I am in the market for a new dropper and cant decide between these 2. I want cable actuated so i am not interested in a reverb.

For me reliability and easy repairs trump everything else.

Which do you reckon?

Thomson all day long for me. Had a Lev that failed twice in 12 months and got a refund due to lack of warranty spares at the time. Great when they work tho.
Thomson build quality is awesome. Just feels way better than the Lev (and reverb) with next to no movement after 6 months regular use.

Will be picking up my Thomson dropper later today after much research, hope I made the right decision.

You will now get a host of Thomson lovers and Lev lovers! Probably not much in it. There will also be Reverb people that will swear by them but for me there are just too many issues and cables will always beat hydraulics for reliability.

I have a Lev integra which has been flawless for a year in the filthiest Scottish and Lakes conditions and hasn’t had so much as a new cable. I think that’s due to the internal cable routing and no hydraulics to go wrong.

I went for the Lev as it had a 150mm drop version. If I wanted another dropper for my non stealth routed bike I would go lev as a loop of cable hanging down when you cycle the seat can never be a good thing! Also the southpaw actuator they do is brilliant and miles better than the standard one. People think that’s just for 1 X 10 but you can actually mount it upside down on the opposite side for 2 X usage.

So for me………Lev.

Thanks guys, I have had a reverb for few years but its going on the boys new build. I absolutely hate the lever with a passion and i was looking at getting the southpaw for the lev or trying the shifter bodge.

Ill hum and hah for a bit longer then go for my usual impulsive buy.

cheers

Lever on the Thomson is very good. Lovely bit of kit and highly recommended.

Ah thats good to know chestrockwell, i haven’t managed to play with one yet.

TBH they both seem pretty equal on reliability, and Lev aftersales is way better than it used to be (Thomson aftersales seems pretty wobbly tbh- stories of very slow turnaround, and when my mate’s went wrong he got a very “Oh yeah, they all do that sir” answer- they’d warranty it but it was a known bug. The Thomson seems to have the better seatclamp though.

(and yeah, the Reverb lever is pish. The Thomson and Lev ones are pretty equal imo, the Thomson is a bit more sticky out which could be good or bad. I like the Lev one, some folks hate it)

I can only vouch for the Lev. I have the 125mm version and it’s been faultless for approx 2 years. Just the occasional rub down and squirt of silicone spray. Only quibble is it has developed some rattly play in that time, but i reckon it just needs a bit of TLC to sort that.

Thomson here. Great bit of kit and no issues. Tbh the cable actuated swung it for me. Plus the price was reasonable too.

The fact that I could get a 125mm KS Dropzone (which, as far as I can tell is a laidback Lev) for under £130 delivered via Jenson USA meant I went for that. Bought it for the ‘Ard Rock Enduro back in August and apart from a bit of fiddling to make it sit right and hold the cable probably, it’s been grand so far.

i was looking at getting the southpaw for the lev or trying the shifter bodge

I made an adaptor to make the (very nicely made) Thomson remote work as a thumb shifter…made it even betterer

The fact that I could get a 125mm KS Dropzone (which, as far as I can tell is a laidback Lev) for under £130 delivered via Jenson USA meant I went for that. Bought it for the ‘Ard Rock Enduro back in August and apart from a bit of fiddling to make it sit right and hold the cable probably, it’s been grand so far.

Stone me if I’m wrong, but from a quick Google image search, the Dropzone is most certainly not a laidback Lev.

It looks to all intents and purposes to be the same as a KS i900, which preceded the i950 (improved head/clamp), which preceded the Lev (improved everything – most specifically, fixed cabling)

One point to note with the thomson, the internal routing design isn’t the best. Once it’s set up and working it’s grand, but it can be a bit of a bugger to get ‘just right’. Fantastic once it’s set up, but I can’t comment on KS internally routed ones.
I fractionally prefer the KS remote though, despite running thomsons on both my bouncy bikes. If I was using an external one, I’d convert an old XT front shifter to be a remote for it instead, but this’ll be (a lot) harder to do on the internal ones.

LEV Integra was a doddle to set up. I marked my max seatpost extension on my old post, transferred that to the Lev, set the cable length to the top of the seatpost, then chopped off the corresponding amount between there and where it would attach to the bottom of the Lev. Easy.

Did you consider the nukeproof oklo? Cable operated, got one for Xmas waiting to go on my bike.

crashmagnet, i did but as far as i could see there was no 30.9 option which was the size i need 🙁

Ahhh yeah, good point re: size!