[Closed] Dropper posts, Are they worth it ?

Are there real benefits to be had on trails

I thought the benefits were dead obvious

They are a "you don't know what you've got till it's gone" type products. I've been using one for a while, and after swapping my FS for a 29er I don't have one 🙁

You soon realise what your missing when it's not there anymore.

The benefits are obvious.... it allows you to move around more on the bike when downhilling....

PS - if you're looking for a 30.9mm diameter, I've got one available 😉

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fsswap-joplin-3-seatpost

It's a personal thing, I like mine, they are well overpriced but still worth it IMO - certainly do more for my riding than carbon cranks or the latest shiny nonsense.

Yes. My list of inventions that have made mtbing better is as follows:
- Suspension that works
- Disc Brakes
- Camelbak
- Waterproof shorts that work (army ones)
- Uppy downy seatpost

They are great, even on 'XC' trails. Lets you take everything flat out. Can't recommend them enough - I was very skeptical like most people until i actually tried one. They're genius.

I've got a i900 which has been fine for a year now. Not wanting to do the previous poster out of a sale, but I wouldn't get one with less than 5 inches adjustment (leaving aside the wobblying issues) if you're doing anything that is vaugely downwards pointing.

My version:

Yes. My list of inventions that have made mtbing better is as follows:
- Suspension that works
- Disc Brakes
[b]- indexed shifting
- spds
- hyperglide[/b]
- [s]Waterproof shorts that work (army ones)[/s][b] crudguards[/b]
- [b]hite rites and frames they work with and[/b] Uppy downy seatpost
- Camelbak

Had to look a hite rite up...

http://www.bikepro.com/arch_products/seatposts/ahiter.html

Awesome.

Personally I'd have all of my list before decent shifting - mine is always out of whack anyway, and I have appreciate having a dry arse without having to have ridciulous looking crud guards (plus they get in the way).

As for SPDs.... I never use them and seem to be just as fast as those who do. Plus I can do a bunny hop properly 😉

I got the KS one (no remote) for the Mega as it was described as a must have, 1 practice and it was knackered bouncing up and down at will.

Got it back from a warrenty rebuild and thought about saving it for enduro races etc but seeing more people out there have fitted it for everyday riding and it's great.

I ride smoother and the energy saving from just popping it back up on the flat is nice.

Once I got used to it I find I'm not really caught saddle up too often.

The added bonus is that when my saddle is up it's always in the right place.

Before you decide on length of drop have a measure from your saddle up for peddaling to 90% down point and see what fits

For my riding, yes, absolutely. My gravity dropper is £200 worth of flow. Ride along, see something fun, pop it down, ride it- way better than ride along, stop, fanny around with seatpost, ride it, stop, fanny around with seatpost. On unfamiliar trails it's a godsend- for some reason some people seem to see it as a trail centre thing but ironically that's where they're generally least useful.

Course it has the other affect too, everyone calls them droppers but for some sections it's down 95% of the time and up for a quick rest for the last 5%, so then it's a raiser 😉 Falla Brae at Glentress is a perfect example- descent with a climb in the middle.

And that doesn't sound like all that much but on our french holiday we had very long sections which required low posts for some but not all, everyone else had their posts permanently down so for someone like me that was on the edge of their endurance on those big rides, having the choice was a [i]huge[/i] benefit.

I've found I'd sooner go without suspension than a dropper post now.

Forgot to say, make sure you get the remote. Fairly pointless otherwise.... if you want to be convinced of that, ride all your local trails as fast as you can and everytime you think lowering my saddle would help at this point try and touch your seatpost. Took two comedy crashes to be convinced the remote was for me!

Yes they are!

Ewan - Member
Forgot to say, make sure you get the remote. Fairly pointless otherwise.

Not for me, but I wouldn't touch mine in a race (bar an enduro), and I'm not bothered about my times otherwise.

As for SPDs.... I never use them and seem to be just as fast as those who do. Plus I can do a bunny hop properly

Sure...but it transformed riding for us roadie-influenced riders back in the day.

I still can't bunny hop properly 😳

[i]such as my local follow the dog and the monkey? [/i]

didn't move my post once today round these trails.

I had one for a while but sold it when I became bored of snapping it (twice in 6 months on a gravity dropper). Mine was the non remote version but using it on the move was no trouble. I liked it and if someone makes a reliable one at some point might be tempted to give one another go. My only other issue with them is that I was the only person in my ride group to have one so we still ended up stopping at the tops of trails for them to adjust theirs. I also think they're less useful in hillier areas, like the peaks where I ride. Reason is that I tend to do longish climbs followed by decent descents so stopping to use the qr isn't a big deal.

My mate has one, well he's had three, cos they keep breaking, getting fixed then breaking again.

