Has anyone heard of a spring you can fit to your seatpost that enables you to lower / raise the seat?  Basically you flip the qr and your weight forces the seatpost down then you unweight the seat, the spring will allow the post to return to the original height.  

A cheap alternative to joplin etc.  I read somewhere this spring was coming off-patent and would be widely available.  Anyone heard of it?

Cheers
Rich

hite rite

I went round Glentress a couple of years back with a few Northern Irish fellas and one had a homemade spring contraption and was running it to see if it worked. Actually a great idea but it was a wee bit fugly. 🙂

and you were riding with them – double ming!

I think it might just be me but all these contraptions seem to be solutions looking for a problem. If you are doing some kind of riding that means you need to adjust your seat height then here's a Viz TopTip. Get off your bike open the quick release and drop your saddle. Once you're done then stop and put it back to where it was before.

In any other walk of life it would be a bit wierd. Meet 3 strangers in a carpark who've you've never met before- agree to partake in 3hours of sweaty activity? 😆

RichCC- exactly.

Get off your bike open the quick release and drop your saddle. Once you're done then stop and put it back to where it was before.

Yes this works fine but it does get annoying quite quickly, especially when you ride with someone who has a gravity dropper and you see how effortlessly they go between riding positions whilst you have to stop and re-adjust for the trail!

You can actually raise and drop your saddle whilst riding. It takes abit of practice but it works.

_Tom_ – I can only imagine that either you are that one mountain biker who never stops for a drink/rest/to talk bollocks/something to eat/have a look at a sketchy bit and need to press on regardless or you have an issue with your Chalfonts and need to keep moving your seat to get comfy.

Just seems like another expensive gimmick to separate people from their cash.

The other possibility is another leftfield one – just leave your saddle where it is and stop pssing about with it?

I disagree richcc…

I can honestly say I would rather change seat height without having to actually stop than my current faff of:
Stop, get off, undo QR, wiggle seat down, re-do QR, trundle down fun bit, stop, get off, undo QR, pull seat back up and set height, re-do QR, (Tut and/or Sigh at scuffed to buggery finish on seat post), get back on and ride…

I much prefer the idea of flicking a switch and technology makes the minor effort required disappear, as I see it the major issues are still cost, additional maintenance/reliability issues and of course weight…

More components mean more to potentially go wrong, more to maintain and more weight, and you pay twice as much for the privilege…

But It’s like any Gizmo; the first few stabs are not bad, but not perfect, give it ten years they’ll be bullet proof, weigh naff all, cost nothing and we’ll all have one….

I look forwards to the return of the Hite Rite too….

P.S. isn’t the i900 the Cheap alternative to the Joplin?

how do you get your weight low and cenral if the seat is up tho? Downhill with your seat up is stupid!

I don't drop my saddle much, but when I do it's nice that it's really easy and quick with my adjustable seatpost.

I don't really care whether anyone thinks it was a waste of money, my own opinion is enough for me, and I havent wasted my money on ti, carbon, xtr or other pointless bling, so I felt I could justify it.

EDIT hite rites were great back in the day, but that was when you had decent QRs and integrated collars – not sure they will work these days unless they find a way round the "improved" seperate collars and QRs. Though I have one at home to try!

I thought they were bollocks, I got one and now wouldn't ride without it. Amazing things.

Before this turns into a pros and cons of uppy downy seatposts thread….

The Joplin3 is on sale at CRC just now for £110. I hear that the distributors will warranty it if there's any issues (as I've heard a couple of people have problems with the J3) and even in some cases replace it with a J4.

I've bought one on that principle to give it a shot.

now… as for the discussion… I used to have a GD on an old bike and loved it.

I like to ride fast, both up and down. Yes, everything can be ridden with the saddle up, but some steep techy stuff or sections of trail with jumps in, can get you into real trouble with the saddle at full height – I came off last saturday on a really steep rocky bit coz I couldn't be bothered stopping to drop my saddle for a tiny section… more to the point, I couldn't be bothered with the faff of setting the height again afterwards.

Basically, to ride everything fast and smoothly, I need the saddle at full height for the climbs and dropped a couple of inches for techy descending.

I'm more than happy to be sociable and stop and chat, but sometimes I just wanna keep riding.

The big thing though is I hate my saddle at the wrong height or not straight and can't be doing with the faff of getting it right after a dropped saddle section.

Height adjustable seatposts mean my saddle is always at the correct height, up or down, and always straight. No faff… more time to ride, more time to chat, less time getting annoyed with saddles at the wrong height.

Other folk's mileage may vary. No-one says everyone should have one, but for some, me included, they improve my riding enjoyment.

Nuff said.

I am tempted by a Joplin. When that horrible-cheap/nasty lower version worked it was a dream…then other times I felt like a demented cowboy at a rodeo trying to get the thing to lower or raise.. 😆

I'd absolutely love one but they need to get a bit cheaper still.

Agree. Its hardly ground-breaking in complexity is it?

A cheap alternative to joplin etc. I read somewhere this spring was coming off-patent and would be widely available.

Do you mean the Joplins design is coming off patent? Or another? If its the Joplin then I can the monopoly has gone and the price should come right down 😀

hite rite, but still isnt 'on the fly' as you would get with a remote operated gravity dropper.

People dont seem to get that its useful for dropping the seatpost for certain sections of a trail – not the whole trail. I certainly dont feel stable being smacked in the arse by a saddle over a drop, but i dont want to get off and put the saddle back up to ride the next bit of trail as i'll lose momentum and flow

stooo
+1

stoo, I've just ordered a gravity dropper, fancy a mid week "try out our new pointless and overpriced gadgets" ride at inners? I'll try and keep up 🙂

"I came off last saturday on a really steep rocky bit coz I couldn't be bothered stopping to drop my saddle for a tiny section"

Coming off Lee Pen by any chance? I only didn't fall off coz I jumped off!

_Tom_ – I can only imagine that either you are that one mountain biker who never stops for a drink/rest/to talk bollocks/something to eat/have a look at a sketchy bit and need to press on regardless or you have an issue with your Chalfonts and need to keep moving your seat to get comfy.

Nope it just gets annoying having to interrupt your "flow" (and I hate that term) to get off and lower the seatpost.