Mountain Biking - Gripshift Sucks Big Time...

Could it be true?! I am finally seeing less and less grip shifts about. Everyone now has the common sense to go and buy some quick/rapid fire shifters.
Grip shifts are just so cheap and tacky. Using them to shift gears feels like you've just chosen the worst trolley down at Tescos (for all you Americans/Canadians, that's about the equivelent to your Walmart!) and are trying to navigate it through a tricky course of shopping isles.
I'm just wandering if any poor person still rides with these horrible things anymore. Me? I have a Sram X7 rapid fire shifter - now that's comfortable!

http://www.h5.dion.ne.jp/~alohaken/bijin-grip-shift.jpg

it's trickle down tech finally outmoding those things...there are now low-dollar vairants of the rapidfire for x-mart bikes.

They suck, bad idea, nobody cool uses them.

Oh dang, I'm not cool.....

Oh dang, I'm not cool.....

Oh you might be cool....those shifters are bad for downhill.
Don't sweat it dude, I can't even afford suspension! :eek:

Want to buy some chainrings?

@ least I can shift well... :p

If you don't like them, don't use them. Simple enough.


Personally, I rode Gripshift and SRAM twist shifters for roughly 7-8 years, never had one problem with them, whether it was on a $300 beginner bike or the attack 8.0s which were the sh*% when 8 speed came around.

Now I have rapidfire that I can't seem to keep in tune, can't tune as well as I like, and neither can several LBSs (to my liking, not that either of these stores are incapable to tuning up a rear der).

Maybe you're seeing fewer because SRAM also makes trigger shifters now. Or that Sachs, who made another gripshift type shifter, hasn't made them for years. Or like catatonic said, trigger type shifters have been replicated on cheap x-mart bikes.

Just because you don't like them doesn't mean they don't work or they are a lesser product. Personally, I'd kill for a full X.0 system right now, but don't have the money. Maybe I should just go single speed. How'd that look, a single speed FS bike?

I use grip shift for my chainrings. I don't like rapid fire for those.

FS SS is killer. A few on the mountain. You need a STIFF tensioner though

I run a 7 or 8 rear cogset to a mono-ring. I can run the cluster in 4 sec from standing with the rapid fire.

I use lock on grips, I don't want ANY movement of the major steering controls, nor do I wan't to alter my wrist position to shift, rather a finger touch.

Also a grip collar break or slip can result in a major chest impact to the stem\ bars.

I use grip shift for my chainrings. I don't like rapid fire for those.

FS SS is killer. A few on the mountain. You need a STIFF tensioner though

I like the old friction shifters, even road ones, Simple.

Maybe I don't like them 'cause they are a pain to get off\ on.

i hate the grip shifters cuz when im climbing or going downhill on my mtn bike, sometimes i'll accidently twist the shifters.

I like the old friction shifters, even road ones, Simple.

Maybe I don't like them 'cause they are a pain to get off\ on.


I would probably like friction too. I just like gripshift because it isn't stuck in a gear. I can fine tune it as I ride to make it quiet.

I had the grip shifters on my old bike and I really dig these new rapid fire ones...they took me a while to figure out exactly how to use, but now that I have them I love them.

I ride X.0 on all of MTB bikes. I was sick of having to adjust my deraileur all the time (xtr). The one to one shifting ratio of X.0 is more crisp and positive. I especially love the front derailer with grip shift so you can adjust trim. I personally do not like shimano rear deraileurs because they use 2 to 1 shift ratio. And the number one reason i like sram is because you don''t have the loud noise from you deraileur hitting your chain stay. The only thing shimano on my bikes are the xtr front deraileurs.

meh. x9 twisties on my geared hardtail. no problems. been riding with gripshift for about 8 years now......

i don't mis-shift. they don't shift when i'm climbing or descending. and i ride some ugly stuff, up and down, even some lifted DH days.

maybe all you folks whining about them messing up just need to learn to ride a bit better, or setup your bar/control space a bit better........... ;)


caveat: if you have the long grip length grip shift of a few years ago, yeah, those suck. that's why that particular version is no longer made.........just a thought for ya.

gripshifter for my rear, and an old suntour thumbshifter running my front chainrings. loooooove that combo!

I had the grip shifters on my old bike and I really dig these new rapid fire ones...they took me a while to figure out exactly how to use, but now that I have them I love them.


Exactly how I felt.

I had issues when climbing, that I would end up shifting my grip as I got out of the saddle, and would change gears, throwing me to the ground. After the second time, I said eff it and bought a set of rapidfires for my bike at the time (DB outlook, 7-sp Shimano Tourney)...at the least when that bike got sold, it was a pretty tricked out bike, since it was pretty much made trailworthy minus the fork.

