Brand X dropper vs Giant Contact SL Switch

Which one’s best and can be maintained/rebuilt?

I know it’s early days for the Brand X so no real way of telling whether it’s a bag of scrap a year or two down the line.

The Giant has been around for a while and seems to be a bit flakey but easily fettled with most parts available. Oh and the lever looks like it’s made from recycled tin cans 😆

Or are they both dog shit?

Not tried Brand X but I am on my second Giant. First was previous to current model, worked fine all the time I had it and sold it with the bike it came on last month. New Anthem has current version, both Stealth. I like them, lever is ok, movement is smooth. New one seems a bit better sealed against elements

I’m the same, had the last gen Giant, worked fine apart from the clamp design. Got the current Giant and it works just as well with a better clamp design. Not tried the brand X.

My Giant Contact Sl is about 8 months old & the play in the post is a joke. Stripped it down today to see if I can do anything with it but it’s a non starter as far as I can see. The guide is worn allowing torsional movement.

I certainly would not buy or recommend another to anyone. Badly thought out crap!

^^^ should be an easy warranty replacement through your Giant Dealer.

My last gen giant dropper has a good 5mm play each way and its out of warranty now! needs to give it some tlc after every ride now as well

Just pulled the trigger on an SL. £130 for a 150mm dropper is a no brainer and warranty should be fine if anything crops up. Half the price of a reverb!

The brand x can’t be stripped / rebuilt without voiding the warranty – but as the warranty is 2 years if you have any issues you can just send it back.

My original Giant post was ok, the newer one with the revised clamp is not. Stopped working and wouldn’t stay up or down. These were both 100mm drop and the action remained smooth, with some slop but not excessive. I now have a 125mm in use for only a few months, feels rough as hell and the coating is wearing off the stanchion (I suspect my fatness doesn’t help). Cack. Next one I buy will be a Reverb.

@monkeyboyjc – Yeah I noticed there are no parts listed for it yet. So it’s effectively a disposable item after 2 years, unless parts are made available at a later date.

You can get a replacement cartridge for the Giant, pricey mind. Seems as through the cartridge isn’t the cause of common failures with them though.

Giant pretty good on warranty, easy to strip and service, they can be switched from non to stealth by swopping the cartridge around. and cheap.

No experience of the Brand x.

I think droppers are still hugely undeveloped and you could spend £100 or £500 and still have problems.

I certainly wouldn’t take on a long event without some means of fixing the post up.. a constantly self dropping post and a long way home gets unfunny very quickly

@iainc

I have just sent an email to Winstanley bikes, with regards to a warranty claim. It was purchased 30th may. The play was noticable when first fitted but has gotten significantly worse.

^^ I have a brand new one, first ride today and it has a little more play than the 18 month old first generation one I had before. Thankfully Giant warranty is first class, so I am quite relaxed that if if gets sick it will get replaced.

Have had very good service from Winstanleys on various items and warranties so am sure they will sort you out.

^^ Fingers crossed , judging by the design they must have a pile of them back by now.

I contacted CRC about the rebuild ability of the Brand X one.

Basically it’s a no go. No serviceable parts, that said it uses some parts which I believe are now generic in some cheaper posts.

It’s basically a ride it till it breaks out of warranty deal, then replace.

That said it didn’t put me off buying one. Whether the drop/ total length will be enough on the”new” frame is another matter. 🙂

I think it’s worth a punt going on reviews of reliability….. very early days though. Wait till Spring to see how many survived the Winter? 😉

No different from Thomson there then, but the full service on a Thomson out of warranty is £90 plus postage costs.
I’m going to use my Thomson through winter then replace with a Brand X as it’s basically the same price as a service but may prove to be more reliable.

@mattbee – that’s exactly what I did. My Thomson had lost 10mm or so of drop so needed a new cartridge, service cost with postage ended up being more than the brandx with British Cycling discount on crc.
I ended up selling the Thomson for more than the cost of the brand x (listed on eBay the issues with it).

