My much looked forward to Wed night ride failed last night, annoying the hell out of me and forcing me to go to pub early (oh, the disappointment!).
Ride failed as we set off due to my dropper freezing and then pogo'ing. Possibly due to frame often letting in water when washing, and it being transported on top of car.
It turns out 2 more posts failed during ride.
My commuter suffered the same thing this morning. Different post and external routing.
My posts:
Revive
Giant contact
Pals posts:
Both reverb
Anyone else care to share? It's only -5 or so, how do colder climates cope?
Specialized Command Post (original version - 3 positions only, cable actuated) was fine today, even after being left out chained up for a few hours to let it cool down to air temps
My KS Lev got a little slow yesterday in the snow (feels like -11 said the met office) but otherwise survived OK. A 2nd KS Lev didn't even notice the cold today.
cable froze up on my transfer on tuesday night resulting in always being at the wrong height. cable tied the seat rails to the frame so at least it stayed down and was ok for the descents. had to push up a few steep snowy climbs that would normally of ridden but managed to complete the ride.
I wish I had as gnarly a commute as you!
Today’s ride
mates race face post would not stay up
my Spesh command post was perfect
but I’m guessing it’s just water inside the cable that was his issue
Most reliable dropper in winter around here (Calgary so -20C isn't all that uncommon) is Thomson. It slows down but still seems to work well even when the forks are barely moving.
-9.7 degrees tuesday nighy for almost 3 hours my revive worked flawlessy
Fails:
Bikeyoke revive
Giant contact
Reverb
Fox transfer
Raceface/Easton (does that mean 9 point 8 as well?)
Anyone else care to share? It’s only -5 or so, how do colder climates cope?
Wind chill on roof of car will be significantly colder, add in water getting inside of said post, it's not really the post that's failing is it?.
My Pro Koryak failed a few weeks ago, water gets in my seat tube and the cable release mech froze. Worked faultlessly once the mech defrosted though.
The aging Command Post on my hardtail was fine at -5c on Tuesday night, as was my mate's Brand X.
Nobeerinthefridge
Subscriber
Anyone else care to share? It’s only -5 or so, how do colder climates cope?
Wind chill on roof of car will be significantly colder, add in water getting inside of said post, it’s not really the post that’s failing is it?
No it wont. Looks like I cocked up the quote though.
-15 is pretty common here. My Reverb slows down a lot, Brand X a little, GD no difference. Out of people I ride with only Command Posts seem to completely die regularly in the cold.
P-jay, that's exactly it. Will any cable operated post fail if it gets water in the mech? Are there any sealed/shielded systems?
I don’t think a frozen cable is a failed dropper post.
I failed on the quote but a dropper post on a car roof won’t get colder.
Wind chill only applies to human skin not ambient. It's to account for the extra cooling / evaporative effects of moving air on human skin.
""On a calm day, our bodies insulate us somewhat from the outside temperature by warming up a thin layer of air close to our skin, known as the boundary layer. When the wind blows, it takes this protective layer away, exposing our skin to the outside air. It takes energy for our bodies to warm up a new layer and, if each layer keeps getting blown away, our skin temperature will drop and we will feel colder.
Wind also makes you feel colder by evaporating any moisture on your skin - a process that draws more heat away from your body. Studies show that when your skin is wet, it loses heat much faster than when it is dry.""
Suprised to say that my Bontrager one is still working!
Reverb was a bit slower coming up on weds, but still working, in temps cold enough to freeze the water in my camelbak...
Both raceface and Easton posts have a known failure/fault in cold conditions. Mine stared to slip at about 5°.
On monday night my Transfer wouldn’t stay up when sat on it, but wouldn’t stay down when standing... worst of both worlds? Was planning a poke around this weekend, hadn’t occurred to me it might just have been because it was minus 5.
Gravity dropper getting a bit slow yesterday (and it's been completely cleaned & regreased weekend b4) still working tho
But got water in the gear cable & rear mech needed a few whacks as it kept freezing up
KS Lev was slow but working fine.
My KS Lev in 27.5 guise is actually working better in these minus temperatures than in warmer times. It usually gets stuck down and I have to physically pull it up at the start of the stroke. The internals are buggered and the distributors have said that the last time it was serviced will be its last service. But at the moment it's returning without a problem. Maybe I should move to Siberia.
