Rapid rise -- stick or shift?

[brocklanders023]

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

As a huge fan of Rapid Rise, that my be pushing things a little too far tbh, tbf.

 

[PeterPerfect]

If you're riding more than one bike with conventional shifting then you'll never get used to rapid rise.

I prefer it tbh as I have it on the only bike I can now comfortably ride which is my Koga Miyata Balance. I've modified it somewhat but essentially it's pretty much standard.

If you're doing more time and miles on bikes with conventional shifting, I think it's a question of muscle memory more than the ability of the gearing system.

 

[moonlite]

If you're riding more than one bike with conventional shifting then you'll never get used to rapid rise.

I prefer it tbh as I have it on the only bike I can now comfortably ride which is my Koga Miyata Balance. I've modified it somewhat but essentially it's pretty much standard.

If you're doing more time and miles on bikes with conventional shifting, I think it's a question of muscle memory more than the ability of the gearing system.

Yep, this is the current situation. It's become a disincentive to take the bike out and ride it. If I can find a 9-speed derailleur in good nick I'll do the surgery.

 

[Retrorockit]

Hi, I;m new to this forum but not to Rapid Rise. I've been running it for about 20 years now. Still discovering things about it.
I like Rapid Rise for street (not road) riding because if you get jammed up in traffic you can dump a bunch of gears when stopped instead of taking off in high gear. This mostly applies to 1x bikes, because front derailers are low normal and you can dump gears there. This requires a gripshifter so you can change as many gears as you want. So commuter bikes, DH bikes, and a lot of others used it. Shimano Revoshifters were available in 7/8 speeds, but I've never seem any in 9. The Shimano stuff shifts backwards too. The 8 speed stuff is ultra rare now.
I've run SRAM Gripshifts. But the spring load is backwards to the derailer, and they shift backwards too. Except for one I just found in my junk pile.
I converted My 2004 Gary Fisher Solstice to an E bike with a 1500W BBSHD. Kept the 8 speed Rapid Rise. Mid cage XTR derailer.
The problem with the SRAM gripshifts is they're so hard to upshift if it rains it's almost impossible. The Shimano with the almost smooth shift area is almost as bad.
In my junk pile yesterday I found a set of SRAM Rocket 1/2 pipe 3x 9 speed shifters. I bough the pair mostly to see if I could convert the low normal LH one to 8 speed. I never looked at the RH one until yesterday. When mounted on the RH side the clamp bolt is facing up, The Rocket decal is on the bottom, and the cable change plug is down by gear#1. I can't find a picture or reference to another one like it. Rocket is a Shimano compatible shifter. This seems to be a Rapid Rise version of the SRAM 1/2 Pipe. Not only that it works in the normal direction. Of course that means if I put it on one of my Rapid Rise bikes, the other will be backwards. LOL. I may have found a way to convert some of the RH SRAM Attack shifters to this configuration. Waiting on parts. It might actually work the way it is. But I want the part with the 1-8 gear numbers.

 

[Retrorockit]

Hi, I;m new to this forum but not to Rapid Rise. I've been running it for about 20 years now. Still discovering things about it.
I like Rapid Rise for street (not road) riding because if you get jammed up in traffic you can dump a bunch of gears when stopped instead of taking off in high gear. This mostly applies to 1x bikes, because front derailers are low normal and you can dump gears there. This requires a gripshifter so you can change as many gears as you want. So commuter bikes, DH bikes, and a lot of others used it. Shimano Revoshifters were available in 7/8 speeds, but I've never seem any in 9. The Shimano stuff shifts backwards too. The 8 speed stuff is ultra rare now.
I've run SRAM Gripshifts. But the spring load is backwards to the derailer, and they shift backwards too. Except for one I just found in my junk pile.
I converted My 2004 Gary Fisher Solstice to an E bike with a 1500W BBSHD. Kept the 8 speed Rapid Rise. Mid cage XTR derailer.
The problem with the SRAM gripshifts is they're so hard to upshift if it rains it's almost impossible. The Shimano with the almost smooth shift area is almost as bad.
In my junk pile yesterday I found a set of SRAM Rocket 1/2 pipe 3x 9 speed shifters. I bough the pair mostly to see if I could convert the low normal LH one to 8 speed. I never looked at the RH one until yesterday. When mounted on the RH side the clamp bolt is facing up, The Rocket decal is on the bottom, and the cable change plug is down by gear#1. I can't find a picture or reference to another one like it. Rocket is a Shimano compatible shifter. This seems to be a Rapid Rise version of the SRAM 1/2 Pipe. Not only that it works in the normal direction. Of course that means if I put it on one of my Rapid Rise bikes, the other will be backwards. LOL. I may have found a way to convert some of the RH SRAM Attack shifters to this configuration. Waiting on parts. It might actually work the way it is. But I want the part with the 1-8 gear numbers.

