Kids 6 speed shifter recommendations?

craker

Biggest child is now OK on a 24" wheeled ATB I sourced a while back, needs a new RH shifter though.

EBay do Microshift gripshift jobbies for a paltry £6, however the little ones do find gear levers hard to operate and buying at the bottom of the market is not always the best economy.

Any recommendations?

mattrixdesign2

I changed my lads "gripshift" to Sram X3 underbar shifters, problem is they are 7sp, also the build quality is worrying, I had 2 defective ones on install, the current works well, but the window had fallen off!

I would avoid gripshift, the cheap stuff is awful, a thumb shifter would be ideal, may be a friction type, not sure where from though.

othello

You could try a shimano or SRAM 7 speed shifter and have a phantom click at one end of the range?

Otherwise, have a look on ebay for retro 6spd MTB shifters from the past. Though even then most started from 7spd.

Litchards

I would have to agree to try and avoid the bottom of the market grip shifters, they are very stiff to use and normally do not engage into the selected gears. SRAM MRX shifters are normally very good at engaging and as long as setup correctly they are not very very stiff when selecting the specified gear.

dirkpitt74

I'm looking into this too - my lads grip shift is fairly tight and he struggles with changes.

Is there no way of mking the change a bit lighter? i.e. changing a spring?

mattrixdesign2

I just think they are a poor design, changed cable inner, outers, sprayed the unit, still stiff. The perfect kids shifter would be a thumb shifter! Or under bar shifters, but my lad finds the thumb push difficult at times.