Left Handed Right Shifter 8 Speed

[Deleted member 26715]

For Christmas we bought the grandson the Wild Bikes 24" https://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/wild-bikes-24-kids-bike-p454082 it's seemed to be a great bike, nice & light(ish) but the only issue is that it's an 8 speed with the shifter on the conventional right hand side, grandson is left handed & finds changing down gears onto the bigger rings difficult. It could be that in time he'll just develop more strength in the right thumb. but wondered if there was an option to swap to a left handed shifter, had a quick search & only drive ring shifters came up. They are Shimano Tourney TX

 

[cyberknight]

i cant see an issue mounting it on the left assuming you had a long enough cable to accommodate the bend and of course it would be back to front for up/ down

 

[cyberknight]

https://www.swisswuff.ch/tech/?p=3704

 

[cyberknight]

Having looked at the bike pic i assume the shift lever is separate from the brake? i would just switch it to the other side and have it upside down

 

[fossyant]

Having looked at the bike pic i assume the shift lever is separate from the brake? i would just switch it to the other side and have it upside down

But the shifter will be above the bar, and not in the right position for the lads thumb. I'd stick with where it should be, but change the cable for a high quality shimano 'lined' outer and stainless inner - they are much smoother and lighter.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

@cyberknight Thanks but as @fossyant states simply swapping sides will make the shifter above the bars, or facing the wrong way round, either option is not suitable. If there is nothing readily available I think we'll leave it a short while as weather gets better he'll get more used to it, then we may consider the better quality cable.

 

[cyberknight]

of course it would but it could be made to work which is what i said from the outset

 

[keithmac]

My lads a "lefty", after a week or riding he got the hang of it (and finger strength) to shift without issue.

To be honest it's one of those things where there's really no left handed option.

I suppose when he's old enough to drive he's got an advantage with the gear stick!.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I am left handed and have little difference in strength between the hands. But then I used to rock climb and was ambidextrous in my early years at school. But even when young I did not have a weak right hand I was just able to do more skill full tasks with my left such as writing etc.

 

[freiston]

I reckon the best way is for him to "get used" to the conventional shifter set-up. This will make life a lot easier in the future if he keeps up with the cycling. There's no real difficulty for a left-hander to use the conventional set-up (unlike using scissors or a pen) and for most folk, there are two shifters and both hands are used anyway. A fact of life for left-handers is to have to adapt to a right-handed world. A few things benefit from left-specific equipment but for a great deal of tasks/equipment it is easier to adapt. I'm left-handed, footed and eyed. I still can't unclip/touch ground left foot first or mount/dismount from the left of the bike and I'm in my fifties now.

P.S. I use a mouse in my right hand - this was an adaptation after getting peed off with having to change around workstations before and after usage many years ago when workstations were a lot more cumbersome than now and had (often short) wired mice. I struggle with the mouse in my left hand now.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I use the mouse left handed but do not use the left handed button mode Microsoft came up with. What were they thinking?

 

[iandg]

Not sure how he's set it up but my b-i-l has front and rear shifter on the left (his right arm/shoulder damaged in a motorcycle accident) - could get him to send me a picture if it helps.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Not sure how he's set it up but my b-i-l has front and rear shifter on the left (his right arm/shoulder damaged in a motorcycle accident) - could get him to send me a picture if it helps.

Thank you but I think the conclusion is that he needs to just practise, I think part of it is it's new, he's never had gears before, thinking back he may have stopped pedalling which is automatically going to make it harder for him.

 

[iandg]

Thank you but I think the conclusion is that he needs to just practise, I think part of it is it's new, he's never had gears before, thinking back he may have stopped pedalling which is automatically going to make it harder for him.

No problem. Getting used to the rear shifters on the right will be 'easier' for him in the long term.

 

[Milkfloat]

+1 for looking at fresh cabling. For grip shift bikes, I always had to replace both the inner and outer for my kids as from the factory they were always terrible. I have not had the problem with trigger shifters, I just needed to coax my kids into using them, I often used to lean over and change up the cassette for them, leaving them to practice going down the cassette. After a while they got used to moving up the cassette too.