but I’m seat dropper curious.

I’m not sure if it’s just the opportunity to have another expensive bit of kit on a bike that attracts me or the belief that my riding experience would be £200 ‘betterer’.

Should I just continue wending my merry way around with a foot of seatpost showing at all times or go with the office chair look and the hope that it’ll turn me into a riding god?

Yes

I’m a non-dropped too but I suspec that it’d probably improve my riding if I did. It’s just that when I’ve tried, I’ve found that the saddle not being ‘there’ just made the bike feel odd/sketchy underneath me – probably just because of what I’ve got used to.

Incidentally, I have found that crouching down a lot more on the bike on fast DHs makes me go faster (initially to the point of noticeably getting more pinch flats…) and that doing that, the saddle is more noticeably in the way.

I’m waiting until 27.2 droppers with remotes are more reasonably priced though.

You’ve never lived.

Why not try dropping it using the clamp and see if you like it? Or have I misread your post?

Or have I misread your post?

Yes, he wants to spend money to improve his riding experience. Be away with your sensible suggestion 🙂

Still too expensive / unreliable for me but I can see their appeal

Don’t you drop your post for descending at all? I would try using a QR seat clamp first? Im always putting my post up and down (with clamp) and always have done.

Im kind of with richmtb at the moment I’m not 100% happy they are reliable enough.

Why not try dropping it using the clamp and see if you like it?

and there’s the rub. I really can’t see myself doing that. Certainly not often enough to be able to get used to it and make a value judgement on whether it’s worthwhile.

I tend to want to just ‘keep riding’ when I’m out on the bike.

Stop/Start stuff leaves me cold (metaphorically and physically).

The reliability issues reported seem to be an issue too so I’d only want to buy new.

Plus the fact that I have 4 mtb’s and would probably only fit a dropper to the c456.

This drop yer seat stuff is nonsense to me. As long as ya can get yerself back off yer sadddle no bother I dont get the point. Totally alters the feel of the bike. Each to their own though. If ya want to be betterer then put 100quid into a dirtschool day.

Seems pretty daft to go straight from a bolt up seat clamp to an automatic dropper, but I sort of get it.
IME, dropper posts are only really worth the effort if you get one that works properly, i.e. a Reverb.
I’d probably get one if I could afford it, but in the meantime, I’ve managed to perfect dropping and raising a QR post manually on the fly which prevents unnecessary faffing about.

Ah fair point. Most of my MTBing seems to be more social than training-y, so stopping at the top and bottom of fun stuff happens anyway.

I stopped dropping years ago.
I run my saddle a tad low & slightly tilted back. No need to add an expensive boat anchor when I can still ride the steepest technical track at stupid speed, without faffing with my seat height.

No. As soon as you get to the woods (or wherever your more technically challenging riding is) drop your seatpost manually and leave it there until you ride away from said techy area. Keep doing that and you’ll learn whether you like how much more you can move around the bike with the saddle out of the way. If you do then consider a dropper post.

I can ride pretty much anything I ride with my seat down with my seat up – but I ride better with my seat out of the way. Not necessarily faster, just better.

I might give it a go tonight and see how I get on.

It’ll be dark and no one will see me. Unless I meet the Brighton MTB massive at Stanmer.

Yes, you can get ‘behind’ the seat for really steep stuff but that puts your weight really far back and is more of a ‘hold on and survive’ pose than an attack position. If you want to ride downhill fast, I think you’ve got to have your seat down – particularly if you’re the kind of rider that likes to hit things hard and hop over the odd obstacle.

IMO, obviously.

However if you’re used to never putting your seat down, I wonder whether you’ll actually appreciate a dropper seatpost.

Most people I know have three seat positions

Max up = road spin/non-technical climb
1 inch down = technical climbs and flowy stuff
Full down = long descents, especially if they’re fairly hard and fast.

Even if you don’t use the third position (yet) surely you can see the advantage of changing between the first two?

No. As soon as you get to the woods (or wherever your more technically challenging riding is) drop your seatpost manually and leave it there until you ride away from said techy area.

