I know you need a rapid rise rear mech but is the front mech a standard one for these levers

You don’t need a rapid rise and a normal front mech works.

I throught you used a rapid rise rear mech when using this kind of set up so the dual shifters work just the same with a standard rear mech

You dont HAVE to use RR rear but it works far better with one and a standard front mech is fine on the front !

Thanks for the info chaps helped me out that

I found a rapid rise mech easier with dual controls.

Up on the lever means up on the cassette to an easier gear.

Standard front mech is fine.

I used to really like my 960 xtr ones.

I’ve got XTR dual controls and a normal XTR rear mech on my Epic and it works well.

I quite like the dual-controls so have XT & LX ones on a couple of the other bikes.

I always preferred DC levers with a top normal (standard) rear mech.

and if you get bored with the flippy paddle shifting you can rebuild the older xtr’s in to fabby disc brakes like this