[nightdog]

Picked up the bike for my 10yro sonthe other day. Not very impressed with the bike so far. He has a very hard time changing gears when his hands get sweaty. They are the twist shifters on the grips. We are going to try gloves and see how that goes. Does anyone know if they will lossen up and be easier for him to shift? I was just hoping for much more bike for the money.

 

[reptilezs]

is this the one with the shimano revoshifter? they are pretty good. specialized kids bikes are built way better and much higher quality than trek kiddy bikes. these are kids bikes after all and you will be hard pressed to find a better kids bike than a specialized one for the price. i build these things everyday

 

[madbomber89]

My son rides a 2009 hotrock witht the same shifters and hasn't had any issue shifting. Try giving the the cable a little lube. Maybe the bike shop you got it from will adjust it for you. My boy loves his hotrock. It handled the rockin a and slickrock at moab. It will handle just about anything your child can through at it.

 

[Aresab]

I bought a Hotrock 20 for my 7 year old son this year, he was not working well wih the grip shiters either. I bought a Shimano MC40 trigger and 7 speed freewheel for less than $30 on Jenson. Now, he does really well.

 

[EBasil]

Our son has an 07 or 08 version of the bike with Gripshift on it, and this was the number one issue he had with the bike: being able to twist the shifters. It boils down to grip strength. Your son needs more of that and when he gets it, will be able to shift the bike. In the meantime, a set of Fox or whatnot gloves will help a little.

It's the left shifter that will give the most trouble. You might consider snagging an old thumbie off of eBay: simple fix and "heritage".

 

[nightdog]

Thanks for the comments. We picked up some gloves and he says that they help a lot. Whenever things dry up around here we’ll see how the gloves help on the trails. We rode O.P. Schnabel Park in San Antonio, TX this weekend with my brother in-law. It was my son’s first real ride on any kind of trails. He loved it and he did really well. He had one bad wipe out but handled it like a seasoned vet. He jumped right up got out of the way and laughed it off. All around the bike worked well for him minus the shifting issues. I will look into the options y’all suggested and see what works for him. I think my disappointment can be blamed on the fact that I really wanted to find him a Gromrock but couldn’t find one anywhere. That Gromrock looked sweet.