Silver 2 setup

[Richard Rose]

Hello all. So I have replaced my rear der. cable (frayed/broken at shifter) for the second time in 2K miles. This time using the tabbed washer (per Collin's suggestion) reversed  and rotated to serve as a stop so that the shifter cannot rotate too far forward (easier gear with Rapid Rise) pinching said cable. I have questions regarding proper cable adjustment as my shifting just is not up to my expectations. In short, shifting is sloppy. I am using a 2 x 7 drivetrain with Silver wide/low crank & Jim cassette with vintage Nexave Rapid Rise rear der. Front shifter works flawlessly, nice and crisp requiring very little pressure on shifter. Rear shifting is less perfect. When holding the Silver shifter in my hand (not installed on bike) it has this beautifully smooth racheting action and feel. Installed it is rubbery. Shifting to largest cog does not require moving shifter all of the way forward. In fact, with largest cog engaged shifter can still move forward but does nothing. That's good as it does not overshift sending chain into spokes! But, the extra play just feels sloppy. The beauty of the Rapid Rise is the ease of shifting into a lower gear, especially going uphill. But this is too easy. It takes very little movement of shifter to fly through all seven gears. Going in opposite direction (large to small cogs) is another matter. That wonderfully smooth ratcheting action is largely gone and ther is far too much travel and effort to shift to each smaller cog. I can get to all seven gears but it is anything but crisp & my thumb is almost not long enough to move shifter enough to get that smallest cog. In contrast, my Clem with same shifters and 9 speed rear der. (not rapid rise) shifts with more precision and less travel. 

What might I be doing wrong?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Joe Bernard]

Do you have an opposite-rise derailer you can try on this bike? My uninformed wild guess is that Nexave has an unusually strong spring which is causing 'too easy one way, too hard the other' shifting. 

[Richard Rose]

Hi Joe. The answer to your question is yes, but mow on that in a minute. I think I fixed it. When I installed the new cable I made sure the spring was relaxed & chain was on largest cog, shifter fully forward against stop. I tensioned the cable in the stand, pulling hard on cable to fully tension. I rode it around for a bit & wrote about the rotten shifting. I went and put it back in the stand & found a slack cable! How?! Repeated the process and now it seems fine. Sloppiness is gone, range of shifter travel is shorter and it feels great.

Originally I built this bike (Gus) with the same silver Deore rear der. (Not Rapid Rise) and it was not better. I love being able to get a lower gear with no effort going uphill that the Rapid Rise allows. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 1, 2025, at 12:31 PM, Joe Bernard <joer...@gmail.com> wrote:

Do you have an opposite-rise derailer you can try on this bike? My uninformed wild guess is that Nexave has an unusually strong spring which is causing 'too easy one way, too hard the other' shifting. 

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