So with the demise of Chiggle and their in-house extremely good & budget friendly Brand-X Ascend dropper post who do we look to for the 'next best' budget option?
I have Brand-X on 3 out of 4 bikes with the other being a One-Up.
The £300 One-Up is great (got it for the shorter lower section as frame has kinked seat tube), but have never thought it was 3 x better than the circa £100 Brand-X.
So where do we look next for the budget (~£100) dropper?
Isn't it Tranz-X who make the Chiggle posts? They're still around.
PNW also have a good rep as I think they're likely out of the same factory.
Brand X is nothing to do with Chiggle I don't think. You'll find their stuff elsewhere. Tredz and SJS are on the first page of google of retailers that stock their stuff.
I got mine from Go Outdoors a while back
As above, listed on the Hotlines distribution website.
Ah, didn't know that. But are they an own brand (brand name now owned by Ashley) or were Hotlines just the uk importer distributor?
Lots of bike firms use Brand X for their finishing kits. The Bird dropper is a Brand X for example. What I don't know is are they all just coming out of the same Chinese factory with different labels stuck on them. Or were Brand X the subcontractors. I guess it's semantics, but surely somehow the same stuff will be making it to market with a label of some sort on it.
Pretty sure they were just generic catalogue posts that were rebranded by several companies and sold for a wide range of prices (Brand X being on of the cheaper ones).
I ordered a Brand-X dropper post for my gravel bike on Thursday. £59.99. According to EVRi, it's with them and en-route. It was supposed to be here yesterday and it isn't, so only time will tell.
But looking at the website today, the same post (27.2, 85mm drop) is now £49.99. And several others for £75 or less.
Time to grab spares, maybe?
Mike Ashley is looking to buy brands associated with wiggle so whilst there's no specifics mentioned in the deal I would expect np vitus etc to continue
Think of him what you will but he is a clever business man who has a fantastic team around him.
You only get to hear the bad story's but he donated 100k out of his own pocket at a charity ball I attended just after lockdown to Newcastle children's hospice and he gave it to Natalie imbruglia who was performing and wanted it to remain anonymous.
A wee bit of a hijack, which replacement cartridge for the 70mm kids version?
My bike has a Canyon branded BrandX/TransX clone that was £30. Many other clones on eBay.
The Bird dropper is a Brand X for example
Not quite. Bird droppers are made by JD. JD make all the droppers mentioned in this thread.
Tranz x is JD's in-house brand. There's no guarantee 3 posts that look visually similar are the same post. There's tons of options available from JD at different price points.
The replacement cartridges are £2.99 on CRC if you can work out what you need.
Not quite. Bird droppers are made by JD. JD make all the droppers mentioned in this thread.
Tranz x is JD’s in-house brand. There’s no guarantee 3 posts that look visually similar are the same post. There’s tons of options available from JD at different price points.
Interesting insight Ben, thanks. I'm assuming JD is an off the shelf (or customised off the shelf) Chinese manufacturer? So when you say options, will they have a real world impact to the consumer in terms of life expectancy or performance - brass Vs nylon bushings or whatever?
Aside from fillable Vs non fillable cartridges I'm not sure I could pinpoint specific major lifespan differences on the same post, but there's big differences between generations of posts that are very similar but not quite the same.
JD is Taiwanese and will rebadge or make custom as you want, but the bulk of their business is rebadged products.
I bought an own brand one of Ribble for £39.99 they might have some left
Edit: 8 in 30.9
https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/level-hydraulic-dropper-post-w-remote-lever-150mm-black-30-9-x-485mm/
27.2 a £5 less
https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/gravel-dropper-post-27-2mm-100mm-w-remote/
Thanks all, will have a look at PNW.
Anyone used/got the E*Thirteen vario?
People here have reported the Ribble one to be very poor and unreliable from memory
I bought a couple of cartridges for my 150mm droppers while they are still available. Although I'd like 170/180mm drop for my new frames but money's is a bit tight atm.
I did find these on AliexpressLinky, not bought one though.