Originally Posted by
mstateglfr
Why would the window for teaching him close? It takes a long time for kids to understand shifting and how complex gearing and pullys affect speed and effort.
Once they understand shifting while riding, then you start all over with reminding them to shift before coming to a stop so its easy to get started again.
I ride with 20-50 kids multiple times a week for 5 months of the year. These are 12-17 year olds and it takes them probably 50mi of riding to understand shifting. This is actual road riding with hills. Even then, they dont understand the intricacies of shifting, they just know to get the chain close to the bike for hills and away from the bike for flat.
A lot of adults on paths dont have shifting down.
Just sayin- an 8 year old has a lot of time to learn how to use gears.
Oh, and swapping twist shift for trigger shifters is huge. twist shifters are the devil for little hands.
Fair enough. I guess I was thinking about getting him off to a good start while he was so enthusiastic about having gears. I know you're right concerning time to truly understand shifting. My wife, who has been riding for years, admitted that she was learning from what I was teaching our son.
Right now we've got the twist shifter working, but I like the idea of the trigger shifters. As I replied on the other thread, I am trying to figure out compatibility. On the bike he has, it just says "Power" on the grips and "Power Index System" on the derailleurs.