Help with grip shift

[mickd]

I just got my son a new bike that came with grip shifter's. He says they are to hard to turn as you progress from 1st up towards 6th. It's easy coming down from 6th to 1st.
It's only a rear derailleur with Shimano SIS 6 speed printed on it. The grip shift is generic.(doesn't shay shimano or anything)

Is there an adjustment to ease up the force required to turn the grip to upshift?

Thanks

Todd

 

[alfeng]

I just got my son a new bike that came with grip shifter's. He says they are to hard to turn as you progress from 1st up towards 6th. It's easy coming down from 6th to 1st.
It's only a rear derailleur with Shimano SIS 6 speed printed on it. The grip shift is generic.(doesn't shay shimano or anything)

Is there an adjustment to ease up the force required to turn the grip to upshift?

No, there is no adjustment, per se ...

Compared with OTHER shifters, a Gripshift will probably feel very difficult for a younger rider to shift ... which is one reason that I suppose some people don't like them -- personally, I still prefer Gripshifts (one of the good things SRAM designed ... Shimano did license the design from SRAM for a couple of years, but I don't think they make any gripshifts, now).

What you can do to ensure the shifting is as 'light' as possible is to lube the rear derailleur cable (you want to do this for ALL the cables, BTW; so, that means the brake cables, too) -- you can lube the cable by putting a dab of Vaseline (generic petroleum jelly is just as good, or better) between your thumb & whichever finger tip you want, and run the cable through your finger tips to apply a very, VERY THIN coat of the Vaseline to the portions of the cable that travel inside the portions of cable housing ...

Of course, that means that you will need to detach the cable from the derailleur AND eventually reattach it ... put the chain on the smallest cog, first! Skill level is 1-out-of-5, but I suppose you could botch it if you're having a bad day.

ANOTHER thing you can do is to increase the diameter of the "grip" portion of the shifter and thereby provide more leverage -- initially, you can just take a short piece of pipe insulation [about 1" long] & slide/(sheath) it over the shifting collar ... I don't know if you would need to secure the pipe insulation, or not, OR if gripping it will provide a secure enough contact ... if you do need something to bond the pipe insulation to the shifter, then I would suggest you do it with some adhesive tub-and-tile CAULK after (definitely, NOT BEFORE) you determine that it will help & that the diameter isn't too large for his hands ... three dabs of the adhesive caulk are probably enough because you probably only need it to keep the pipe insulation from sliding off of (away from) the shifting collar.

Of course, you could wrap the "grip" with some handlebar wrap or other 'thick' material.

ANOTHER option would include changing the handlebars to the type used on vintage balloon tire bikes so the WRIST ANGLE is at a 'stronger' position (i.e., closer to ~45º).

Perhaps, the 'final'/(last resort!?!) alternative is to change the rear derailleur to a Shimano RAPID RISE (type) rear derailleur which has a "reverse" pull. There will still be force that needs to be overcome when shifting, but it will be in the other direction -- he will encounter more shifting effort when he wants to pedal harder (over the same terrain, that is).

 

[arashb]

I just got my son a new bike that came with grip shifter's. He says they are to hard to turn as you progress from 1st up towards 6th. It's easy coming down from 6th to 1st.
It's only a rear derailleur with Shimano SIS 6 speed printed on it. The grip shift is generic.(doesn't shay shimano or anything)

Is there an adjustment to ease up the force required to turn the grip to upshift?

Thanks

Todd

Yes, there is an adjustment. My son had a similar issue with a similar-sounding shifter (Shimano SIS 7 speed) on a Trek 230. It was unfortunate that I look the shifter all apart before discovering that it is adjustable.

The grip shifter on my son's bike is black with a red ring in middle of it. Look at the shifter from underneath, that is, put your head on the ground and look up at the shifter. Right next to the red ring, you will see the words "easy.....hard." Then is an arrow on the red-ring pointing somewhere in this range. As you turn the red ring its arrow moves towards the "easy," shifting becomes easier and easier.

Good luck turning this red ring. I had to pull out the rubber on the handle bar and the shifter.

 

[arashb]

I just got my son a new bike that came with grip shifter's. He says they are to hard to turn as you progress from 1st up towards 6th. It's easy coming down from 6th to 1st.
It's only a rear derailleur with Shimano SIS 6 speed printed on it. The grip shift is generic.(doesn't shay shimano or anything)

Is there an adjustment to ease up the force required to turn the grip to upshift?

Thanks

Todd

The grip shifters maybe adjustable!

My son had a similar issue with a similar-sounding derailleur (Shimano SIS 7 speed) on a Trek 230. The grip shifters are black with a red-stripe in the middle. That red stripe is actually a ring that rotates a few notches to make shifting easy/hard.

Try this: look at on the bottom of the grip shifter, that is, put your head on the ground and look up at the handle bars. If you the words "easy...hard" on the shifter and an arrow on the red-ring, then you are in luck. Simply turn the red-ring. You may need to remove/losten the rubber grip on the handle/shifter to do this. Good luck.