Have a suspicion that a bike on eBay is my friend’s recently stolen. If it is, a few of the finishing touches have been changed, but I’ve arranged with the seller to go and view it. One distinguishing feature is that it has rapid rise rear mech, but I’m not sure whether this is likely to be unique. The bike was bought second hand, so don’t know if it came with this as standard. It’s the first time I’ve seen it, so question is, do many/any bikes come with rapid rise as standard, or would it always be a custom option or later change?

Some did come with Rapid Rise, Trek specced them, but Specialized didn’t. Rapid Rise was intended to work with Dual Control levers, but some manufacturers ignored what Mr Shimano said and used top normal mechs. These days more or less everything comes with a top normal mech, in part because the newest Shadow mechs don’t come in RR.

I’ve got a RR rear mech on one of my bikes, cos it has Dual Control.
Can’t imagine it being any good with other shifters.
Got rid of the front dual control as I never got on with it.

I run rapid rise, I’d say it is pretty rare. Wild guess – something like 1 in 20 bikes are rapid rise. You’d have to find out if your specific bike came with rapid rise as standard. No other distinguishing features???

I run rapid rise with ‘normal’ shifters.

ended up with it on all my geare dbikes as swapping from Non-rapid rise to RR between bikes was doign my head in.

With XTR multi-shifts in each direction it doesn’t really matter whether you run RR or not, tbh.

It’s far from uncommon. Can’t stand it myself but I’ve seen plenty of people using them.

I had RR on my 2006 Giant Trance1. Hated it, even stocked up on ‘normal’ mechs in case it became the norm. Thankfully it disappeared as quickly as it arrived…

i had to buy one when i bust my mech in the alps and couldnt get anything else
i now love it and have it on all my bikes

pretty rare i only have one other mate who uses it, id say 1 in 20 is about right though i had to get them all aftermarket

MrTall, did it come on your Giant as standard?

I have rapid rise, took a while to get used to, but is good now 🙂

I run rapid rise with ‘normal’ shifters.

Pedant mode but all shifters are normal. The shifter always works the same way, it’s the spring in the rear mech that alters the direction.

Rapid rise (like Dual Control) was touted as the next big thing but it never caught on and isn’t made any more. I’d say it’s reasonably rare but if that’s the *only* distinguishing feature I’d be a bit careful before announcing it as definitely his bike.

my 2006 trance had rapid rise and my simple brain couldn’t cope as my other bike had it the other way round.

Pedant mode but all shifters are normal

I think what was meant was that he uses thumb/finger “normal” shifters as opposed to dual control – at least that is how I read it

I don’t think its that uncommon.

I think one of my bikes has it and the other doesn’t.

what stilltortoise said crazy-legs (i.e. they’re not dual control).

the xtr ones are great – you can shift several rings in either direction at once. XT’s ok but you can only go ‘up’ one at a time.

yep, not massively popular, and increasingly tricky to get cheap mechs for… but I really like Rapid Rise with my ‘normal’ XT shifters. Have that on the race bike for very smooth shifts under power (particularly good for down shifting under load), but use normal on the dicking about bike as normal is easier to brake and downshift…

I went from 7-speed thumb shifters to 9-speed RR. It made perfect sense to me – thumbs = up, fingers = down. Both sides.

Didn’t realise it had died so quick. Might track down a spare mech just in case.

I love rapid rise. It’s a shame they’ve removed the option with Shadow mechs.
I would say it’s pretty rare and getting rarer. Once-upon-a-time about half of top-end bikes came with it. In 2011 I don’t think I’ve seen a single one. I don’t think Sram have ever had the option and 10sp shimano isn’t available with it.

I guess I’ll have to get used to the idea of changing all my bikes to top-normal if I get a new one 🙁 Having a mixture would be *bad*.

Are rapid rise mechs a necessity for dual control shifters?

Not in the least, in fact I reckon DC is better with top normal.

I use RR mechs on all my bikes by choice. I much prefer the thumbs = up, fingers = down on both sides as mentioned by ourmaninthenorth.

but to the point of your post I’d try to find something else which would distinguish it as your mates bike, you need a couple or three things to be certain.

I presume your mate knows you are going to look at it, he must know something else you can look for… ie little marks on the rims /wheels, something which is likely not to have been changed ?

Kev