Dropper post on a gravel bike..pointless?

PITA for seatpacks if you’re doing any bikepacking though?

I’m a big fan of them for what I call gravel riding.

I can see if you have endless American style unsealed roads or your gravel is Dirty Reiver type stuff then its not necessary.

I use mine as more of a shit ’90s mountainbike in semi-rocky terrain, flowy singletrack, the odd blue & red trail-centre type trail, that kind of thing, so its worth its weight in gold for being able to move around freely on the bike, drop off things and the odd little jump. It doesn’t need to be massive travel – the 50mm one that came on my old Fugio was fine, I’m now on a 90mm One-up, mostly because it was a bit lighter.

Bikepacking – I’ve got an Apidura/76Projects collar that clamps on the post and gives the seatpack something to strap to.

(Conversley, I really wouldn’t bother putting a sus fork on, that would be a step too close to MTB).

Not much love for the suspension fork on here! I have been super impressed however. Really not noticeable on the road and takes the sting out of the off road bits.

I love mine! Had my eye on a Topstone Lefty for ages, and got one recently when I saw it reduced to a price I just couldn’t resist. I didn’t buy it because it was practical or necessary, I bought it cos it was rad 😂

Been covered really but just depend what you use your gravel bike for. I’m firmly in the ‘treat it as xc mtb and wouldn’t be without one’ camp.

1st thing I did with my ti frame was drill it to take an internal PNW dropper along with their remote, Coast bar and stem. Think I’d sooner go back to v-brakes than be without a dropper these days.

Hard nope on the suspension fork for me, half the fun is trying to get down stuff with zero grip on something that looks like a road bike.

At that point get yourself on an mtb for the win. Or if you are just using it for 1 steep decent per ride get over it and get on with it.

I think you need to broaden your horizons and maybe try an unknown or different route. Must be pretty boring doing the same one over and over just to avoid having to drop the saddle.

I cant think of a position where I thought a dropper would make a difference over the whole concept of the frame geometry , handlebars, tyres etc being more of a compromise than and extra 2″ of seat clearance.

At that point get yourself on an mtb for the win. Or if you are just using it for 1 steep decent per ride get over it and get on with it.

Yeah, there’s that point when you’re out exploring a new trail and find that it’s steepening up so you just whip your MTB out and leave the gravel bike leaning against a tree. Or alternatively maybe just flick the lever, drop the saddle a few inches and carry on riding, because having a  dropper fitted has no impact on anything else on the bike other than adding a little weight, and even if it only gets used every few rides still gets used.

OK, so posting on here earlier gave me the nudge to go and try and fit my dropper onto my gravel bike.

However it seems I’ve hit a snag, the lever that came with the post seems to be a mountain bike version, which won’t fit my (Easton) bars anywhere even to try it out.

Does anyone sell a gear cable joining adapter that my Google-fu is failing to find? As I mentioned, ideally I’d prefer to control it with a de-ratcheted shifter, but that falls down as niether the shifter nor the post have a clamp to grip the cable, they both expect the nipple end of the cable. FWIW, my frame needs full outer cables, there’s no stops to join the inner between.

Otherwise it looks like £20-30 for a 31.8mm clamp lever to go next to the stem, which doesn’t seem the ideal place for it, or £55-£75(!) for a lever next to the brake lever.

Am I missing a magic other option?

@roach I just ran a bit of clear Gorilla tape over the area on the stanchion that the bag overlapped with to protect it. Still had some dropper function available, but not the full stroke obviously. Whip it off when you’re done and it’s back to normal with full drop.

Another benefit of them is additional comfort over a standard post due to the skinny stanchion.