another 3-4 cms to fit it. I only got it now as it came up on Ebay at the right price and location. I'll see how she gets on over the next couple of months, there isn't another race in Cat E locally until June so she has a bit of time to grow in size and confidence. I was mainly thinking of the change in shifter as I need to do the bar tape now anyway so it was the best time to do it. I'll see how she gets on as her confidence on the bike grows.

thanks

baudman

paulintheforest wrote:

I just checked the saddle and it's already as far forward as it can go.

Most seatposts have an element of 'set-back' - in that, at the top of the seatpost, the mount itself is not 'central' on the post, but aligned towards the rear of the bike. Check to see if you can't spin the whole thing around so that it's set 'forward' - although some won't allow it because it won't have the angle correct when oriented that way. If it does, however, that can negate your reach problem until they grow a bit.


ByK e540x16 (with saddle 'set forward' as opposed to 'set back') by baudman , on Flickr

Mike Healey

Alternatively, pop down to the local garden centre, buy a grow-bag and replace her mattress with it.