I've always just ridden with the seat up, unless it's some super techy set piece, and even then I'd rather have the seat up, to be honest...

steveh - Member

"I had one for a while but sold it when I became bored of snapping it (twice in 6 months on a gravity dropper)"

Where did it snap out of curiosity, was it a multi-drop model? Mine has been bulletproof, crashproof, idiotproof and baggage slinger proof but I've heard of the upper shaft breaking more often than I like the sound of on the multi-drop

(oh, and I snapped a head bolt but normal seatposts do that too so I don't count it)

I think mine are great and part of that greatness is their remotes. As Northwind says, a great benefit is being able to adjust your saddle height when you need it, rather than having to adjust it at the start of a trail. So being able to drop the post just before a rocky thing or because you've suddenly encountered a rise you want to sit and spin up is where they really shine. The remote allows me to adjust saddle height without taking my hands from the bars and personally if I'm about to go over something rocky I don't want to be taking one hand off the bars in order to do a Michael Jackson crotch-grabbing manoeuvre right before it.

I totally agree with Northwind except i've a Joplin 3. Just got it back after a wee visit to 2pure (excellent service) and totally missed it on the last ride with a normal post.

Great for those short technical sections you wouldn't normally bother adjusting it for and as NW says, the wee climbs in a descent where you'd usually just stand and knacker yourself or sit and kill your knees.

I find that, even though it's probably less than I would have previously dropped the saddle, 3 inches is enough although 4 would be nice 😉

Excellent bit of kit and one of the best upgrades I've ever made.

Once you've tried one you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

Still, incredibly expensive for what they are really.

i have a gravity dropper and used it both in the remote and non-remote version.

on any descents i have a choice to give myself some more room to move about and now i am used to it, i couldnt do without having the choice.

had my gravity dropper for 2 years and other than cleaning and lubing it every 6 months it has been faultless.

I loved my KS seatpost but it was too long for my new frame 🙁

Northwind - Yes it was the multi drop version. I snapped the upper tube once and the the pin/surround from the lower tube as well.

If you get one definitely keep your standard post as a spare for when the fancy one needs fixing.

steveh - Member

"If you get one definitely keep your standard post as a spare for when the fancy one needs fixing."

Thanks but I've been using mine for well over a year and it's been as reliable as, well, a seatpost. Stuff does break from time to time. But it does seem the multidrop isn't their best idea, it takes an awful lot of material out of the post.

Oh hang on, that's my queue. Reliable dropper post is reliable:

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

Sorry my comment was aimed at you specifically but if you look at the number of people on here with various posts reporting problems then I think that keeping the original post as a spare in case is a good idea.

I've got one but I don't use it a lot because it's really heavy.

Was invaluable when riding steep techy stuff in the Lakes in the snow recently, not so useful on my local undulating woodland in SE England.

So worth keeping a normal seatpost for more XC sort of rides anyway, IMO.

I've got a lever-operated one, I imagine the remote ones are more useable in some ways - but I like to whip it on and off the bike quickly so I think this suits me best.

if someone could make one that didn't wobble I'd say they'd be worth it, but not yet 🙁

for short 1-2hr rides rather than raise and lower my saddle I'll often just leave it completely slammed.

They are worth it, but only with the remote -- for one, you can rarely afford to take your hand of the bars when you need to drop it, plus you get the weirdest of looks when fiddling with your hand between your legs all the time.

I got the original KS one, and it is not robust enough; the single bolt clamp has a tendency to come loose when riding over rough ground, and the thread in the (alloy) clamp sheared.

Sorry my comment was aimed at you specifically but if you look at the number of people on here with various posts reporting problems then I think that keeping the original post as a spare in case is a good idea.

I got my first early last year and it went back twice for warranty repairs. It and my second one have been fine since. Plus the KS ones don't wobble very much at all. Mind you even the reputedly wobbly Crank Brothers ones don't feel wobbly when ridden, or so I'm told.

Quick releases are about a fiver and take 10 seconds to open, adjust and close.

Get one of these.

GlitterGary - Member

"Quick releases are about a fiver and take 10 seconds to open, adjust and close."

Bit harder to do on the move though.

Why are owners of these posts so in denial of the undeniably noticable annoying wobble during use?
designer, manufacturer, wholesaler etc. I could understand 🙄
the saddle is a contact point used for controlling the bike, would you be so happy riding a bike with rotating grips or loose cranks?

The Pure Racing and the new Rock Shox Reverb have no noticable wobble. The Gravity Dropper wobble is at worst barely noticable. My mate had a Joplin that wobbled all over the place. I could not have tolerated it.

In response to the OP. For me it is up there as a must have piece of kit now. Just makes riding flow better. No stopping or starting You also drop your saddle a lot more than you would if you had to stop which just makes rides better (for me anyway)

Still very expensive though 🙁

The Pure Racing and the new Rock Shox Reverb have no noticable wobble. The Gravity Dropper wobble is at worst barely noticable. My mate had a Joplin that wobbled all over the place. I could not have tolerated it.

see what I mean? WTF is it? a cult thing?

