Help! Impossibly small hands!

[Roadtrip]

It's a Trek Pure with SRAM MRX "Twist" shifters... me don't like due to size and acerbated by my larger hands... tho I think I know why... see below.

It's not necessarily the twist shifter itself (even tho I prefer the standard type shifter), it's the crappy setup to begin with. OK, they prob ASSUME your on this bike and most likely not doing to be shifting much. WHY give you 21 gears if they assume you won't be changing.

Honestly, I'm not sure what part I've been having issues with... I hate the shifters. Trek seems to have put the cheaper version on this bike. the version I find on Amazon looks totally different-- better-- longer "grip" portion. Plus the shifter for rear derailleur still has seven or eight "clicks" even tho it's a triple in the back-- so-- click-- click-- click-- ok-- I'm finally there. It's like they got an overstock on right shifters and someone in accounting said use then, just change display 1-7 to 1-3. In order to go into my big gear for flats I have to mash the thing well above "1" in order to get it to change gear.

Rear derailleur is a Shimano Acera that seems to need constant tweaking and last night nearly killed me on a hilly ride when it WOULD NOT let me change down a gear. Not to mention it often likes to buck me so hard it has more then once threw my right foot right off the right pedal when changing gear.

Ended up riding as far as I could and felt like I was going to cough up a lung-- ended up pushing my bike up the last hill. Enough to make you want to leave the bike at the side of the road and just walk. Nothing like grinding away at JUST barely faster then you can walk because when you try and shift all you here is grrrrr grrrrrr grrrrrrr and chain stays right where it was.

Really need to learn how to make these adjustments myself.

Sorry for the rant!!

Shannon

[OakLeaf]

@colorisnt, what about putting extra padding on your bars rather than trying to find padded gloves? Grab-Ons or a second layer of cork might help you out, particularly if gloves don't fit well.

@Roadtrip, the rear shifter is that way on purpose, so you can trim. Trimming is especially important with a wide gear range. Sheldon Brown and Park Tool have pretty much everything you need to know about maintenance and repairs, and Shimano's own website has technical documents for most of their products. Sounds like your RD cable is just in need of a serious tightening (try the barrel adjuster first, but if it's so far off that it won't shift off the small cog, you'll probably have to reposition the cable in the clamp).

[colorisnt]

Oak,

That is a great idea.

Also, my parents, noting the rough week I had with students and my stress over gloves sent me some nice Cabela's gloves. They actually FIT and I think what I will do is take your advice as well as wear my lightest cycling gloves under. I also bought a lighter pair from nashbar for the "cool" days. So, despite my awful migraines, I am happy to have gloves.

MY Cabela's order also arrived and I got a baselayer, softshell jacket, fleece wind resistant pants, and rain pants for under $100.00. So, if you need some quality basics, may be worth looking into the "bargain cave". I am sure Dad got the gloves with his "cabela's points" (we spend WAY too much at that store as a family).

I can't wait to do BikeMO tomorrow! I now have a pair of pants to wear there OVER my shorts and back home so people don't stair at me in my race wear haha!