However after my experience, I just dont like twistshift. Maybe if they chose to not make the shifter half the freaking handlegrip I might have thought different, I dunno.

dude, the grip section is only 2" wide; how hard is it for you guys to ride without accidentally shifting?????? i'm thinking you must have had the super wide version they tried a few years ago. myself and many of the people i ride with use/have used gripshift, with noooooo problems.

seriously, why does anyone care the h3ll what anyone else runs shifter wise? use what works for you. no one is forcing anyone to use any particular brand........personally, i have tried shimano lever style shifting and thought it sucked. meh. whatever. i bought SRAM stuff, and am happy with it.

SRAM is selling gripshift stuff pretty well, so it's fairly obvious that some riders like it.

Could it be true?! I am finally seeing less and less grip shifts about. Everyone now has the common sense to go and buy some quick/rapid fire shifters.
Grip shifts are just so cheap and tacky. Using them to shift gears feels like you've just chosen the worst trolley down at Tescos (for all you Americans/Canadians, that's about the equivelent to your Walmart!) and are trying to navigate it through a tricky course of shopping isles.
I'm just wandering if any poor person still rides with these horrible things anymore. Me? I have a Sram X7 rapid fire shifter - now that's comfortable! http://www.h5.dion.ne.jp/~alohaken/bijin-grip-shift.jpg


yeah grip shifts are cheap and are ment to be appealing to newbs who think they are cool.

on a side note, nice avatars.....were did you get those...i need them for some purly..umm artistic purposes...ya thats it artistic purposes ;)

Could it be true?! I am finally seeing less and less grip shifts about. Everyone now has the common sense to go and buy some quick/rapid fire shifters.
Grip shifts are just so cheap and tacky. Using them to shift gears feels like you've just chosen the worst trolley down at Tescos (for all you Americans/Canadians, that's about the equivelent to your Walmart!) and are trying to navigate it through a tricky course of shopping isles.
I'm just wandering if any poor person still rides with these horrible things anymore. Me? I have a Sram X7 rapid fire shifter - now that's comfortable!

http://www.h5.dion.ne.jp/~alohaken/bijin-grip-shift.jpg


uh, BTW, the link you gave shows some of SRAMs low end commuter bike stuff. NOT the good high end stuff. tha twould be like trying some low end Shimano cr@p, and saying all the high end stuff sucks because you had a bad ride with the cheap junk......

the high end of SRAM, much like the high end of Shimano is entirely different than the low end and commuter bike junk.

http://www.sram.com/en/sram/mountain/components/x0/

edited to add: i'm just being pissy because i'm at work tonight and tomorrow; and i'd much rather be at home with my girlfriend.

dude, the grip section is only 2" wide; how hard is it for you guys to ride without accidentally shifting?????? i'm thinking you must have had the super wide version they tried a few years ago. myself and many of the people i ride with use/have used gripshift, with noooooo problems.

seriously, why does anyone care the h3ll what anyone else runs shifter wise? use what works for you. no one is forcing anyone to use any particular brand........personally, i have tried shimano lever style shifting and thought it sucked. meh. whatever. i bought SRAM stuff, and am happy with it.

SRAM is selling gripshift stuff pretty well, so it's fairly obvious that some riders like it.

That is why, I had the shimano version, where you basically have to use half grips with them, or play the game of how close to the bend in your risers can you get.

I just call the entire group of them gripshifters or twistshifters since either term sums them up.

Different stokes for different folks. I HATE Gripsh**** and love my Triggers, but my girlfriend loves her twisties and hates my triggers. <shrug> It's what works for you not someone else.

Gripshifts Suck!!!!! I hate The bikes You like!!!!!

He..that felt goooood. Merry Christmas.



Laying on the beach, my fingers in her...Country muuuusic playing on the radioooo....

I never understood what (if any) are the advantages of grip shifts. I am not talking about shifting accuracy, but rather ergonomics and efficiency of use.

Just like you can break and still handle your bike, rapid fire shifters allow you to shift and still handle your bike in technical situation. In other words, your thumb and index finger are available for shifting. With dual control you can even break and shift at the same time.

But with grip shift you have to shift your grip (literally) to shift gears. Isn't that less desireable in most technical situations?

Having said that, lots of XC racers still use grip shifts, so obviously once you get used to them, they are fine. I cannot imagine DH and FR with grip shifts however.

