Dropper post – Weight vs Action vs Price

Never really thought about weight until I unboxed my 2nd Brand X ascend…

What a chunk! Have had a Brand X on my old hardtail for a couple of years and becide the awful lever, the post action was amazing for the price. Couldn’t understand why anyone would buy these posts that cost 3 or 4 times as much!

Is it the weight?

As I am currently looking for a 27.2mm dropper for my XC bike, which is currently in rigid mode with Selcof forks… so quite light and minimal. I thought I’d see how much it would be to get a lighter one than the brand x I’d normally go to (simply based on value).

KS Eten which is around £120-140 comes in at approx 650 grams.

Brand X ascend is around £120-140 comes in at approx 600 grams

KS LEV which is a step up from the ETEN apparantley is around 530 grams…. but costs about £330!!!

So twice the price to knock off less than 100 grams.

Does weight come into your dropper choice?

Also check whether the stated weight is with lever and cable included, or without.
I noticed a couple of years ago, whilst doing some similar investigation, that the more expensive posts often don’t include the ‘peripherals’ in the weight. Cheeky!

Weight is lowest on the list for me. Reliability, function and price at the top. There are more xc-specific posts now that I’d look at if weight was the priority, but most of them sacrifice drop and cost as xc-specific things do.

I don’t care what it weighs, I just want it to work reliably and have lots of drop.

I suppose it depends if you are racing or into engineering porn.
I’m quite into Engineering porn and the Thomson is a work of art…
Thing is a dropper is a dropper … it’s not suspension so as long as it goes up and down reliably it doesn’t affect riding.

Brand-X have a bit of play compared to Thomson that haven’t developed ANY perceivable let alone measurable play but no more than my Fox. This doesn’t affect riding but it’s annoying when you lift the bike and it feels like pivot is loose.

ZTTO remotes on both…is nicer. Fox remote would be OK but fell apart after 2 rides and lost the bolt so its now got a ugly bolt sticking out.

All of them go up/down though… unlike the previous Reverb.

Couldn’t understand why anyone would buy these posts that cost 3 or 4 times as much!

Impress the ladies.

I have an expensive KS Lev Ci 175mm and a cheap Bird Down V2 170mm and there’s 110g between them, including levers and cables. The Lev is just under 560g and the Bird is close to 670g, and that 110g saving would cost you around £200 if buying today, so only a real weight weenie would splurge for one I think. I was lucky and received mine by mistake, as I ordered a standard 175mm Lev but upon opening the box found a carbon version inside :o)

Action wise both are excellent with a nice smooth feel up and down and no play at all. The Lev is over 2 years old and the Bird is just a few weeks old, so it’s still too early to comment on reliability.

@hols2 have you been trawling through my instagram? That is my preferred XC attire.

The weight thing is only really a concern since Lockdown. It’s coz I’ve been playing around trying to find the right bike set up for regular rides from the door.

Switching my new Selcof carbon rigid froks between a Stanton SLackline 27.5 and a Spesh Chisel 29er.

Weight seems important in this build, as I’m tring to gain some sprint accelleration and the rigid forks defo show up the weight on the rear of each bike… much more than when a Sus fork is fitted.