Originally Posted by WhyFi

A question for the wrenches - the Shimano 7-speed grip shifter on the boy's new bike gets progressively harder to turn as you go up the cluster, so much so that he's unable to shift to the four largest cogs. Other than checking for something that might be increasing cable friction (kinks in the housing, etc), is there anything that I could do to make shifting easier for him? If nothing else, would replacing the grip shifter with a thumb shifter make things easier? TIA.