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I only fit mine when going to BPW. Other than that i see little/no point in a dropper post at all. Even places like Afan/Cwmcarn etc, i just run the post slightly lower than my optimal, but i'm quite a low seat kind of guy anyway. I could run it 3-4" higher if i felt the need, but i like it a little lower...
Each to their own @weeksy has little need for one whereas I can’t contemplate riding off road without one. That could be because I enjoy the challenge of the climb (even smooth ones) at least as much as the descent and it would drive me nuts if my seat wasn’t at the optimum height for climbing
See, I'd say places like BPW are where a dropper is less beneficial, and Swinley, Chilterns etc are where they shine. At BPW you might as well just drop the saddle with a QR and leave it there. If the riding is more undulating you're not going to bother stopping to fiddle with a QR for 30s of descent, then stop again to put it up for 2 mins of climbing etc but a dropper lets you do all that without a second thought. Right saddle height all of the time. BTW I'm about as gnarr as a non-gnarrly thing but still would want a dropper for any offroad ride.
It’ll give you the chance to not look like a rigid, overweight daddy long legs when descending.
yep. Even going round flat slow corners I'll put mine down on the FS bike. Complete gangly mess otherwise. Feels so much better, can lean the bike more, can carry more speed. Infinitely more enjoyable.
My rigid 29er doesn't have one but I go into that knowing full well the handling will be awful and sketchy, and its purely a bike to pound out the miles and get my heart rate going.
An addition to that - I really cannot ride flat pedals with the seat up - literally cannot drop my heels enough to not get bounced off, even without leaving more than a few millimeters of saddle to testicle clearance.
If you don't like them and can ride without them that's fine - there's a technique I'm clearly missing, but who am I to criticise His Schurterness. And there are (limited) benefits in weight reduction, comfort, simplicity, cost and seat pack compatibility.
What I really cannot comprehend (think there's a separate thread for this) is people that have one on the bike and proudly refuse to use it in some sort of retrogrouchy oneupmanship
Besides being able to drop the seat out of the way for anything technical without stopping, there's also those random moments like where you are spinning like hell up a steep bit straight after a drop (where you needed the seat low) and you suddenly need the seat at optimum height to take the weight off your legs and put some weight on the rear tyre to haul you the last few metres without wheel-spinning. My dropper really is part of my technique in so many situations like that, I feel crippled without one these days.
My usage is probably a bit strange (mostly freeride) but I use one to have my seat absolutely slammed for the majority of my riding and then able to raise it to full extension which is just enough so that pedalling isn't too awkward when I need to. For maximum pedalling efficiency i'd run it higher but i'm more concerned with having it as low as possible. 170mm drop on a capra
Other than that i see little/no point in a dropper post at all. Even places like Afan/Cwmcarn etc
At Cwmcarn my seat is up and down like a yoyo!
It's a bit like with cars. Cornering in a low sports car is much better than a tall 4x4, for similar reasons. I even drop my saddle on road corners now if they are slightly downhill because I have come to dislike the feeling of my weight moving over the front and staying high as I brake into the turn.
Oh, and another side-effect: it really helps get under low branches too.
Re the weight - mine adds about 300g over the previous super light carbon job. I did not notice that in the slightest. I like light bikes because they handle better, and seatpost/saddle is a good place to save weight because it moves around more. But the improvement in handling from 300g off the seatpost is absolutely nothing compared to the dramatic improvement in handling from having a low saddle on demand.
Put it this way, I don't have suspension on either of my mtb's, I'm still running 10 speed on one and the other is single speed, I'm still running quick release axles, I don't even have a smart phone (and intend to keep it that way), but I've got three dropper posts
BadlyWiredDog
Subscriber
The one irksome thing about droppers is that the bike industry still seems to struggle to produce a bombproof, reliable one.
The Gravity Dropper was almost the first one ever made and was bombproof and reliable. But it was ugly so everyone bought Speedballs instead. People complain about reliability but reliably don't choose the reliable ones.
Bikeyoke Revive is bombproof and reliable... But it also costs as much as 2 Reverbs so there's that whole thing.
Didn't use a dropper for years. Couldn't really see the point of them, particularly when they seemed to fail constantly. So I stuck with my trusty Thomspon Elite. After all, slamming a saddle at the top of a downhill is hardly difficult with a quick release seat collar.
Then I got a new bike that came with a remote dropper. 5 minutes into my first ride on that new bike, dropper posts had become as important to my riding as oxygen.
For me the greatest advantage of droppers is all about lowering the centre of gravity when descending in the saddle and the resulting responsiveness and fun factor (the trails literally come alive etc). I always drop the seat for freewheel descending on roads, it feels brilliant.
I do not have droppers on any of my bikes, but I always run the saddles low anyway, although I can see how great they can be.