I got my first reverb 18 months ago on a new bike and it was great up until the point it started sagging about 10mm. Sent it back and had a warranty replacement back within a week which was great service. I have now had 6 reverbs replaced with the same,well known issue. My most recent post has been on my bike for a grand total of 3 weeks and same problem again! Now i appreciate the great warranty and quick turn around but will sram ever sort this problem out? Must be costing them a fortune and probably explains the rrp of over £400 on the new model.
My advice get a fox transfer, which is cheaper and has remained perfect on my second bike for over 12 months.

Fox?

Mwahahahahahahahaha…..

If only Fox did a 170 post…

Ive had lots of problems with my KS crux post and can have a fox transfer factory post instead for £165 with the fox lever, would you recommend it?

I’ve had 4 bikes with Reverb’s over 5 years iirc and warranty returned 2 of them, always been great for me.

I’ve had my Reverb for over three years now, serviced by myself annually or whenever it develops a problem. Which, treated right, is seldom. Top tip, don’t lift the bike by the saddle.

I’m very happy with mine, but worried that the warranty pushes the product’s price up and up and up.

I’ve never seen any previous thread on here mentioning Reverb problems.

Oh wait – that was a lie.

I meant – I’ve never seen any previous thread on here today mentioning Reverb problems.

singlespeedstu – Member

If only Fox did a 170 post…

Yup. I got my second reverb fully expecting it to go wrong, because when it works, it works better than anything else. KS have a 175mm inbound, 9point8 have their 175 and 200mm which are great if you want to spend £550 for a product that’s apparently even flakier than the reverb, and there’s that german one that’s not currently in production… Everything else? Nah. Fox simply don’t have a competitor product.

Havign said that- each of my 2 reverbs has failed once. I got a brand new one on warranty, which is ridiculous, and I fixed the out-of-warranty one myself. Not that big a deal. And they both failed soft- I rode around on the warranty one for a month with it sagging just because it wasn’t a good time to send it in.

People talk as if the sagging issue is a massive deal and you routinely hear people saying they’ll bin the post, it’s not worth fixing, but sorting mine took about £10 worth of tools and consumables and about 2 hours. I could do it now in half that without rushing. When you open them up it’s obvious that they were designed with easy servicing in mind, and rockshox have good video guides.

The whole dropper angst thing gets me, too…

I’ve got two Reverbs and several Levs. The first Reverb (2012, external) has needed bleeding once. The internal 2016 on my Nuke has been flawless although being a bit longer would be nice – not the post’s fault though.

The only issue I’ve had with the Levs was getting my head around properly tensioning the cable as it was a bit funny about when it would go down for ages because I’d managed somehow to leave a load of slack so it wasn’t actuating properly.

I don’t blast them with jetwashes and don’t lift my bikes by the saddle. Not sure if I’m one of the luckiest dropper owners there is or there’s just a handful of people making a lot of noise.

Bought a Reverb in early 2013 as part of a new build. It was warrantied when about a year and a half old, and again 2 weeks ago. So I now have a brand new one, and I paid a few hundred quid for it 4 years ago…..

Just ordered a Stealth one form my Anthem as an upgrade to the Giant one…

I’ve warrantied a few and the last one has done 2 years perfectly.

You have checked the pressure right?

I find they’re very pressure sensitive and you need to get 250psi in it to stop it sagging. But I’ve had 2 in 5 years and only replaced as I wanted a longer travel version. No competition in the market for Reverb IMO

Had two external reverbs and one stealth over my last three bikes. Not a single issue with any of them. No jet wash, no lifting by the saddle either. I’ve weighed between 10.5 and 12.7 stone in that time if that has anything to do with it.

The overwhelming impression I get from threads like this one is that reverbs are glass slipper delicate, requiring careful setup and maintenance, great when they work. But buying a used one without warranty is a terrible idea…

I also get the idea that some people seem to think reliability and decent warranty support are somehow tradeable…

I must be in the minority, but I don’t tend to buy products expecting to have to call on what is essentially an insurance policy… Warranty is supposed to cover the exceptions, not the rule.