Typo, I meant convert a SRAM Attack LH shifter to 8/9 speed.

 

[Retrorockit]

OK I figured out what I found in my junk pile. It was a first attempt to create a Low Normal Gripshift from a LH SRAM shifter. The LH SRAM shifter has the correct number of detents for 9 speed. All my bikes are 8 speed. 3x8 XC bike, and 1x8 Ebike. S o I never tested it, just stuck it in the drawer a Couple years ago. No Idea whether the cable release per shift is correct or not. Before I powered up my comfort bike I kept all my wheelsets interchangeable. But now they've diverged enough that maybe 3x9 XC bikeis on the menu. But if I go to the conventional shift direction that this will provide I'l want to do both bikes. The silver Attack/Rocket shifters have the detents and detent spring made into the main body.
But the gray ones with the logo on the end face instead of the top have the detents in the handle assembly, and the detent spring is reversible. The gear numbers also are part of the handle. So it looks like a RH 8 speed handle on a LH shifter will provide a Low normal gripshift with correct numeralst. The gray one also doesn't have the directional assist spring That makes the silver ones a PITA because it works the wrong way making shifts harder instead of easier. Since the gray ones don't have it maybe it's not needed and could be left out of the silver ones?
I stopped playing with this when I got some Shimano Revoshifters, but I'm not completely happy with those. I've had a couple frayed cable incidents with them.
I believe all I did for the low normal 9 speed was move the clear window with the nemerals on it from the RH shifter to the LH Low normal housing.
The clamp screw ends up on top because the cable feeds form the bottom of the roller on the flipped over LH shifter.
IMO If your going to have Rapid Rise you should have gripshifts to get the benefit of it. There's some fun to be had playing around with old SRAM gripshifts.

 

[Retrorockit]

Since I'm not getting flamed yet I thought I would look into the SRAM Gipshift possibilities further. I've run SRAM 8 speed, with Rapid Rise but the reverse spring load was too much. I took the reversed 9 speed apart, and compared it to an actual 9 speed. Though it had 9 positions the detents were further apart. So I took apart some 8 speeds and they looked pretty good. Finally I just did what I tried before. Stuck the gear position window form a RH 8 speed, onto the matching LH 3 speed. The gear pointer pointed to all the numbers and the extra detent came up in the cable change position. The shifters all show 1st gear being further away form the others, but I've run the 8 speed shifter reversed and had no trouble getting low gr high gears. They're kind of set by the derailer limit screws and not so much the shifter, So if you want to play around with this a 3x8 set of Attack or Rocket shifters with the windows could be interesting. I just received an 8 speed Gray Attack shifter. It will take a little work to reverse the detent. I may leave it as is for now. I have some high normal parts to try on the Ebike, and by using just the fornt freewheel i have another way of dumping gears w/o pedaling. So I may use some more modern parts on that one.

 

[moonlite]

I don’t think anyone will flame you for this — it’s pretty niche though

 

[Retrorockit]

Niche is reviving the Front Freewheel System concept on my converted E bike by tying the cassette to the spokes with a zip tie.
SHTF @ Endless Sphere over that one.

 

[Retrorockit]

Rapid Rise is very nice and still relevant. But if you're running it with the wrong trigger shifters it's useless. Gripshifts reveal it's strength. Dumping multiple gears w/o pedaling. On a 3x bike the front derailer can do that for you, but on 1x bikes Rapid Rise is the way.
Here is an Ebay link to the RS40 Revoshifters (careful some are 7 speed)

rapid Rise Sl-RS40 for sale | eBay

Get the best deals for rapid Rise Sl-RS40 at eBay.com. We have a great online selection at the lowest prices with Fast & Free shipping on many items!

www.ebay.com

There are a few of them in Poland now with reasonable shipping. The guy in England has plenty of them but wants $30 to ship them to the US
He's often the only game in town. I bought 3 of them to get the shipping within reason per shifter.