[Closed] New dropper post time. What’s worth the money?

Brand x

Seems to be the best for the cash

AXS reverb if you can get a good deal on one.

It’s a lot of money, but it’s a lot of brilliant.

I love my Oneup- it doesn't work quite as well as my Revives, but it's longer and cost about half as much.

Best out there is the Revive as far as I'm concerned but I don't think they can justify the high price any more.

OneUp, cheap and seems reliable so far.

Had reverbs before, never serviced either of them, each one has done over 4000 miles with no issues or servicing, both have scored shafts, which is annoying.

I'm gonna need a new one very shortly and will most-likely get another OneUp.

Mainly because the existing one has proved very reliable and they are designed to fit the maximum amount of drop in (low collar and saddle stack heights) - which is good for me because I have sized up on my MTB frames.

If I didn't have that issue, I'd try Brand X this time - assuming they're still £100-odd in the CRC sale.

Edit - Just checked and they are £130 with a remote for the 170mm one. Think I'll give that a go actually.

They do an external routed one for the same price.

If you want a much cheaper option, I have a Reverb 125mm external in 31.6mm I was about to stick on eBay.

Brand x

Fitted a Funn UpDown dropper today have only had a quick ride but impressed for the money at £140 also the lever can be mounted in different ways which is a nice touch. Supposedly the dropper has a vent system to stop any sag I suppose time will tell.

+1 for Revive, brilliant things, well worth the premium. IMHO

Agree with Northwind above, the Revive is amazing, incredibly smooth and reliable, however very expensive.

The one up (in particular the new 2.1 version with the updated actuator) is very close in performance and less than half the price. I paired it with a PNW lever and it's fantastic.

I've had Reverb, Revive, Brand X, Bontrager, One Up and a Magura Vyron.

Best out of the lot was the One Up. I have it out in all weathers and it's been well over a year and still as solid as the day I bought it. Had the collar off a few times to clean and grease.

My Revive was warrantied after a month or so, the replacement felt very "gritty" despite it being a more updated one. Think I was just unlucky though as they are well regarded (if a little spendy).

If you can deal with the slight lag, the Vyron was also trouble free over a year. Would rather have no seat post than a Bontrager! Brand X is a work horse! Not the most refined, but it's never let me down yet.

Reverb was hit and miss. Feel fantastic after a service though. If I had the money spare, I'd love to try a wireless Reverb.

I just bought a pnw cascade. 150mm drop, external routing and with the loam lever which is so much nicer than the reverb it replaced. 180 delivered. Its a quality item but much cheaper that fox/reverb.

I've not seen anything that tells me the Brand X isn't the best choice. It's among the lightest, seems to be as reliable as anything else, no more play than anything else, back-up in case of failure as good as you'd want, and 1/2 or 1/3 of the price of the likes of Fox or Thomson: you could buy 2 in case you need to send one back.

Info/opinions mainly gathered through personal experience and keeping an eye out for threads on here. Very happy to receive more/different info.

Another vote for Brand-X, haven't had any issues in 18 months which is much more than I can say for the previous 3 Reverbs. Nothing about the Brand-X has made me want to spend more on something else.

Hmmm some good info here.

Brand x and the oneup seem to be recommended most.

Benn through a few, from Gravity Dropper, speedball BITD, to Thomsons, Reverbs etc

Found Brand X a couple fo years ago, brilliant, reliable, easy to service. Cheap!

Only bought a One Up because I wanted MOAR drop, 210 really is nice.

What size are you looking for? I've got a spare V1 30.9mm/150mm with shims and updated bushing laying around. I've got 3 Oneups btw best dropper I've used,

I have a really old Gravity dropper which is agricultural but bomb proof.

I've also had a Giant Contact Switch 150mm dropper for nearly 3 years, and that has been faultless.

Can be internal or external routed.

Lever can be fitted left or right.

Was about 160 quid.

I would buy either of them again.

I purchased a Brand X from Wiggle in their Black Friday sale for £93 with a discount voucher and am using it with a Wolf Tooth lever (£65). Hardly a millimetre of play, goes up and down fast and just does the job perfectly. Very happy with mine and would recommend.

Oneup or Brand X for sure.

Reverb AXS at £500, what a joke.

I wouldn't fit a Reverb on a bike even if it was free.

Using hydraulics for such limited movement is engineering arrogance IMO.

Had a 170mm Brand x for a year now, with a bonty lever,
And a 125I'm one for 18mins before that.

As good as reverbs, ks , ive used nefore but a fraction of the price ( got mine in sale last xmas) and just as, if not more reliable than the rest

You'd be bonkers to.Spend money on anything else imho

I've got a one up waiting on a new frame to arrive and it's a nice bit of kit. Had a brand X and it. Def seemed a bit agricultural in its build. Was bought as a rush buy for the black Friday deals at £110 before realising I could fit a much longer drop in my frame than 170mm.

Another selling point for the One up has to be that they can be serviced at home very simply. No dropping £100 after a winter (or two) of filth.

The Revive is excellent but expensive. The ReviveMax is even better but you’ll need a 34.9mm seat tube to fit it - everything is scaled up to take advantage of the fatter tube, so it has better bushings, better seals and a stiffer inner post.

I had a couple of Reverbs, which worked fine for about 2 years until the vanishing circlip thing happened on one of them. I sold the other one and replaced them both with Brand X about 12 months ago, which have been faultless so far.

Now I may have been lucky, but I bought one of the RaceFace Turbine posts for £150 from Planet X.

It seemd to get mixed reviews, but I've now run it through the Autumn and Winter, and it's not missed a beat so far. Still smooth and no noticeable wobble.

It's internal routing, but has a screw in mechanism that means you can remove the post and change the cable pretty easily.

