Experiments with Rapid Rise derailleur

[All uphill]

I became aware of Shimano's Rapid Rise rear derailleur through reading the excellent Rivendell website. They love them so, in a moment of idleness I thought I'd give one a go.

For anyone who doesn't know a RR rear derailleur 'wants' to go to the lowest gear ( biggest cog), unlike 99% of rds which default to the highest gear.

Shimano introduced these in the 1990s and again in around 2003, both times to a deafening silence.

The supposed benefits are quicker downchanges - useful in the kind of constantly changing gradients we have around here, and that both fd and rd work the same way - pull for a higher ratio and release for a lower one.

A decent Deore LX Rapid Rise derailleur arrived today, having cost a princely £18 including delivery.

First job is to decide which bike to experiment on.

To be continued.

 

[figbat]

Does that mean you can do multiple 'up' shifts (to smaller cogs) in one lever movement?

Without any experience of them my intuition says they'd need to be perfectly setup to shift quickly to bigger cogs. I say this because as things wear, stretch and generally get baggy over time, I find that a little overshift is necessary to lift a chain onto the bigger cog - once there it is fine, but it needs a little shove to get there quickly. I assume with a spring-loaded actuation there's no way of doing this. I also find that quickly shifting multiple gears to get a bigger cog (ie, for faster cadence) is very useful when you get surprised or caught out by a gradient. Going the other way it might be a nice convenience to multi-shift to longer gears, but you'll still keep rolling if you can't.

Maybe this is not an issue on older road cassettes with small gear-to-gear differences and less bashing about from the trails.

 

[All uphill]

Does that mean you can do multiple 'up' shifts (to smaller cogs) in one lever movement?

Without any experience of them my intuition says they'd need to be perfectly setup to shift quickly to bigger cogs. I say this because as things wear, stretch and generally get baggy over time, I find that a little overshift is necessary to lift a chain onto the bigger cog - once there it is fine, but it needs a little shove to get there quickly. I assume with a spring-loaded actuation there's no way of doing this. I also find that quickly shifting multiple gears to get a bigger cog (ie, for faster cadence) is very useful when you get surprised or caught out by a gradient. Going the other way it might be a nice convenience to multi-shift to longer gears, but you'll still keep rolling if you can't.

Maybe this is not an issue on older road cassettes with small gear-to-gear differences and less bashing about from the trails.

Good question. I hope to find out by playing.

 

[Jameshow]

Do you need to change the shifter otherwise the cable is slack!

Just asking!

 

[raleighnut]

I had 'rapid rise' on a bike the insurance sent me, utter crap and went in the bin 'toute sweet' problem was I kept changing the trigger shifters the wrong way having been used to the way they changed on my other bikes so equiped.

 

[MontyVeda]

Does that mean you can do multiple 'up' shifts (to smaller cogs) in one lever movement?

...

My STX-RC shifters go up three gears with one full push of the lever. I thought that was sort of standard with indexed gears?

 

[All uphill]

Do you need to change the shifter otherwise the cable is slack!

Just asking!

I believe it will work with most shifters; I may start with bar end shifters and work from there.

 

[Punkawallah]

Just binned one from a Dawes Discovery. As previous, the shifting is ‘interesting’, but for me the game wasn’t worth the candle. Just too much hassle on and off the bike.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Rapid Rise solved no known problem.

 

[Sharky]

One of my early bikes had Benelux gears, which were spring loaded to the biggest sprocket. Never ran smoothly.

 

[All uphill]

Do you need to change the shifter otherwise the cable is slack!

Just asking!

No, I don't think so. It's just that clicking the ratchet on the shifter will get you a lower gear, not a higher one. If the cable's slack or disconnected the rd will shift the chain to the biggest cog.

 

[Retyred.life]

Rapid Rise solved no known problem.

It wasn't about solving problems. It was an alternative. And to my mind a far more intuitive and better system. Each to their own of course.

 

[Big John]

We had a guy in the group ride many years ago had his rear gear cable snap. The smallest sprocket became his default gear. We were in the Cotswolds at the time and took in a few hills. I'm sure he wished he'd had a rapid rise setup instead of the conventional one. That's the only advantage I could see.

 

[Ajax Bay]

Do you need to change the shifter otherwise the cable is slack!

No, these work with 'normal' shifters. The difference is (obv) that when the cable is (almost) slack the RD lines with the largest sprocket. Every click (push) (cable pull) moves the cage outwards. Till the end when the cage lines with the smallest sprocket.
The shift ratio on these RDs is the same (7/8/9sp).
The rationale for their benefit is as described ^^^

 

[Punkawallah]

We had a guy in the group ride many years ago had his rear gear cable snap. The smallest sprocket became his default gear. We were in the Cotswolds at the time and took in a few hills. I'm sure he wished he'd had a rapid rise setup instead of the conventional one. That's the only advantage I could see.

Didn't have a cable tie or similar, then?