The overwhelming impression I get from threads like this one is that reverbs are glass slipper delicate

They’re not that bad really

Had a long chat with main mechanic in LBS last week before ordering second Reverb for FS (have one on HT) and his advice was that Reverbs don’t fail any more than the other main brands they do, which is most of them, and when they do, the warranty is the best of the bunch.

I was close to buying the Fox one, but went for another reverb.

I get the impression that if everyone else shipped as many droppers as RS then the complaints/warranty claims would probably even out. I think its just the nature of the product that there will always be issues.

I think I’m onto either my 3rd or 4th for both my Trek Slash and my Giant Trance. The only hardship is if you don’t have a post to put in the bike while the warranty is being processed.

I’ve currently left the Reverb off my Trance and gone back to a standard post, so far I’m loving it.

iainc

Reverbs don’t fail any more than the other main brands they do

+1, maybe because they are a market leader their products are in forums more?

Almost everyone I know with a dropper (most people now) have a Reverb, so it’s no wonder they are the most common when posting issues. Known people have other brands and some had issues with them also. Although most common was cable snapping at the post end.

Anyway. A dropper is like a fork in mechanics and needs to be treated like one. Should be serviced regularly and can expect similar issues to a fork. In the case of a Reverb it’s like an air fork.

i think the hydraulic remote is the weak point. I was having loads of problems with mine, remote kept needing bleeding. sagging etc.

replaced the hydraulic remote with a dehy remote from bikeyoke and the post has been flawless ever since. i haven’t even had to top up the air.

can’t quite see the mechanism and its a sample size of one.

plus the dehy remote ergonomics are about a billion times better than the stock reverb.

I’ve been lucky with mine, both been pretty faultless.

I’m going to try one of the Shimano ones next, I’ve never really got on my the reverb button, it’s a pretty shit design and I’ve not idea why theyve never changed it.

It’s too small a sample but the KSs I’ve had have been way, way more reliable than my Reverbs. The i950 I still use is I think 6 years old, it’s been used continually and has had 1 big fail (and even that, a soft fail, I could keep riding). The i900 I had failed instantly but then got fixed and never missed a beat for about 5 years after that. My Reverbs have already failed to live up to that, in a fraction of the time.

(and yeah the reverb button is absolute crap, there’s no other mtb component that thinks that’s a logical position for a thumb button)

But that’s OK, it’s not necessarily about years of perfect operation, it’s about being good enough. Very little in mountain biking is indestructible

I agree with the comments regarding looking after the post but this has only been on the bike for three weeks. Regarding the issues being fixed this post had come straight from fishers and had a dec 2016 production date on the box so i would suggest that they haven’t solved the problem, infact this one had the quickest fail time of any i’ve had.

Currently on a Brand X here… but way to early to comment on reliability.

Only available in 120mm drop too, though I’m sure I read they are bringing out a longer drop version this year?

I prefer cable actuation as well but I’m a luddite I suppose. 🙂

I’m on my third reverb, 2 replacements under warranty for the 10mm sag thing, third one, now out of warranty, has gone the same way but it’s a pretty minor niggle tbh, I may get around to opening this one up and sorting it but I’m in no rush, it’s 95% effective at doing it’s job, I’ve certainly ridden with much shonkier components.

Just got a stealth with a new bike, see what issues I have with this, main one I foresee is un-frame-routing it to send it back if it fails.

The new B1 reverb is worse than the old one! Takes some doing that does.

I was an early user of dropper seatpost and I’ve had a Maverick Speedball, Crank Bros version of the same, Gravity Dropper, 4 Reverbs & currently using a Thomson.

The only one I had issues with was the Crank Bros (shocker, hey?). One of the Reverbs was absolutely hammered and did a particularly wet month in the gloop of Morzine – no issues whatsoever with that or any of them. I don’t think Reverbs are in any way bad but I do think some people are just harder on kit than others. For what it’s worth I’m 15 stone.

I know the drop is only 125 but I’m keen to look at the shimano dropper. Seems to have gone very quiet though since they were photographed and publicised with an early 2017 expected release

mildred – Member

One of the Reverbs was absolutely hammered and did a particularly wet month in the gloop of Morzine – no issues whatsoever with that or any of them.

Mud/wet isn’t a problem tbh- people still obsess about it though. Reverbs fail internally not at the outer seal