I never recall having an issue with mine, but I like my new rapid fires pretty well

For the whole time I have been riding I have used friction thumbshift shimano, later STX rapid with XT and XTR derailuers with much succes and never wanted to try sram. That is until I found an X.7 right hand and X.9 carbon rear derailluer. I threw them on with an LX/Rapidfire front shift and I love the pair. All of my previous attempts at grip were really hard to use(death-gripshift) but this setup is effortless. While my next rebuild bike is still going to get the full XTr setup(that I was using for the last 5 race seasons before and like) Sram has earned good marks for this one.
Plus its so much quieter in races(yes Ive race tested and love it).

Kind of odd how the X.0 setup only has grip shifters, the X.9 offers both gripshift and rapid fire. I personally prefer rapid fire shifters to grip shifts because as one person above said, you can brake and shift more or less at the same time.

Well gripshifters do suck ineed, i suppose some crazy people like them. But luckily for us all we have trigger shifters which are gods gift to grip shifter haters

Hmmm. I have never had any problems shifting and braking at the same time with grip shift. Not that complicated. By the way, on my DH bike I use 9.0 with grip shift. I was tired of shimano crap making so much noise.

I never understood what (if any) are the advantages of grip shifts. I am not talking about shifting accuracy, but rather ergonomics and efficiency of use.

Just like you can break and still handle your bike, rapid fire shifters allow you to shift and still handle your bike in technical situation. In other words, your thumb and index finger are available for shifting. With dual control you can even break and shift at the same time.

But with grip shift you have to shift your grip (literally) to shift gears. Isn't that less desireable in most technical situations?

Having said that, lots of XC racers still use grip shifts, so obviously once you get used to them, they are fine. I cannot imagine DH and FR with grip shifts however.


again with the um, no. i brake and shift all the time with my twisies. it isn't that hard to do........

and again, no, it isn't your whole grip. 50mm width of the gripshift part. that is about 1/3 of my grip shift length. i love my SRAM shifting. quieter, and better tshifting than i ever had with shimano rapidfire stuff, using high end from both companies.

i'm not trying to convince people that use triggers to swap, i'm only saying that grip shift isn't the evil thing that ya'll seem to think it is.

and, again, i don't misshift with mine, even on the nastiest of trails going up or down. and i know plenty of people who ride hard, and do alot of DH stuff who have no problems with using gripshift.

still not sure why people are so down on it; you don't like it, fine, don't use it. no one is forcing you to use anything you don't like......

SRAM all the way for me. I have been using Gripshift for years, except for a few months to try using the X-7 shifters. On my current bike which is a Epic S-Works, I use X-0. And, I brake fine.

I ride X.0 on all of MTB bikes. I was sick of having to adjust my deraileur all the time (xtr). The one to one shifting ratio of X.0 is more crisp and positive. I especially love the front derailer with grip shift so you can adjust trim. I personally do not like shimano rear deraileurs because they use 2 to 1 shift ratio. And the number one reason i like sram is because you don''t have the loud noise from you deraileur hitting your chain stay. The only thing shimano on my bikes are the xtr front deraileurs.

Almost totally agree. I have an Xt front d and the new XT cranks (I love them). I had XTR rapid rise, which I think were the best d's Shimano ever put out. This new dual control stuff on a mtn bike doesn't seem so great, although I haven't spent much time on it. When I put X.O on my mtn bike I rode about 45-50 hours before I had to tweak it. With Shimano triggers it was every 2-3 hours (pretty much every ride). Shimano will have to do something big to get me back.

You can pry my beloved GripShifts from my cold dead hands. ;)

scrublover,

I should have said that I never used gripshift other than when I demoed a Klein Palomino bike. I found it awkward to break and shift simultaneously, but then my demo lasted only about 15 minutes.

I am definitely not against gripshifts. I would take a high end gripshift system over average triggers any day!

you said it.

These types of threads amuse me....just like saying that Ford sux! (or was it Chevy)

Anyway, I've been riding GripShift for approximately 11 years now (still have the original X-Rays I bought in '93-'94) and currently run on my '95 Attitude. The only time I ever had a problem with accidental shifts was when I ran bar ends and my handlebar/stem combo is just too narrow to do that effectively.

Happy New Year everybody!

Come on ... everyone knows ford sux. They haven't made a good vehical since the 60s ;)

Its a personal choice...everyone has em and spouts them as being correct. Unless you can justify it, it is still personal. I understand a freeriders point of view about grip shift causing problems during heavy braking or rear wheel moves and stuff. But on a xc bike, I didn't mind it (as long as I wasn't too aggressive) and heck I didn't even mind flippy shifters under the right circumstances. But for the way I ride I don't like em...thats me...I also know dhillers who love gripshift.

Come on ... everyone knows ford sux. They haven't made a good vehical since the 60s ;)



Oh, I see you've seen the light. :p

:roflmao: