Shimano Media Camp
Cactus, tacos, border towns and lycra
Cam McRae

You have to send Shimano some props for tenacity.  They continue to push ahead with a pair of initiatives despite a lukewarm reception from the freeride world and the media; Dual Control and Rapid Rise (aka Low Normal).  In case you've been hibernating I'll tell you a little about each of these Shimano-pioneered drivetrain features. 

Dual Control is a logical outgrowth of Shimano's very successful road controls.  Basically your brake levers also control your front and rear shifting duties.  On a road bike this is wicked because the most popular shifting method it replaced involved pulling a mitt off the bars and fishing around for a tiny downtube-mounted shifter.  Shifting front and rear derailleurs at the same time was even dodgier and no shifting could be done while significant braking forces were applied.  In mountain biking a certain amount of braking and shifting has been possible since the advent of Rapid Fire shifters.  Because Rapid Fire Plus got your pointer finger into the act it became more difficult to brake and upshift in the rear or downshift in the front while braking.  With Dual control, shifting is accomplished with a push up or down on the brake lever.  There is also a paddle that allows the upward push to be controlled by the thumb (this was initially viewed as an intermediate step by Shimano but it now seems like the thumb paddles are here to stay).

Dual Control and Rapid Rise were introduced on XTR and last year they trickled to XT.  This year they  make their way into Saint, a reworked LX group as well as Hone - an all-mountain package that appears to be Saint's little brother. Shimano denies this link despite the obvious similarities and they say that Hone resides between Saint and LX rather than as a lower branch on the Saint tree.

Rapid Rise, is a new approach to rear derailleur mechanics.  It's also known as Low Normal because when no cable tension is applied the chain will remain on the largest cog which is also the lowest gear.  This means that if you are using a Rapid Fire shifter your thumb will move the chain to a smaller cog/higher gear while the trigger will allow the spring to push the chain to a larger cog/lower gear.  Basically it's the reverse of any shifter you have ever used before.


The Hone Dual Control Lever.

Now the first time you try Rapid Rise you are likely to hate it.  When you think about your shift beforehand you won't have much trouble but as soon as you need to shift quickly or you lapse into default you are going to go the wrong way.  As you can imagine this sort of thing can give you a bad rap - and it has. For the most part it doesn't take long to adapt, assuming you only ride bikes with RR but the road starts out pretty bumpy.


The Hone crank shares the outboard bearings of XTR, XT and Saint.

When you combine Dual Control and Rapid Rise tapping the lever down 'pushes' the chain to a smaller cog.  If you want a couple of gears or more just push further down, the way you can with a thumb shift using a conventional system.  If you lift the lever up every click will move you into a lower gear.  Using the paddle will provide the same result which makes the system at least partially intuitive since using Rapid Fire your thumb also provides a down shift.

Confused yet?  For most of us the question was why - what's the point of reinventing this particular wheel which most of us thought was working pretty well.  The derailleur system has some obvious limitations - mainly due to durability and strength - but when everything is straight and clean the system is tough to beat.

Shimano's response to this is that it takes skill to downshift properly using a conventional - let's call it High Normal or HN - system.  Less experienced riders tend to shift when they shouldn't and those of us who know better do occasionally as well.  Shifting under load using an HN drivetrain can produce what the Shimano clan calls the 'train wreck' sound.  With some experience most riders learn to 'clutch' when downshifting in difficult circumstances by powering up before the shift and then easing off during the shift. 


Q kept all the bikes running perfectly.


A Hone rear derailleur - featuring Rapid Rise and Direct Mount as debuted in the Saint Gruppo.
According to Shimano with RR no such expertise is required.  You can shift at any time under any load and the chain will dutifully, and quietly, ease its way up the cogset to a larger cog.  This works, they explained, because when the ideal pressure is applied (thanks to their spring rather than your thumb handling downshifts) the chain will wait until the ramps on the cogset are in the perfect position before it climbs to a larger cog.  They claim to have seen a dramatic reduction in warranty claims with RR and they firmly believe that once riders are given the chance to try the technology they will be hooked.  I remained sceptical but after this briefing their goals became clearer to me and I was eager to try to cause a train wreck.  Another advantage, they told us, is that you can anticipate down shifts by hitting the paddle (or lifting the lever) multiple times when you know you are going to need some lower gears even while coasting. When you hit the pedals again the chain will find the correct cog without any drama.
So if LN is particularly pertinent for less experienced riders why didn't Shimano use a trickle up approach to the technology?  They admit that this might have been a good idea but now that they are committed to letting it filter down they believe even more advantages will be realized in the noobie ranks.

The marketing folks at Shimano feel that the poor response to Rapid Rise has been largely due to their failure to explain the advantages of the system through the media.  As a result they decided to hold a camp in Tucson (perhaps the most soulless town I have visited) where the weather is always fine.  After a good breakfast and a short seminar it was time to gear up and go riding. 

Hey Boss - da plane, da plane
Trek Liquids and Rocky Mountain ETS-X bikes were on offer as well as one Rocky Slayer so, having ridden all but the X bike, I chose one of those and it turned out to be a sweet desert companion. Mine was wrapped in newly minted Hone componentry which I was very keen to try. We jumped in the van, perfumed it with the extract of the previous night's Mexican food and headed towards Fantasy Island.  Now if you are familiar with Arizona geography you'll realize that bodies of water are scarce making islands scarcer still.  This island is surrounded by highways, barbed wire fencing and desert as far as the eye can see.  Chuck Boyer gets the credit for building and maintaining this riding area that weaves through the cactus and scrub.  When you arrive you may get the impression that it's all flat but 10 minutes in the saddle will cure you of that folly. There are short stretches without elevation change but for the most part the trails undulate without cease and Chuck has done a great job of putting turns in all the right places - pretty much everywhere.  It turned out to be an ideal place to put a shifting system through the wringer as we hound-dogged each other through the prickly pears.


This was an exact replica of Stonehenge at Fantasy Island- not the one in England - the one used in the film This is Spinal Tap.

I have been testing a Saint bike for some time now (a GT Ruckus Flowta - test coming soon) and every ride it takes me a little while for the Rapid Rise shifting to feel intuitive.  So in the beginning of the ride I do the opposite of what comes natural and that works until the opposite starts to feel natural.  When that happens I  begin to do the opposite again which means I begin shifting the wrong way again. Too many bangs on the head I guess.  I didn't have as many problems using the Dual Control because I used the paddle for downshifts.  Occasionally I would screw this up but I have to say that RR made it easy for me to correct my mistake almost immediately.


Huffing and puffing - riding some XC trails was a breath of fresh air and The Tucson weather was perfect. Photo Radek Burkat

The whole ride felt like a cross country race to me.  Something about wearing lycra, even under my baggies, ignites my competitive instinct and I did my damndest to keep up to Tim, Dominique, Joë and Foye, the roadies who were keeping the pace most of the day.  Each time we stopped I heaved like I was in cardiac arrest while they conversed calmly, bemused by my effort.  The perpetual turns and undulations made Fantasy Island the ideal test site for both RR and Dual Control.  It was rare to be in the same gear for more than ten seconds at a stretch and the elevated pace made choosing the right cog a matter of survival.  I hadn't spent much time on Dual Control before this and I have to say I soon began to notice the advantages for this type of riding.  I always ride with a finger on each brake lever which meant I also had a finger on each shifter. When my fingers weren't busy shifting my thumb was at the ready.


The map.  It all looked the same to me and without our guides I would have perished among the Cacti.

Tim Lefebvre loves presents - his own package was on display in those shorts as well.
Dual Control surprised me as well.  I did my best downshift badly, full power on the pedals, and not once could I make the system skip a beat.  I also tried shifting while coasting and then jumping out of the saddle and onto the pedals afterwards and once again the chain obediently, and quietly, migrated to the required cog.  We rode for perhaps two hours before lunch and then another hour or so after and in each session I would occasionally duff a shift and find myself in too tall a gear.  For me the only way to nail Rapid Rise shifting seems to require riding no other conventional system.

While this was a great place to test this gear it had very little relevance to the type of riding I do regularly.  I ride, shuttle or chairlift up and then I ride down. Often there is a short climb part way down the descent but just as often there is not.  This means that I don't have to shift nearly as frequently as we did in the desert.  I also find that when I need a bushel of gears it's generally on the downshift - and with Dual Control you only get one per click on the way down.

Dual Control and Freeride
Another obvious difference is the level of technical difficulty on the trails on the Shore and in B.C. in general.  The easiest trail on Fromme is vastly more difficult in every way than anything found at Fantasy Island.  In fact you could probably ride brakeless if you were careful there but on the Shore losing either brake means the end of your ride.  Which leads me to my next point; Dual Control and Freeride is not a match made in heaven.  I had a good look at the bikes at Rampage and not a single rider - Shimano sponsored or not - was using Dual Control.  When the speeds are high, the trails steep, the drops big or the logs skinny your brakes are everything.  In those situations it makes absolutely no sense to have your brake levers doing double duty. You want them solidly mounted and moving along only one plane.  When riding anything steep I find my fingers slipping off dual control and my fingers shift the levers after even a small drop. To their credit Shimano has added stand alone brake levers for Saint this year and they are also offering generic Rapid Fire shifters in either black or silver to match any of their groups.


Foye was impossible to catch in his neon jersey and shorts.
In defence of DC Shimano has made an effort to increase the force needed to initiate shifting and I have to say the Hone units I used were a step above the early XT models I tried last year. The point where a shift begins has been made more definite making accidental shifts less likely - but they still happen.

Left to right: Boris from Russia, Mike 'Q' Quileza, Me, Radek Burkat, Foye Troute (standing), Joë Layno (crouching Tiger), Dominique Fortin, Chad Roberts and Tim Lefebvre.

Dual Control would be gold for many XC riders.  Having the shifters close at hand in a race situation, particularly when the trails aren't too challenging, could be an advantage. If you are an all-mountain rider and the terrain you ride isn't gnarly you too might benefit from dual control.  If you like to drop, enjoy steeps or if you prize your braking the way Rappers prize booty you'll want to look the other way.

Rapid Rise has advantages I hadn't exploited previously and while I'm not a convert I can now see where the folks in Japan are coming from. That alone made the trip to Arizona worthwhile.  Our final night spent across the border in Nogales, eating the best tacos I've ever had and drinking too many Margaritas, was icing on the cake.  Thanks to Chad, Joë, Foye, Q and Brent for looking after us.

I'll have more to say about Hone, the new LX group as well as additions to Saint in a couple of days.