Just as a follow up I though I'd give a quick 1 month on review of my HiLo now I've had a few outings on it...
like other people have done I decided early on to "Weatherproof" it further by fitting a length of chopped up inner tube over the shaft and using a chopped up milk bottle and some zip ties to make a little fender forthe underside/rear of the seat rails to try and keep crap from the back wheel out of the lever mechanism, thus far these measures are working well they've kept the post itself mostly crap free on the wetter rides I've had lately, althout they obviously don't improve the aesthetics much...
Functionally I've found it pretty good, Drops pretty quickly if you need it to, although it doesn't quite return as fast as I would like, it does mean I can drop the seat, and just keep rolling into the descents, the ability to drop an inch or two means you can set a good height for flatter pedally singletrack if you want, I did find myself wantint to play with it a bit too much during the first couple of weeks, and started trying to plan more descents into my routes (and of course climbs to the top again), now the novelty has worrn off a bit I'm still using it as and when I need to but I probably don't flick it down quite as much as I was. doing.
The version I have with the under-saddle lever only has been perfectly adequate, however I have had the odd moment on bumpy trails or when going for the level a bit late, I think on balance I would advise most people to go for the version which includes the bar remote, I'm now quite keen on finding a remote for the post, either an x-fusion aftermarket job or seeing if I could use the Pure switch (with integrated Loc-on clamp) as both look quite handy.
Although there is a little detectable play when off the bike, when sat on the bike you cannot feel it and the post feels solid and sturdy.
Overall I'm pretty pleased with the thing, I think a bar remote would improve things a little but otherwise so far it's been a good bit of kit: B+
