Rapid rise -- stick or shift?

[moonlite]

When I built up my Salsa a la Carte way back when, I seized on what seemed like a very nicely priced XTR M970 derailleur, only to find that it was a Rapid Rise model when it arrived.

It's still on the bike and working nicely, but takes a while to get used to as my other bikes have standard 'high normal' shifting. It's been in my mind to replace this derailleur, but recently, on reading up about Rapid Rise, it seems as if these are an example of a good idea that died because it wasn't promoted enough. It does shift very nicely to lower gears when climbing, although I can't speak for its effectiveness with friction shifters.

Now I've got my hands on a decent RD-M952 and am in two minds as to whether it's worth swapping them out. Anyone with strong feelings either way?

 

[fettler]

I bought one BITD as it was the only decent mech left in my local shop. I removed it 2 rides later and put the old knackered mech back on. Trying to reprogram 10? years of 'correct' shifting with STI's was too much for my little swede to cope with. If you only rode the one bike then you might adjust mentally but switching between Standard and Rapid Rise setups will probably end up with with a few duff shifts at the most inconvenient time on each ride. Each to their own but I wouldn't go back, I've never really had trouble shifting up the cassette under any load/cadence anyway.

 

[benjabbi]

I have a Sachs front mech that works backwards, part of me wants to pair it with rapid rise rear mech just to mess with people who ride that bike!
Seriously though, I think it was probably a good idea to have the spring assist up to the bigger sprockets and it made the shift levers do the same thing either side i.e. thumb paddle selects a harder gear, finger trigger lower.
I suspect it died out because, like @fettler says, people couldn't (or didn't want to) get used to shifting being the 'wrong' way.
Worked OK with dual control flappy brake levers, but I think I was one of about 4 people who thought they were alright so they died too.

 

[scant]

yup, it was a good idea, but the majority didnt want to relearn which way their shifters worked, so it didnt catch on.

 

[moonlite]

I bought one BITD as it was the only decent mech left in my local shop. I removed it 2 rides later and put the old knackered mech back on. Trying to reprogram 10? years of 'correct' shifting with STI's was too much for my little swede to cope with. If you only rode the one bike then you might adjust mentally but switching between Standard and Rapid Rise setups will probably end up with with a few duff shifts at the most inconvenient time on each ride. Each to their own but I wouldn't go back, I've never really had trouble shifting up the cassette under any load/cadence anyway.

That's the problem right there -- I try to rotate my bikes and ride them all in turn so I never quite adapt to the reversed shift direction. But I feel a bit wrong about swapping out a perfectly good component which I bought new through no fault of its own. The potential replacement is older and in rougher cosmetic condition.

Then I ride it again.

 

[brocklanders023]

Didn't help that it was paired with those woeful flappy lever/shifter at first. Great idea though and I reckon the Rapid Rise XTR set up I had back in the mid to late 2000's was probably the best shifting set up I've ever had.

Depends how much you rate RR tbf, I would keep it but if you prefer normal shifters, change them.

 

[hamster]

It was useful on my tourer with bar-ends as the bar end was away from bashing my knees in low gears.

Hmm, really light shift as the spring helps the difficult upshift.
However, that means that all that resists chain tension wanting to seek a shorter route is that spring. In my experience with an XTR was that it worked beautifully until it didn't. Then it would erratically and unexpectedly upshift when riding out of the saddle.

I removed the mech and cannibalised it for bits. Never again, a fundamentally poor idea as the spring was what fought chain tension (as opposed to a locked gear cable).

 

[W7Ford]

This seems like a safe space to admit I like dual control shifters.

 

[Mod-Master]

Well rapid rise was designed for touring/xc racing.

I think the point of it was to limit finger fatigue as sometimes it’s hard to use the big paddle to shift up into a higher gear. With RR a spring helps you push that chain over the next sprocket.

Did they ever do rr front derailleurs? That would’ve helped very well as it’s very hard to shift up onto higher gears on the front

 

[al-onestare]

Hmm, really light shift as the spring helps the difficult upshift.
However, that means that all that resists chain tension wanting to seek a shorter route is that spring. In my experience with an XTR was that it worked beautifully until it didn't. Then it would erratically and unexpectedly upshift when riding out of the saddle.

I removed the mech and cannibalised it for bits. Never again, a fundamentally poor idea as the spring was what fought chain tension (as opposed to a locked gear cable).

My experiences and thoughts exactly. It was great until it wasn't and then it was a nightmare. The fundamental flaw was the spring fighting, not complementing, chain tension.