Are they all still rubbish, or is it worth spunking my wedge on one for my new play thing?

If you’ve got one and it has play in it, do you notice it on the bike and does it annoy the hell out of you?

Not interested in non-bar-mounted adjust ones I don’t think.

Cheers-ears!

whats the largest drop in inches available in the uk? 🙂

jedi – Member
whats the largest drop in inches available in the uk?
POSTED 38 SECONDS AGO # REPORT-POST

3.5 ft by all accounts 🙂

paulrockliffe – Member

Are they all still rubbish, or is it worth spunking my wedge on one for my new play thing?

If you’ve got one and it has play in it, do you notice it on the bike and does it annoy the hell out of you?

Gravity Dropper still as excellent as they have been since they first came out. Yes it has a wee bit of play that I can notice if I think about it, especially as the replacable bushings are probably overdue replacement, but it doesn’t bother me at all. Nothing better’s come along as far as I can tell, except for the aesthetics of the things as they are bloody hideous.

My KS i900R might actually work now after being returned twice under warranty but even if it does I don’t think I’d recommend it…

I have KS i900Rs on two of my bikes. In the first year that I owned the first of these (it’s now 2 years old) it took several trips back to the distributor but since then they’ve both behaved well. Like you I think that the bar-mounted lever makes the concept and I wouldn’t get one that requires a crotch-grab to operate.

There is a small amount of play that is perceptible when wiggling the posts by hand but I have never noticed this while riding.

Downsides? They are expensive and I still keep rigid posts in the correct sizes to hand as I am still nervous about their reliability. One needed to go back last September after a crash knocked the saddle clamp loose. The other recently needed its clamp parts replaced after they went out of shape in an odd manner. Both of these were handled under warranty, though.

gd is good
all are more prone to play than a standard seatpost mine has afew mm after 4 years
Not noticable on the bike

joplin 4, has some play but i’ve yet to notice while actually riding.

Joplin 3 here. Has play in it but I bought it second hand for £35, serviced it myself and its spot on. Don’t notice the play when riding unless you think about it.

£35 well spent 🙂

That said, the ludicrous amounts they cost new are possibly worth it. Its made my riding much more enjoyable – find myself dropping my post much more often than I used to.

My ks post after 2 yrs, marks on the shaft now.

What’s the haps in droppy-seatpost land these days?

is it worth spunking my wedge on one for my new play thing?

finally realizes I’m officially old and no longer down wid da middle-aged 😥

lipseal, that happened to my original post. They’ve changed the design now and it doesn’t appear to be happening to either of my posts now. If your post isn’t quite 2 years old you could get it sorted under warranty. If not it may still be worth contacting Pure/Superstar – maybe fruit will be in a good mood.

Cheers Chris might do that, or will I have to go to the shop I bought it from?

“spunking my wedge” – Nice! 😯

FWIW, I’ve had a Reverb for a few weeks now and love it. Tiny amount of play in the saddle at full extension but I certainly haven’t noticed it when riding and it disappears if you compress it a bit.

Reverb is shaping up to be the definitive adjustable post. In use, it works so much better than either a Gravity Dropper or a Joplin. It has a couple of major benefits as far as I’ve experienced it.

It’s infinitely adjustable and because it’s hydraulic it’s actually really easy to set it right where you want it. You learn to gently squeeze the lever if all you need is a shallow drop. This is impossible on a Gravity Dropper and a lot harder to achieve in practice on a Joplin.

It’s utterly reliable; having had one for three months now I’ve had zero issues with it; it works as well now as it did three months ago, which is more than can be said for either the GD or Joplin, both of which really needed maintenance after a month of winter riding.

It has no play and doesn’t extend when you pick the bike up by the saddle. That doesn’t sound like it’s much an issue but it’s actually a bonus when lifting the bike over styles, fences etc.

You can easily buy them for £250, which is a LOT of money yes, but when compared to the competition, makes it very good value for money.

Cheers Chris might do that, or will I have to go to the shop I bought it from?

Don’t know. I’ve sent mine back via the shop I got it from before but the last problem I had (bent saddle clamp) I just contacted Pure directly and they were OK with that.

