I’ve got a KS E-Ten crotch grab dropper on mine, its a bit porky but does the job without adding more cables. £80ish?

(just watch the height of the post, on the gravel bike you may find its down to the collar, I normally ‘blip’ about 10mm off the fully extended height as its a nadge too high)

Brand X do a 27.2 version. No idea why you would want the lever under the saddle, but you could probably mount the normal handlebar lever down there and run a really short cable if it meant that much to you.

Shimano I do one through their Pro discover range.

I like the crotch grab style, you don’t need to operate it every 5 minutes, a lot of the time I just drop it an inch going offroad and raise it back for road work. I prefer being in the drops on tougher/bumpier/steeper stuff anyway so would still need to let go of the bars to drop the post.

Plus, extra cables under the bar tape is a pain and don’t think you can use an internally routed post with cables under the tape as there is no slack to get the post out.

crotch dropper for the win

I still use a gravity dropper non-remote from years back, it is more fiddly especially if you like to use a mid position as you hunt around to get the pin located. But the crotch grab is just a quick flick so I think its a trade off depending on your needs. I need to remove the post to get the bike in my campervan and don’t like loads of cables all over my bike so it suits me.

I got one of these;

CX Dropper

Had to make a big hole in my new bike to make it work though. A nice chap on here has an excellent guide to DIY.

I put one of these on my Salsa El-Mariachi last year. It’s survived the very wet and muddy winter without any issues so far.

trying to ulilise the left hand shift lever to actuate the dropper somehow

Why not use the lever that is supplied with the post?

Ahh, missed the bit about the drop bars. Now it makes sense.

I like that idea marcmcq90.

Hope you get enough cable pull to activate the post.

OP – I have an old original Gravity Dropper that’s 27.2mm with a remote lever. Maybe try to hunt one down. There were a number of activating options.

I dont think that you need to use it on a gravel bike as much as on an mtb so under the seat would probably be fine.

Deffo remote on the mtb though as I use it lots.

I use an XLC 27.2 dropper from one of the german sites (can’t remember if it was rose bikes, bike discount or bike24). Lever under the saddle. No problems so far. Finish feels nicer than expected.

Just checked my order history and it was this:

https://r2-bike.com/XLC-Sattelstuetze-Vario-SP-T09-272-mm-100-mm-Hub-50-95-kg

98euro

I can’t see how you’d use a threaded bottle cage bolt hole to get a dropper cable out of the seat tube, at least not without kinking the cable. I tried to use the hole for a DI2 battery on my bike which is bigger and that was too tight as well, it would have needed turning into a slot.

I’m in the market for a gravel bike with 27.2, my research has led me to the 1x SRAM lever mod, just take a few bits out and you can use the left shift lever as a dropper remote, should be tidy. Doesn’t help if you’re Shimano mind.

There was a Tranzx on eBay the other day, taken off a new bike

I have a KS ETen 27.2 on my stooge, with the saddle lever

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233245489436

works great!

@merak not yet but looks straight forward, all you’re doing is removing the indexing mechanism leaving the cable to pull. The only challenge is that you’ll need the cable to insert from the lever end, so you’ll need a dropper like a KS.

You can mod a SRAM left hand lever to act as a dropper lever pretty easily, it does mean finding a space lefthand hydro lever though.