Why are owners of these posts so in denial of the undeniably noticable annoying wobble during use?

Really, I don't notice it (on my KS post) when I'm riding. I think I can detect a tiny wobble if I grab the saddle and post in my hands, but my arse is obviously not as sensitive to this as yours.

Years ago I demoed a bike that had a Maverick Speedball on it and I think that I could perceive the wobble a little while riding, but I can't really remember. The Shockingly bad SC32 forks left a much greater impression than the seatpost did.

Which is the best non remote version then? Gravity Dropper? It seems a fair bit lighter than the other ones.

Also, how low can you put your saddle for dirt jumps etc? Doesnt look like you can "slam" it like you can with a normal post.

I've ridden bikes with wobbly seatposts before (early shock seatposts rather than droppers) and TBH once riding, you just didn't notice it.

I've also ridden a few dropper posts and none I tried had any noticeable play. Don't have one myself simply because I'm not a saddle dropper (in fact, I find it quite disconcerting if the saddle's not there...) but I would if I was 🙂

they must be good, how often do you see a 27.2 version come up on the classifieds

"GW - Member

Why are owners of these posts so in denial of the undeniably noticable annoying wobble during use?"

Neither of mine have it- they both have wobble but it's not annoying. On the GD I can feel it if I go looking but when riding though I'm sure it's there, it's beneath my attention. When the seat's dropped it has a fair old amount of flap but then, I don't sit on it when it's dropped.

I did get a multi-drop post which had the bushings fitted wrong and it had horrible slop that couldn't be dialled out, but the original set are pretty old now and still working well.

Now the KS one, it seems to have a wee bit of left/right rotation as opposed to slop. But again nothing I can feel on the bike. On the downside it's never actually worked properly which I think would be considered a negative

they must be good, how often do you see a 27.2 version come up on the classifieds

As for the wobbly thing, my GD wobbled, so did my Joplin 3. The only time I noticed was when I was off the bike. My current Joplin 4 is wobble free.

The Rockshok one looks good but needed bleeding out of the box from a review I saw on BR. Keeping an open mind on this one. TBH I never drop my post. I ride Brecons, Black mtns trail centres. I do a lot of climbs in those places and adding more weight isnt such a good idea.

Which is the best non remote version then? Gravity Dropper? It seems a fair bit lighter than the other ones.

Depends what you want, really. GDs have limited adjustability. Some have two settings (all up, all down), some have three (an addtional one for 1" drop I think). Other posts have infinite adjustement between their maximum and minimum heights. Some have layback, some don't.

Between myself and my friends I know people with KS, Gravity Dropper and Joplin 4 uppy-downy seatposts and we're all largely happy with each of them. Northwind really likes his Gravity Dropper (but not his KS but maybe it'll improve if he sends it back like he keeps on saying he should), Freakcrab likes his Joplin 4 and I like my KS posts.

Also, how low can you put your saddle for dirt jumps etc? Doesnt look like you can "slam" it like you can with a normal post.

Most have 4 - 5" of adjustability: KS has 5", Joplin has 3 or 4", Gravity Dropper has 3" or 4". There is one that has something like 9" of adjustability (a Reisse?) but they don't seem very common in the UK. The collar where the inner shaft meats the outer shaft means that you'll lose at least 1" of drop compared to dropping a conventional seatpost as low as it goes.

Do remember you can drop a dropper post just like any other- at fort william mine was all the way down in the frame, so I could have it low or very very low You wouldn't do it often but for dirt jumping or dh it makes sense

(Mr MC posting)

GW, have you owned one or used one for any period of time? I bought one as a convert to flatties I found I was always dropping my saddle, but I bought it with a cynical eye and fully prepared to hate it and sell it on ebay/here. I have a joplin which has maybe +/- 1mm of rotational play at the nose of the saddle. I dont notice the play AT ALL when riding. Interesting that you compare it to other contact points such as pedals. I now ride flats, but most clipless designs have float which allows the foot to rotate slightly. I've never heard anyone complain that the float left them feeling out of control of the bike (oddly now I'm used to grippy flats after 18yrs on SPDs I feel the obvious rotational play in SPDs to be disconcerting). Maybe your biomechanics are different to mine but I reckon my hips rock and rotate very slightly when I pedal so on a "fixed" saddle my arse slides very slightly anyway (corroborated by knackered cycling shorts which have worn patches on my sit bones suggesting some movement).

You may not like them, you may not "get" them, you may actually be annoyed by the play, but enough people arent that they continue to sell and manufacturers think the market is big enough that it's worth entering (RS Reverb). My only gripe with my remote-operated Joplin is the p1ss poor sealing, however I like the functionality of a dropper seatpost enough that I am prepared to try solve this problem myself, and I miss it when I ride my standard seatpost HT.

i keep umming and arrgghhing about wether to get one

must be a big bummer for Thomson, thats all i can think of!!!! Probably everyone's (old) No 1 upgrade...