It may be worth emailing Pure directly. If they then tell you to go through the shop then do that.

My i950 has had a few minor niggles in the last few winter months, they’re definetly not a fit and forget item. So far the heads come loose, no problem, just retighten with a big of loctite, and the cable gets jammed up with mud. Just had to order new cable and inner, not a massive problem but an annoyance.

They are pretty revolutionary though, if/when it stops working, you will wonder how you ever lived without it. Don’t think I could go back to a standard post easily.

i’ve got a RASE as I needed

9″ of drop
27.2mm seatpost

works well. Not infinately adjustable ala reverb, but there’s something like 20 positions, so its as-good-as. Pricey when new, and there’s definate play in the saddle, but like the others I don’t notice it when riding.

Overall, the dropper experience is a good one, particularly on trails which undulate. my gripes about the post I’ve got are :

Can’t tilt the saddle ‘nose up’, which is how I prefer to have it when doing dirt jumps

have to be a bit careful with the seat tube clamp pressure. Too hard and it doesn’t work very well

H

Might be worth hanging on for the ST mag review.

geetee1972 – Member

It’s utterly reliable; having had one for three months now I’ve had zero issues with it; it works as well now as it did three months ago, which is more than can be said for either the GD or Joplin, both of which really needed maintenance after a month of winter riding.

My GD Turbo has had one quick service in a year and a half of use in all conditions, and was bought used… That service was pre-emptive and didn’t show up any issues, no dirty grease etc so I reckon it’d probably still be fine with no servicing at all.

Yep I should add in supprt of Northwind’s comments that the GDs do carry on working really well having been serviced.

I would agree with the comments re the GD post – several of the guys I ride with use them & I nearly bought one last year. Simple, effective, easy to service (They do seem to need regular cleaning though) and fantastic customer service.

Having said that, I’m glad I held out for a Reverb!

reverb is limited in size though xfusion hilo is where its at?
im sure the stw group test it really impressed em or something
says so here…

Fresh Goods

CRC are supposed to be sending me a Reverb on the 16th. Assuming they havent self imolated due to all the card fraud issues.

The ‘other’ mag also rated the x-fusion HiLo. The only drawback it could find is that it is 170g heavier than the Reverb.

It is however about £80 cheaper!

Gravity Dropper is the way to go still imo.

The problem with mag reviews is that the can’t possibly test them for long enough to find any true problems. They’re all bloody good when they’re new, its how they last that tests the good ones.

Specialized Command post is awesome too. Mine has no play in it at all and the bar operation is great. I have the 5inch version with 3 positions. Love it, won’t ride a bike without it now.

Reverb got expensive but best in class in ST.

Andituk – the review of the droppers recently did say some were really shite. There are of course the long term review – STW are doing one of the Reverb on one of theirs.

Ive just bought a Specialized Command from the classifieds not fitted it yet but it looks sturdy enough

Cool, all good answers so far and lots to consider. My main consideration is that if they’re indispensable once purchased and I have 3 bikes, that’s £750. Which is a lot of wedge to spunk.

paulrockliffe – Member

“Cool, all good answers so far and lots to consider. My main consideration is that if they’re indispensable once purchased and I have 3 bikes, that’s £750. Which is a lot of wedge to spunk.”

If you’ve got compatible seat tubes, they’ll move from bike to bike easy enough, it’s only an issue if you want to ride all your bikes at the same time.

Which is a lot of wedge to spunk.

Is this some variation on the ‘biscuit game’?

The only benefit I can see to having a non-remote adjustable post is that it’s easier to swap between bikes with the same ST diameter.

Had a Gravity Dropper for over 12 months now and it’s been outstanding.

You can strip clean and put back together in as matter of minutes, they really are that simple.

I wouldn’t dismiss the bar mount option, it really makes a difference on trails to be able to drop 1″ or 4″ without stopping and then poping the saddle back up again.

They only negative is they look abit industrial.

Although it had crossed my mind that I could swap one between several bikes, the reality is that I would end up with 3, 4 if I start using my DH bike on the trails again.