First ride out on the Contact SL yesterday and I also took it to bits before I fitted it. Really impressed with the simplicity. basically just a gas strut inside and you can buy complete new internals for less than the price of a reverb service

Contact Switch Cartridge

So far so good

Had a Giant contact switch – lasted one ride before the cartridge died – bag’o’shite…

the biggest benefit of the Giant (to me) is that when it goes wrong, as most droppers seem to do, it’s a very straight froward warranty procedure through LBS

I bought a 150mm Giant post for m y hardtail last November after similar havering over the Brand X. I’ve been running a Reverb on my other bike for a while now with no issues – possibly because my mileage has gone down over the last year. The Giant has been pretty faultless so far, and it’s been a grotty winter. Occasionally it feels a bit stuttery or gritty, then the next up / down it’s fine. Stanchion seems clean, too. I took the collar off the top yesterday after a ride and added a bit more fork grease (Pace RC7 stuff from way back) and slapped it all back together again. At the moment, I’m very chuffed with it. It came set up for internal drop, so I had to strip it and rebuild it for external routing, and as said, it’s very straightforward. My only concern is that you can replace the keys – at least as far as I can tell.

for those with Giant ones 🙂 the top collar often feels a bit loose after a ride, so I just tighten it up by hand. Is it worth undoing it and greasing then ?

for those with Giant ones the top collar often feels a bit loose after a ride, so I just tighten it up by hand. Is it worth undoing it and greasing then ?

I did mine. Very little grease under it from new.

Aside from swapping out a busted cartridge, it seems to be the only bit of servicing you can actually do on them. I figured it was worth doing from time to time.

Bob – cheers for that, I guess I can just unscrew it and grease while it’s fitted ? New one felt a bit crap after 3hrs of GT grime yesterday…

I guess I can just unscrew it and grease while it’s fitted ?

Yeah, unscrew, lift collar right up, apply grease to shaft, cycle collar up and down a few times, tighten up collar.

excellent, thanks

Hmmm, may be eating my words….. Just had a good look at mine after it’s second outing yesterday, 3 hrs of gritty wet Glentress. It has lost a bit of anodising in a few parts….

Have mailed some pics to LBS..

Having similar quandary after getting rid of the new reverb as it was too short a drop for Golfie trails.
Keen to see how the contact SL works out as there’s not many budget 150 droppers out there. Was drawn to the cable operation like an old gravity dropper on the old bike.
Is there a keyed section you can strip?
Ta Howie

Literally a piece of piss to take apart

4 small bolts, 2 at either end of the post hold the gas strut in place.

Undo them

Undo the bottom cap with an 8mm hex key

All the internals are then removable

This is literally all there is inside

It’s a sealed gas strut. The 4 small bolts basically hold each end of it in place.

Unscrew the collar and the upper shaft should remove and I’d assume it’s keyed somewhere.

You can basically take the entire thing to bits with a set of hex keys

Some exploded views here

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/_upload_us/MY16%20CONTACT%20SWITCH%20seatpost%20Manual%20EN.pdf

Hey that’s brilliant thanks!
Quite like the ability to strip it down,plus I suppose there’s warranty on them.
Nice one

iainc – Member
Hmmm, may be eating my words….. Just had a good look at mine after it’s second outing yesterday, 3 hrs of gritty wet Glentress. It has lost a bit of anodising in a few parts….

Have mailed some pics to LBS..

….and a new warranty one is on it’s way to LBS. Hope this was a one off..

I wouldn’t actually be that fussed about damage to the anodising. There’s nothing that can leak out of the seals as there’s nothing inside really. It’s a million times less complex than a Reverb. There’s no oil or air inside it, at least in bits you can get to.

Bob, yeah, but I’m a fussy beggar 🙂

TBH, I was wanting to register the issue with LBS, so that if it becomes an issue there was history, so from that point of view, job done !

Well, new warranty one popped on tonight, a load of grease applied under the collar, will see how it goes…

If you unscrew the collar & with all the internals removed, a bit of heat on the threaded portion & a swift pull upwards will remove the main body from the shaft. It then reveals the part that really needs grease & in my case wears out 😡

Dont worry it goes back together no problem.