This approach works for me too! If I was more gnarr I might want the seat more out of the way sometimes or if the area I normally ride was a lot more hilly with a lot of climbing (so I’d want to bring the seat up again) then a Reverb or similar would probably make sense. But I’m not, and it isn’t, so it doesn’t.

I don’t really do steep downhills, it’s more woodland singletrack with the odd log hop.

I do find I get bashed in the bum by the seat as the back end bounces over stuff, though.

I’m talking myself out of dropping altogether now.

I might give it a go tonight and see how I get on.

It’ll be dark and no one will see me. Unless I meet the Brighton MTB massive at Stanmer.

Go on, go on, go on, go on! Put it down once you get there, stand up for all the climbs and for every bit of singletrack, be it flat or downhill, get in this position and lean the bike under you for the bends:

To be fair given where you ride you only really need to drop the saddle if your thinking of tackling things like the various log rolls in Stanmer and even then it’ll only be while you get used to them. There is nothing steep enough around the park to warrant dropping it otherwise.

I do drop the saddle when riding around the Surrey Hills so am on the look out for one to put on the full susser but I’ll not bother on the hardtail as anything i need to drop the saddle for locally we normally stop at the top of to discuss, look at & then ride around 🙄

look at & then ride around

yes, well, there is that. 😳

I was hoping a dropper post would remove the ‘ride around all the tricky bits’ gene from me. I suspect it won’t though.

I may have a surreptitious drop when I think no-one’s looking and see how I get on.

Whatever you decide, just give your seat post the occasional wiggle so it doesn’t seize.

I’ve got mine stuck in the commute bike at the minute. PITA.

I got one (out of the classifieds) because I wasn’t happy with the amount post in my frame when it’s extended for climbing and I’m not a fan of murdering my QR tight.

So far (one ride) it seems good, but I can see why they fail. I’m trying to keep it clean so i’ll see how it holds up. I got the lever version because I didn’t like the idea of a big loop of cable, but I should have got the remote I think.

+0.5 from me until i’ve tested it some more!

This drop yer seat stuff is nonsense to me. As long as ya can get yerself back off yer sadddle no bother I dont get the point. Totally alters the feel of the bike. Each to their own though. If ya want to be betterer then put 100quid into a dirtschool day.

+1

Much of my technical riding is done on my steel hardtail which doesn’t have a QR so I never drop the seat. When I do drop it on the FS it feels a bit ‘wrong’, so I just leave it in the one place. Also stops the shiny Thomson post getting scratched 😆

Only one heel dropped and vertical wrists? 0_0

456ssssss are built long with a high bottom bracket and a low front end. When you descend something really steep you struggle to get out over the back to equalize your centre of gravity because the seat is high and in the way, and the stretch makes it hard anyway. You either need to get a frame size down on what you’d normaly take or you need a dropper post.

It’s a design thing.

Please note that I was very good there and didn’t mention chain suck!

Don’t get me wrong…I enjoyed mine, and I think my ex did, despite the problem I’m not going to mention because I’m being good.

I’m with you on the wrists! The back heel is dropped relative to the incline.

I know someone who never drops his saddle.

He also face-plants reasonably regularly 😆

The number one reason xc-jeyers(no offence) keep going over the bars, has to be because they have their seat too high. The inevitability of it is painful to watch.
That BUSA student video carnage thing shows it perfectly. Most of those who sailed over the bars had their seat as high as possible. A dropper would have come in handy then.

Getting your seat down allows you to move around the bike so much more, rail fast corners, almost sit on your back wheel on stupidly steep sections, and hop and jump stuff.

Having said that, I don’t use a dropper-post. If its a really fun dh bit of a decent length with lots of jumps I’ll drop it, if its a singletrack section with the odd short climb but also drops and jumps I’ll have it up but a bit lower than normal, anything else its at optimum pedalling height.

Until the day I am racing, I cant see any problem with stopping briefly to adjust the post.

I’m in the same boat as you Wwaswas, never drop my saddle at the moment, mainly because I don’t like to stop and lose my flow, but also go over the bars 2/3 times a year so a dropper might help.