Reverb was a bit slower coming up on weds, but still working, in temps cold enough to freeze the water in my camelbak…
Same here.
Estimated temp -5 to -10deg.
B2 Reverb stuck in the down position on a cold, snowy night ride on Wednesday. The bike had been hung from the front wheel and not moved for around 9 months, so not sure if the fault was due to this or the cold. A bleed has got it working again though,
Most reliable dropper in winter around here (Calgary so -20C isn’t all that uncommon) is Thomson.
You still need to make sure there's no water in the bottom loop of the cable! pro tip - If it's frozen, it's frozen; rather than pressing the button really hard and ripping the cable past the grub screw, just reach under the saddle and push the lever down. Learnt that one last year.
All the Reverbs seemed to suffer on nightride last night, as did the Spesh Command post.
KS LEV here (and a mudguard) which was fine.
*touches wood*
Reverb on my fatty was extremely slow at coming back up yesterday. But it would move, eventually.
Internally routed Brand X here - was just about functional on Wednesday night at -7 Celsius. It slowed right down and the cable-lever needed the touch of a safe cracker to just pull the cable the right amount to just let the seat move up and down and then flick back to lock it. By the end I was having to physically wiggle the cable to get the post to lock in place.
However, this is much better than when it failed totally in moderately sub-zero temps three weeks ago. This was caused by a lot of water sloshing around in my frame, and an unserviced post.
Since then, I have emptied the water out of the frame, serviced the post and I added some homemade lagging to the seat tube on Wednesday (using folded up kitchen roll, strips of inner tube and some cinch straps).
Seems like very extreme temps will cause me a problem, but just around freezing will be OK if I look after everything properly.
Thanks Jamesoz and Sweaman, I consider myself educated!.
Stand by the original point though, it's farkin cold on the roof of a car as my gear cables will testify on a few occasions, and water in the post form hosing etc won't help. Whatever the post type, there is some type of actuation mechanism in there.
I took a fat bike out in Lapland over the xmas break. It had Bluto forks and a Reverb, I was surprised how well they both worked. I was probably around -18C to -20C (air temp, windchill on top)
I just went for a spin in the SW and my Crank Bros highline after awhile was slow to go up and down!
I suppose posts/forks used in Lapland or Calgary etc will be nice and dry inside. It's only because we ride our bikes through mud and rain for 4 months then expect them to continue working when the temps drop below zero that stuff fails like this.
My reverb has gone saggy, but it's survived a very long time without a service (its one of the very first ones with a silver collar and originally had the plastic strain relief.
My cheapo TransX post had a wee temper tantrum in the -5 and snow, going up all the way but then sagging a cm. After we had been riding 20mins or so it fixed itself, I assume ice from being put in shed covered in snow, and all hunky dory now.
Reverb failed in -2c refused to come back up. Later on it seemed to work, albeit extremely slowly. Anyway it is now lying in bits and needs a new hose and connectathingamajig.
gave up and bought the new Magura
How much effect will temp.have on the pressure inside the dropper? Assuming you prime it at 293K what effect at 268K? How much difference in pressure to slow/stop the rise?
6 year old gravity dropper works fine in the cold, I regularly night ride in the winter where its below zero.
Cable on my revive froze a couple of times in recent sub zero rides. Bit of gentle persuasion and it resets. Need to fit a new cable/housing soon.
Reverb and Command Post both working Okay
Gears seem to differ though
KS Lev E-Ten (non-remote) only 3 months old.
Rode it in the dry -5, then it sat in the house near a radiator for a week. When I rode today the post was stuck up, took about 30 minutes of riding at which point the first drop and raise was very slow.
8 year old gravity dropper - never had a problem in cold weather as its just one great big spring , only bad thing about it is the lack of drop compared to my summer bikes highline 160cm post
Fox Transfer froze up at Ae on Tuesday night.
Reverb Stealth* froze and subsequently leaked at the lever (again) yesterday.
Thompson Elite has rocked through without so much as a grumble - brilliant bit of kit that.
(*I'm utterly done with Reverbs, I've not managed a full month's hassle free riding with mine - absolute crap)