I didn't like the stock lever that comes with it, but it works fine with ZTTO dropper lever (Wolftooth copy) that I'd use with my previous post. I managed to sell the RF lever for £30 on ebay, so the post only cost me £120 all in.

Fox Transfer with a Wolf Tooth lever. Faultless

Brand x really is fit and forget(ime) I’m waiting on mine dying to buy a one up only cause I can run 210mm drop 🙂

Brand x 2 years and still faultless !

Nickfrog - not saying you are wrong, but surely the one up and brandX still use a hydraulic cartridge, and are therefore just as hydraulic as the AXS reverb?

From general consensus I would say in order of price...
brandX
One up
Revive

I've not used any of them, but use a genuinely mechanical post from 9point8. It's been good.

I would recommend you work out the maximum drop length you can fit, and pay a bit more to get a post as long as possible.

Nickfrog – not saying you are wrong, but surely the one up and brandX still use a hydraulic cartridge, and are therefore just as hydraulic as the AXS reverb?

Unless he’s referring to the actuation, as opposed to cable for everyone else?

Which, of course, the AXS reverb doesn’t use...

Seeing as I've bought 2 Brand X ones in the last 6 months I'd recommend them! One was to replace a dead RaceFace Turbine (the pre-Fox version) that just shat the bed mid-ride and the other one is on the winter hardtail. I've also got a Transfer with a PNW lever and the cost to service that is just shy of the Brand X to buy, operationally they're the same. Both have a tiny amount of play that's not noticeable while riding, both go up and down the same and both have nice levers. If I hadn't got the Transfer cheap in the Mojo firesale I'd be very annoyed at having to pay £400 for something that's functionally the same as a £120 cheapie!

PNW Bachelor dropper here and love it, the loam lever is so nice to use. Quick delivery too, mine took 3 days from the states, I've waited longer for a next day delivery from CRC!

Just warrantied my fifth Reverb, no more for me. Bought a Brand X and I’m very impressed so far, well built and it’s a relative bargain in comparison with others. May replace the lever at some point, but that would be for aesthetics rather than design.

Brand X 170mm from start fitness is 99 quid delivered next day with code EXTRA 10

Mine arrived the other day.. seemms nice in the box 😉

Another vote for Brand-X or One-Up.
Have both and had zero issues with either.

I managed to pick up a Reverb AXS for the same price as a Transfer in the Black Friday sales. Its amazing. And I have had terrible reliability issues with Reverbs before, but it would seem that they have fixed all of the reliability issues with the AXS.. Which at the RRP I'd hope they did!

I would say which I would pick depends on the circumstance. I just got a new full sus and I wanted the maximum drop I could get away with but I didn't have much insertion length so therefore, oneup was the only option I could get away with a 180mm drop. Although I find it runs a little stiffer than the Thomson I was running before, regular application of silicone lube is doing the trick. I wanted a new remote dropper on my hardtail and because I'm not fixed with length and insertion I'm going to grab a BrandX because I'm not too fussed about luxury I'm also extremely mechanically capable so being able to strip it apart to service appeals to me. if that weren't the case the Thomson I had before was dynamite and ran for years without needing anything.

Internal routing is fine to setup as long as the cable is cut / clamped at the lever end. Brand X and Oneup latest internal routes posts are both like this.

I’ve got one of each - if you’re not after the maximum drop then I’d go brand x. If you want to really push the limits of drop then Oneup are shorter posts for the relative drop.

I’ve got a 150mm Brand x and 180mm Oneup. The brand x is a lighter lever to push but the post movement is a little slower.

FYI - having had both in my hands at the same time - the Marzocchi Transfer Dropper is IDENTICAL to the Fox transfer, even the box, manuals etc, and also available in 125mm drop if needed.
The only difference I could find was the single lasered graphic on the back of the post.

And its a lot cheaper.

Nickfrog – not saying you are wrong, but surely the one up and brandX still use a hydraulic cartridge, and are therefore just as hydraulic as the AXS reverb?

Unless he’s referring to the actuation, as opposed to cable for everyone else?

Which, of course, the AXS reverb doesn’t use…

LOL. Got it. AXS refers to digital actuation to replace hydraulic. Sorry, I didn't realise. It's still £500 to solve a problem very easily solved by a cable. Still quite weird.

Honestly the cable actuated Brand X Ascend just works so well, I've had two (one was a little short so I gave it to a mate and bought another) and both are running perfectly. A doddle to fit and service, and no bleeding of hydraulics.
Plus they are always on sale on CRC, think I paid £80 for the last one!

Is the oneup worth an extra £75 over the brand x 🤔.

Going to call in at leisure lakes tomorrow in bury as I’m looking for a new helmet as well so I can have a look at the oneup droppers there.

I’ve just ordered an X Fusion Manic. I needed a 27.2 for my hard tail. Not arrived yet but gets decent reviews and is a good price.

Having both a One Up and a Brand X, it's hard to say.

One Up is older, but still feels as smooth as it did over a year ago. Brand X is still going strong after 6-7 months, maybe a little more play than the One Up but hardly anything.

Bear in mind, that the remote costs extra on top of the dropper for the One Up (I use a Wolftooth lever).

Brand X users. A little question.

Just installed mine, a 27.2 version on my rigid. Seemingly there isn't much spring back to snap the lever back.

What I'm finding is the post doesn't stop coming back up when I release the lever unless I physically move the lever back with my thumb.

Is this normal? Sucks if it is. If not, anyone found a good trick to make it....snappier?

It's an external cable one and the cable goes vertically down the seat tube before going under the BB and up the down tube. The loop looks pretty mellow so I can't imagine it's cable drag.

👊

Is this normal?

No. It sounds like the cable is sticky or something. Is the cable installed at the lever properly? The lever design is a bit weird and it's not very obvious how to install the cable correctly.