Any experiences, good, bad, indifferent ?

Do a search. That’ll tell you all you need to know.

Haven’t owned one, but have known of three Joplins and a Maverick Speedball, which is the same thing I think. Speedball belonged to a bike shop owner who said never again…slop slop slop. First two Joplins, admittedly being ridden by a Clydesdale, died within days…collapsed…leaking oil etc. The third and still “working” post (owned by someone else) has an enormous amount of play in it, which is apparently within tolerance for the product according to CB and isn’t covered by warranty. Sadly as has been my experience with other CB products (pedals anyone?), the Joplin looks pretty, but has shocking reliability.

Had mine for six months with no problems at all. Yes it moves a little from side to side but you never, ever notice that while riding. I weigh 105kg so well into Clydesdale territory. The only thing I would like to change is the drop – three inches is OK but four would make it more versatile.

I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the stories about problems were from early production units, while CB were still ironing out manufacturing challenges (happens to ALL manufacturers. Fox 36s were notoriously unreliable in their first year of production). I’ve also heard a lot of people take them apart to service them far too regularly; if it aint broke then don’t try to fix it as most likely the taking apart means it doesn’t quite go back together as well.

:cough:

5″ drop, no slop here – I’ve had no issues with mine at all

Give it time.

Mine isn’t exactly brilliant. It’s not even a year old, every time it rains or there’s a puddle water gets into it and by the end of a ride it won’t even function due to water ingress. I’ve had to strip and rebuild it about four times and carefully dry it now after each ride. If I could find the receipt I may have sent it back to the importer to see if there was a fault with it. The seals are appalling.

Is that what you were waiting for guys? 🙂

Crikey. As good an idea as it is, it doesn’t seem that anyone has come up with a foolproof design yet 🙄

i’ve got a gravity dropper – and think it’s ace.

i bought the simple one – with the ‘clitoris’ button on the seatpost, as i didn’t want anymore crap on my handlebars.

i spent a few weeks getting the hang of operating it on the fly (stood up, one hand on the bars), and do it without thinking now.

it’s a little simple/basic, and it does get a little sticky after a few wet/muddy rides, but it’s super-easy to service and 10 mins later feels like new.

there is a little twisty rattle/play, but i don’t find it a problem, or even irritating.

4″ drop – seems about right for me, but i’d really like a 1″ drop intermediate for those pedally techy sections.

tis wicked.

Yeah I’ve used a gravity dropper and it was ace. Can’t speak from experience on the long term reliability, but they’ve been around for a long time now & have a decent reputation I think. Fugly as sin though, sadly.

Had a Joplin for 7 months, never had an issue with it

My speedball works fine (18 months & counting). I use a rear mudguard to keep it that way.

I’ve had a Gravity Dropper for two and a half years. In that time, I’ve taken it apart once to re-grease it and I did a cable change (standard gear cable) at the same time. It has a couple of mm play which isn’t noticeable whilst sat on it. The rubber boot makes it look ugly? Well, it also keeps the crap out. And if it bothers you that much, just cut it off.

My SO has had one for almost 2 years, and it just started to return slowly, so I have reinflated the main chamber. Internals have been fine even though it has been ridden all year round.

Mind you it does have a inner tube sheath/condom to protect the shaft which seem to stop the crap getting in.

Whereas my GD is shit, its unreliable and drives me nuts, as it won’t lock in either the fully extended or the fully dropped positions, as soon as it gets ridden in anything other than dry conditions (basically I can get it to lock in the full extension and the 1″ drop, or 1″ drop and full drop positions)

Hi Rich, although i love my G-D, it does need a little ‘fettling’

it won’t lock in the ‘fully-up’ position if the screw-collar is too tight. So i run it about 1 turn loose – crap i know but it’s never caused a problem…

try it?

and it won’t lock down if the boot has come off at the top, which it does occasionally.

anyone know where i can get spare boots?

I have tried playing with the collar, and I can get it to work OK if its just been cleaned and relubed, however as soon as a speck of mud gets on it, its knackered again.

I need to send it back really, but its out of warranty 🙁

been running a joplin for a year now, bit of wobble, but nothing annoying.

used an inner tube and a couple of zip ties to fix any mud getting through.

Personally: didn’t like it.

* when the seat is low, if you pick the bike up by the back of the saddle, the seatpost just rises up (and then lowers again when you push it down).
(The gravity dropper apparently doesn’t do this, saw somebody with one at CyB and it clicks in at the lower position).

* The very slight amount of play when it’s up bugs me. I’ve seen an advert for one with a ‘patented one way bearing’ that supposedly gets rid of this problem, but how well it does I don’t know.

* I didn’t have it long enough for maintenance to be an issue, but i quite enjoy maintenance so stripping and regreasing wouldn’t have been a problem, but might be for some.

* but the main issue with it, and this might sound silly – but, the fact that the feature is there just tempts you to use it, whereas before you wouldn’t have needed to bother. i.e., for a short climb you might put it up, whereas if you didn’t have it you would just honk up it standing up.
On flat-ish bits i found i spent too long faffing about with it trying to find the ‘optimium’ height.

so I got rid of it.