MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
My 18" Five is a joy to ride but, if I'm honest, probably a bit on the small size for me (6' with 33" inside leg). It felt OK with a seatpost that had a bit of layback, but I've just added a gravity dropper turbo post. Options were a bit limited with a 27.2mm seat tube and I really like the way the GD functions. Just wish I could get the seat a bit further back. So, I'm wondering if there is any gizmo that you can fit to a seatpost to give it a bit of layback e.g. something with a pair or rails that clamp onto the post then another clamp set a bit further back?
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Is that just for the seatpost or the whole bike 🙂
There's a Gravity Dropper for I-Beam saddles. That would do it
you should consider WHY the dropper is only supplied inline...
If your frame is too small, its too small.
The difference I found when having a bike that was the right size was amazing, compared to the one before it - which was too small.
Most seatposts (including droppers) have some sort of layback/setback. It's just that none of the setback droppers are available in 27.2.
wider bars 😀
Most bikes were designed round a seat post with about 15mm layback - go look at most complete bikes 😉
Its just that thomson manage to make the layback design look ugly with their execution.
let me say again.
think about why they wouldn't want you to have layback on a skinny uppy downy post.
i wouldnt try to add it on, even if i could.
When I spoke to GD about this, ages back, they said that the design wasn't well suited to lots of layback, stresses the post differently, so they wouldn't be making one.
That was before they launched the i-beam version though, which does have the capacity for millions of layback.
So that's a no then 🙂 Thanks for the advice and comments. I can see why you might not want to add layback if the post wasn't designed for it, although the fact that the i-beam versions of the GD do allow it would suggest that you'd be unlikely to kill the post if you did.
To be honest I'm not actually sure that the bike is too small. As well as the (very old) 18" Five I have a 20" Trance. One of them will go once I can work out which I prefer, but I can't even decide which size I prefer 😳 For riding along a road, fire road or smooth trail the larger Trance feels better, but once things get a bit more technical the relative ease with which the smaller Five can be chucked around is a big advantage. Given that these bikes are purely for fun I'm not sure that I would want to give up that manoeuvrability just to get a bit more long distance comfort. Would be nice if I could move the seat back a bit though.
Sell them both and get something similar size and geo as the 5 but will a longer toptube or stick a longer stem and or wider bars maybe?
+2 for wider bars. I used to have a 1" layback post and 720 bars, swapped them for a Reverb and 750's. Kept a simalar amount of breathing room, moved my weight forward for better climbing and wider bars made it more stable descending. Triple Win 🙂