girps for kids hands

[bkwilson]

Hi All,

I'm looking for some advice.

I got my girls a couple of byK bicycles for their birthdays and they have been received very well. The only issue I have is with the grips. The outer diameter is quite large (larger than the grips on my own bikes). My youngest has trouble wrapping her hand around them securely and the older has trouble reaching for the brakes.

I was wondering if anyone else has had this experience and what they have tried.

I was thinking of replacing the grips with bar tape to reduce the overall outer diameter.

Thoughts? suggestions?

Cheers,

Brian

[Tamiya]

Brake levers should have a setscrew that'll bring in the end stop to reduce the reach needed.

Yeah pull off the grips and get the little fingers around the bare bar then work out how much padding you need to add. Proper bar tape ain't cheap I've been known to wrap tennis racquet grip tape 2-3 layers worth as I've got plenty in the sports bag - works well enough. Thickness can be tuned by how much overlap etc etc.

Used to Bung in a bottlecap (whiskey cork works well) in bar end for safety; although these days corks are getting hard to find so I've moved on to 3D printing.

[Tamiya]

btw if you don't like spiral wrapping think of covering with sections of old inner tube for daggy style, or buy some cricket bat grip rubber - does same thing, comes in colours other than black.

At one point a few hrs ago even tried those loomband rubberbands they go over bare bar ok, but they didn't last long out in the UV, a week or 2 in the sun and they've all perished.

[bkwilson]

Thanks Tamiya,

I have wound in the limit screws and that does improve the reach for the six year old. The four year old has some growing to do and will have to rely on the coaster brake

I think I will try the bar tape for my youngest. If I can reduce the diameter a bit she should have a more secure hold of the handle bars.

I was a bit surprised that a bike specifically designed for children would have grips with a larger diameter than adult bikes!

Cheers,
Brian

[Mububban]

That's interesting. I just checked the ~2015 model e450 in the spare room, and its grips are perfectly normal/slim compared to the other kids and adults bikes we have. Disappointing if they switched to fatter handlebars or grips?!?

[bkwilson]

I dropped into 99 bikes this morning and they had kids grips which were much slimmer for $7 so I will try those out