[Closed] School me on dropper posts

Of all the inventions for mtb's a lot of riders find a dropper made the most difference to their riding.

A lot of riders will give up things like disc brakes, suspension etc. before they give up droppers.

There are cheap ones, but they are cheap for a reason. Reverbs can be bought online for about £160. You can fit the lever Left or Right. Above or below the bars.

After faffing about you will soon discover its best under the bar on the left hand side. This will then mean its best to ditch the front shifter and go 1x10 or 1x11.

But that can wait. Just get a dropper and enjoy riding more. Get the most drop you can, you use what you want, but if you don't have enough it will annoy you.

You wont be able to demo one, but you could try one by borrowing a mates bike or demoing a new bike that has one fitted. However, almost no one having used one will get rid of it once they use it.

I have an old wrist injury so have my lever on the right despite running a 1x10. Tried it on the left but didn't really get on with it, on the right I really don't find it interferes with the gears at all.

I put a very cheap T Mars on the wifes bike to see how she got on with it before buying a 'proper' one and actually its been fine. Not as nice as my command post and I probably would upgrade if I could fine a 27.2 that worked but its OK.

As for trying one, just buy it. They are great and you'll love it 🙂

With 200mm you should be OK with a 125mm drop.

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As above, just get one. I wouldn't be without one now. Get one as long as you can to fit as far in your seat tube as possible.

I'm with Nickjb, always run mine on the right, just seems nicer for me and doesn't get in the way too much.

I have had x-Fusion HiLo, Reverbs and Giant Contact Switch ( early version)

Of these the most reliable have been the reverbs, least reliable the Giant. I think with reverbs it may be pot luck as to getting good ones, but so far ( goes and finds some wood to touch) both the standard and stealth reverbs have been faultless.

I understand the later Giant Contact Switch posts are much less likely to sieze as the mechanism to release the strut has been improved

the very numerous stories about warranty repair jobs on reverbs put me off and I bought a mechanical dropper.

A dropper will solve all the problems your highlighting and you won't look back as soon as you've got used to it (pretty much second nature after the first ride or two).

Reverbs seem to be the default for most riders and I like having the hydraulic control rather than cable operated which can get gummed up and stick with crap off the trails. There are plenty of other options around but, imho, reverbs are the most reliable of the ones I've used (on my second now, and other than a full service after 3 years, they've been pretty much fit and forget).

Someone will be along shortly to tell you all the issues they've had with there's and how they've had to send it back several times. There are some known issues with them (seat sinking 10 / 20 mm under load), but they have a 2 year warranty and rocksox are very good with it and seem to just replace new for old more often than not (not that I, or any of my riding buddies who use them have had to rely on this) I suspect the number of issues you hear about are a function of their popularity.

If your running 200mm from collar to saddle, I would go for the 125mm drop so you have as much range as possible. You get the posts in different lengths (380 or 420 iirc), assuming it's going in a straight seat tube with nothing to foul it, I always reckon going for the longest, and therefore as much post in tube, as possible is best. There's marginal weight difference and if for any reason to dropper gives up the ghost on a ride you can pull more out of the tube to use as a normal post to get you home.

Most people seem to run the dropper remote under the bars which gives it a bit of crash protection and I find a more comfortable position (if you're running 2x or 3x drivetrain it can be a bit of a squeeze fitting it in without fouling on shifters - however I run mine under the bars on the right with Saint brakes & xt shifters and although snug, it all fits in) If you do plan to run it under the bars, you need to order the remote for the opposite side ie if you want to run it under the bars on the left you will need a right hand remote.

Thomson covert user here, having had success with Reverb but wanting to get away from hydraulic lever.
Best toy you can put on your bike, copes with my very hefty weight well.

Its quite important to mount the lever in a position that you can easily reach without letting go of the bars.

It needs to be like shifting / braking, second nature and almost a reflex action.

If you have to stretch or let go of the bar you will end up crashing soon, or just not using it in time.

I'm currently building up a bike that will have a Reverb fitted by default and be alongside another eight MTBs I use with solid seatposts.

I'm properly expecting to find the whole experience a bit, meh, when I eventually get to use it.

I might be proved totally wrong, but I can't really see how having my other saddles permanently up is holding me back with my mince down 'n' pedal up style of riding.

I'm happy to be proved wrong though, but retro-fitting Reverbs to the rest of my bike fleet could prove expensive.. 😐

I'm on my 3rd Reverb Stealth now thats gone back under warranty in 14 months ! just been sent the 2016 model and its fitted with the new connectamajiig so now sits 55mm higher than before ! 👿

They now do a 340mm post which they will replace it with but won't be available for months ! I give up .......

Thanks for the replies, it seems the consensus is to go for a reverb in 125mm drop, also to go 1x. I can see one of those things happening in the near future 😛

Just fitted my new 456 with a reverb off a donor bike.It is current 3x9 and the cable does not get in the way.

The Reverb is great but not infallible I have had to send mine back under warranty as it developed horizontal play which is a known fault, AIUI RockShox just replace it.

I have a friend who uses a Thomson post but has continual issues with the cable which clamps at the lever end and frays the cable, sometimes rending the dropper inoperable.

I wouldn't be without a dropper now.

I'll buck the trend and say I've no reason for one, ridden plenty of stuff and never had a problem with my saddle getting in the way.

Of all the items for bikes i've never known one fail so much yet people still shell out £200 for them.

