0

0 items

No products in the cart.

Return to Shop

Consumer Watch – Problem Kids Shifters

I am strongly recommending not to buy any bike with SunRace twist-style shifters, which are found mostly on kids bikes.  I have come across these multiple times and every time they are incredibly hard to shift.   So hard that kids are unable to shift the bike at all.  At first I thought the problem was related to cable friction or friction with the abutting rubber hand grip.  However the problem is these shifters have a design flaw and do not provide sufficient cable pull leverage with the rear derailleur.

I have encountered these shifters multiple times now on the Diamond Back Tess 20  and 24 bike, which is a popular kids bike from Sports Authority, Dicks Sporting Goods, some REI stores, and other retailers.

I recently replaced the SunRace shifters with a Shimano Revo shifter with great success.  The Revo shifters provide the necessary leverage to operate the derailleur and allow kids to use their gears.  Call me for great pricing on the Revo shifter and installation.

I now must also include Microshift twist style shifters as well.  Although these aere not as hard to shift as SunRace, they are still too difficult for most kids, or at the very least kids will shift a lot less and enjoy the bike and ride less from them.

Comments

  1. Loren

    I have the Diamondback bike you mentioned in the “Consumer Watch – Problem Kids Shifters” article and the same problem as detailed with the shifter. I saw that you mentioned the revo shifter as a replacement, which is also a grip shifter I think. Could you recommend a good trigger shifter replacement or do you sell any type of good replacement, be that a grip or trigger shifter? I have the Sram impulse shifters on my bike and I like them. I don’t know much about the mechanics of everything but I am good at putting everything together as long as I have the right parts. What I don’t know is how compatible the cables, cable location, derailer, and cassette are with different shifters.

    Thank you

Comments are closed.

Skip to content