My derailleur "blew up" this weekend, just sort of separated into pieces while riding down the road.  I've never had great luck with the stock system - its never reliably worked in all gears even after professional service, and its always taken a lot of force to shift even after changing out the cable, shifter, and derailleur with new stock components.

Looking to upgrade to something higher quality - any recommendations?

Should I upgrade just the shifter/cable/derailleur, or also the front ring and the casette?

Help appreciated.  I'm capable of doing the install myself, but hoping to get a list of what I'll need based on a proven recommendation.

I've become extremely frustrated with the RW4 kickstand spring issue.  Rad has sent me 3 pairs of springs - all of which broke/bent within weeks.  I tried some of the workarounds posted online - you can get some to work but they do not hold the kickstand as tightly and things constantly rattle.

We should not have to resort to:

-constant annoying refitting of springs from Rad until the warranty runs out
-giant ugly bungee cords
-hacked together other solutions

Rad needs to fix this.  I'm considering becoming a very squeaky wheel for Rad on this.

Does anyone have a GOOD solution that works and works well?