As Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou once proclaimed “you’ve got to get up to get down”. But what did he know about the ins and outs of dropper seatposts? From cult component of the noughties through to the must-have modulator of today, what do we think makes for a good – or bad – dropper post?
The Hite-Rite is often credited as being the original dropper post. But it wasn’t really, was it? The Hite-Rite was basically a seatpost QR collar crossed with a whisk. And no, the RockShox Reverb isn’t the Daddy of Droppers either (although the Reverb must be credited with their ensuing ubiquity).
The true long-forgotten ancestor of the dropper post as we know it today was the Gravity Dropper.
Ahhh.. the Gravity Dropper. I had one. It wasn’t perfect. It only dropped 100mm (if memory serves me right). It had two positions: fully dropped or dropped one inch. It required a bit of kitchen table surgery every few months. The remote lever was absolutely lethal at inflicting injury to your legs during crashes or bail-outs.
But… the Gravity Dropper was well worth persevering with because well, it was a dropper post! I don’t really have to explain the benefits to you in 2022AD do I? Dropper posts improve all aspects of mountain biking. All of them.
What makes for a good dropper? What makes for an annoying dropper? How much does a decent one cost? All of these questions are answered in the video below. Plus all kinds of tangential waffling. You’re very welcome!
Benji blathering. Hannah trying to keep it together.
Help us make our podcasts even better
Join our mailing list to receive Singletrack editorial wisdom directly in your inbox.
Each newsletter is headed up by an exclusive editorial from our team and includes stories and news you don’t want to miss.