I'm with Pickle. My current bike came with a Reverb Stealth which I sold to save a bit of weight and for a little less complexity. Tried it twice and didn't see the point. Some of my riding chums are pretty handy on the technical stuff and none have them save one, who again bought a bike with it fitted. He never uses it. Swap disc brakes and suspension for a dropper? You must be mad.

If you don't care about aesthetics get a Gravity Dropper. They just work, and if they don't they are simple to fix.

Mechanical, repairable, reliable, ugly.

Only real complaint is the tiny 0.050 (American) hex grub screws that hold the cable and the bar mount clamp which you can break if you over tighten, but they send you a wrench and a couple of spares with the post.

Spares are available on CRC for a few quid and if you have a failure out on the trail you can probably botch a repair to get you home.

I wouldn't go so far as saying I'd ditch disc brakes or suspension for a dropper but they are very good.

I have two cable operated posts (Thomson and Lev) had both for about 2 years and not had any problems. Certainly they have never stopped working through being gummed up with mud. Getting cable tension spot on can be a bit of a faff but that is a once off thing with a new cable.

As one or two above have said, the specific issues you've identified should be rectified by a dropper post.

I'm with Pickle and Failed engineer on this one. I've had dropper posts, but rarely have I found an application where it's actually needed; McMoab was the one notable exception.

I'll buck the trend and say I've no reason for one, ridden plenty of stuff and never had a problem with my saddle getting in the way.

I imagine you'd have just asked for a faster horse as well...

Dropper posts allow you to position your saddle for better cornering and descending, without compromising seated pedalling. Saying you never have a problem with your saddle getting in the way is like saying you've never had a problem with riding a bike with stabilisers, you can still go around corners just fine. That doesn't mean that a bike doesn't corner much better without stabilisers.

If you're a general trail bimbler I expect you normally have your saddle too low. You want to be able to pedal and get off the saddle so tend to run it a bit lower than optimum pedalling height. A dropper actually lets you be in a better pedalling position as well as a better technical riding position, and it's more about getting lower than getting off the back. If you've got one you really don't want send it to me and I'll send you my old Thomson post back.

I've no issue with people saying they'll transform me into a trail riding demon but out at the weekend I was quickly catching the arse end of full sussers with droppers on my HT going downhill but maybe with a dropper I could go even faster?

I'll stick to my second hand £25 carbon post though for now, I just couldn't spend £200 on a seat post.

Not disc brakes but first upgrade to my hardtail was a dropper, over suspension forks.
Riding just flies better with a dropper

But you already had suspension forks, would you honestly say you'd buy a dropper over suspension forks if you didn't have any?

and would you buy forks that no end of people on different sites sent them back for new ones as they kept failing?

125mm drop reverb will just fit given your exposed length (oo-er).

tbh I rarely drop it all the way although that might change as I start to ride harder as I get fitter but just dropping an inch or so on singletrack does help a lot and means you can really get the saddle up when on climbs etc.

I don't have one on my 29er XC bike as it's my "cheap bike" and is a 27.2mm post and don't really miss it as I tend to roll stuff more but am on the look out for a 125mm stealth for my trigger.

As for repairs I am concerned but I figure I will just learn to service them myself and stick to reverbs as i like the hydraulic action. The little tools you need to service them are easy to get hold of now and cheap so I have picked them up (IFP height, oil level and bleed tools as well as the bleed kit itself) so I should just need to get the minor and major service kits as needed. The price of the upper collar is a bit eye watering though and a shame they didn't just design it with an easily replaced bush/seal.

So I just bought a reverb, 125mm drop worked out perfect, it was easy to fit (including trimming the hose and bleeding). On full extension its set to a good pedalling height but fully dropped its well out of the way.

I also splashed out on a hope dropper seatclamp, I thought it best to ditch the QR for a little added security.

But you already had suspension forks, would you honestly say you'd buy a dropper over suspension forks if you didn't have any?

and would you buy forks that no end of people on different sites sent them back for new ones as they kept failing?

For riding big mountains with long climbs, long descents and lots of rocks I'd rather have suspension forks and a QR than rigid forks and a dropper. For woodland singletrack or trail centres I'd rather have the dropper and go without the suspension forks. I got my first dropper at the start of 2011 and before that I always used the QR to drop my post for anything interesting.

That first dropper post was a Gravity Dropper Classic and it's worked great since then - I serviced it once and the cable snapped once (but I could still operate it manually by tugging on the unbroken bit of cable). My second dropper post was a Gravity Dropper Turbo LP and apart from a mate snapping the cable by pushing the remote lever too hard (my fault for forgetting how it works and telling him to push it 'like a man') it's been faultless for a couple of years.

The new hardtail came with a Reverb Stealth - I hope it's as reliable but I've heard good reports about the more recent Reverbs.

I'm looking at getting a Fox DOSS shortly. I had a chat with my LBS about them and they said that they had no issues with Fox ones failing whilst plenty of Reverbs and the like had come back broken.

Had a chat last night on the MNPR about it with some bike journalist or other (Fishh?) and he said that the Fox was a good choice as it was less complex than others. Had another chat with Binners who reported that the X Fusion Hilo was an utter bag of exploding shit.

There is a pretty good reason most BMX's have the saddle slammed out of the way.
Having a dropper makes the bike so much easier to move around, I am a recent convert, and to be honest my XC bike is rigid and I still wouldn't put a dropper on it.
It makes my 650b feel like a big BMX.
Oh and I have a reverb with no problems, some people will have problems with anything, you only hear the sad tales.