The number one reason xc-jeyers(no offence) keep going over the bars, has to be because they have their seat too high. The inevitability of it is painful[b]funny[/b] to watch.

That’s not the reason at all, it’s simply because they’re shit riders.

That BUSA student video carnage thing shows it perfectly. Most of those who sailed over the bars had their seat as high as possible. A dropper would have come in handy then.

Watch it again, most weren’t even looking down the correct line, all were front wheel braking too much , badly weighting their bikes and most hadn’t a clue how to ride off camper mud.

QR £5 job done. sounds like you would hardly ever need drop your saddle anyway so no point spending £££s and adding the weight and shonky factor to your bike. When you get to the look/ride round sections stop drop have a go, clean it have another go, clean it get confident saddle backup try it again, next time you may not have to drop your saddle.

Dave
confirmed habitual saddle dropper, will definitley be buying a dropper when they are cheaper lighter and less shonky 🙂

Racing is a bit of a conundrum, sounds the perfect scenario for uppydowny posts, there’s local stuff I know well that I can fly down with the saddle down or saunter down a fair bit slower with saddle up so in a race situation a reverb would make perfect sense, extra speed. Can’t see many racers putting up with the extra lb of weight tho.

I presume even very good xc racers can still go a bit quicker downhill with their saddle down, can anyone confirm?

Yes, you can get ‘behind’ the seat for really steep stuff but that puts your weight really far back and is more of a ‘hold on and survive’ pose than an attack position. If you want to ride downhill fast, I think you’ve got to have your seat down – particularly if you’re the kind of rider that likes to hit things hard and hop over the odd obstacle.

This

Buy one. Reverb. 6 months no problem.

If you ride long descents that change incline where one minute you want to peddle like a banshee and the next the trail steepens then you’ll love a dropper. My back could have been given such an easier time if these were around 10 years ago. Yes you can get behind the seat on steep descents but that stretches you out of shape and tends to put more shock through your back.

The number one reason xc-jeyers(no offence) keep going over the bars, has to be because they have their seat too high.

Naaa, its definately a front brake thing.

Get over comfort brakeing and let the bike roll results in far fewer crashes. Watch a proper pro level XC race and the courses are often on a par with black graded trails and they ride them with the seatpost at full height all the time!

Since getting out of the bad hait of braking on anything other than flat straigh sections I regulaly scare myself whitless heading for somethign that I ‘know’ is going tomake me crash, only to roll through it like it’s not even there!

No way am I shit hot on a bike (more just shit) but dropping the seat post makes a huge difference when there is a descent with any drops / tight turns / jumps- you can get your COG down and back – not just back and you don’t catch yer knackers on the seat.

I have a QR and tend to put the seat right down on a descent and back up for the climbs – most of the places I ride this would tend to be a few mins. if the climb is short I don’t bother to put it back up again.

doing so has helped improve my riding a lot.

£133 for a KS dropper from wiggle 8)

wiggle? how appropriate 😆

That BUSA student video carnage thing shows it perfectly. Most of those who sailed over the bars had their seat as high as possible. A dropper would have come in handy then.

Watch it again, most weren’t even looking down the correct line, all were front wheel braking too much , badly weighting their bikes and most hadn’t a clue how to ride off camper mud.

Good as an excuse as any to watch it again… 🙂

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0GV3NCGxIk[/video]

If ya want to be betterer then put 100quid into a dirtschool day

I’m fairly confident that one of the first things Chris & Andy would suggest is dropping your saddle! Andy’s an XC racer and he still has his dropped for fun/DH riding.

I never used to drop my seat either (since ’93 and mostly due bad knees) but I have ridden with Reverb seatpost since July and I think I can understand both users and nay-sayers POV.
For me the Reverb is fantastic for any new downhills and technical spots as it brings so much confidence without interrupting the ride. On my local spots I’ve noticed tendency to try new lines seat down and riding them normally on later tries.

Is it necessary? No, not at all, but it brings more fun to riding than any other component upgrade in many years. Also the Reverb remote is hard to position with full cockpit, folks riding 1×9 can put “right hand remote” under bars on the left side for really quick use.