Hi,

After bending a Thomson seatpost on my hardtail its time to go for a new seatpost and I fancy a dropper.

It takes a 26.8mm post, is there any alternative to a gravity dropper from the states in that size?

The Thompson was such a neat fit that air came out at the headset when putting it down. That was a surprise given the frame is from 2001, I thought it might have been a bit worn down.

Cheers for any suggestions

Pretty sure GD is only option. I have a 26.8 seatpodt size frame Tha I’ve been thinking about getting one for.

How on earth did you bend a Thomson?! 😯

I’m not sure how I bent it.

I think it was going for a jump at Sherwood pines, spotting it was a double, chickening out and sitting down heavily!

I am unimpressed, especially as it was 2nd hand off ebay so no waranty.

Hohum.

Thomson and (original) Syncross posts are the only ones I’ve not managed to bend / kill. Although I think one of mine may have a smidge more “layback” than the other…..

@tall_martin

Thomson designed their seatpost with a “bending fuse” and considering its one of the strongest seatposts on the market, sounds like it did its job as designed rather than snapping off and puncturing your rectum!

I snapped a Race Face Diablous seatpost on my freeride bike after a very heavy landing in a quarry that also snapped the saddle, and had no qualms replacing it with a thomson

Well, I’ll think myself lucky then! 🙂

Except, i didn’t actualy sit down hard enough to notice 🙁

everyone – Member

How on earth did you bend a Thomson?!

I did mine with a bit of unplanned sitting down after a drop 😆 Wasn’t that heavy though, I was a bit peeved tbh. Never broken any other quality post.

Bit of a bump for you – I’m also interested in any options for 26.8mm frames. There’s a Thomson on eBay for over £50 secondhand which seems a bit of a rip off, but options for decent posts in this size are fairly limited.

I’ve got a Thomson Elite post you can have for the price of postage. It’s been well used but is still in good nick. Only thing I can’t guarantee is diameter. I’ve measured it and it looks to be 26.8, but I noticed they did a 26.6 and a 27 so it could be either as my ruler isn’t the best. Are there any markings Thomson put on them to confirm 100%?

YHM 🙂

Scrap that, mine is a 27.2mm. Found the measurements under a pile of grease. I also need a new steel ruler!

@Mowgli

I just had a rummage, and I’ve got a Thomson Elite 26.8mm x 330mm setback in black if that’s any use. Post only, no nuts, bolts, clamps or owt else (well, part from its canvas bag). No idea what’s happened to them. Maybe you could negotiate something with the OP and get the bits mine’s missing from his bent post.

It’s the first entry (SP-E105SB) on this PDF.

Yours for the price of postage.

Cool, sounds good. Could you email me please?

Martin, if you’d be interested in selling your bent post I’ll take it – could you get in touch?

Cheers!

Hi,

I’ve been in touch with Gravity Dropper in the states. I ordered a Lp in 400mm 4 inch drop and they don’t do/ don’t have them in stock.

I’d be happy to sell the bent post. Its still reasonably long as I have a lot of post showing.

It was second hand and cost me £50 on ebay about 3/4 of a year ago, so I guess that’s the going rate for an outdated seatpost size 🙁

Might be time to get a 27.2mm post and see if it will fit.

🙁

Might be time to get a 27.2mm post and see if it will fit.

It won’t. My 26.8mm is from a Kinesis Maxlight I had many years ago. Before I had the frame, I didn’t know that 26.8mm posts were even a thing, until I unsuccessfully tried to fit a 27.2mm post, which I’d assumed was its size.

And Mowgli: YGM.

Hmm, nothing yet…

I’d thought about getting one of the cheapo ebay droppers and skimming 0.4mm off the diameter with a lathe, but was advised against it by a lot of people!

you only have to skim the bit that goes in the seat tube 🙂

More realistically, I wonder if the outer part of the cheapo droppers could be rebuilt in stainless steel with smaller diameter. Steel would be stronger so might not mind being thinner. I’ve not seen inside though to see how much other machining would be needed.