Dropper Posts – Do they work yet and are they the future?

well, i can drop my qr post while riding along, so long as it’s not too lumpy, and do so regularly. 😛
if more people i ride with get them i’ll probably end up with a GD, but until that happens i’ll take the breather when it’s available. 😉

freeridenick – Member

why would you. just lower the post!

Erm, isn’t that the point nick? I do – via a lever.

And when I raise it, it’s back at exactly the right place, rather than faffing trying to look for marks on the seatpost in the dark.

I use mine like I would brakes or gears, without thinking I will drop it slightly for some situations or all the way down for others, and it always comes back to the correct height, no faffing Reverb has been totally reliable , went back after 3 wekeks for a mod, and has been fine ever since, bought it in march 2010 , just bought another for my new frame. Had a ride a couple of weeks back with a standard post became aware of it reaming my butt constantly , 😀

no faffing Reverb has been totally reliable

went back after 3 wekeks for a mod

having to send it back after 3 weeks is reliable how?

I love my Reverb on the bouncy bike.
Bleeding is no fiddlier than Avid or Formula brakes so should be well within the capabilities of the average STW engineer. Watch out for low pressure out of box.

I want to love a Reverb on my HHT but something else always seems more important whenever I find a 30.9 420/125 RH non mmx at the right price…

I have a 27.2 AM HT that I would love to dropper also but fewer choices… May well be a KS Lev that I may well have to import if Jungle don’t sort their act out…

exploring the trails

Exactly when you might want the ability to change how you’re riding very quickly 😀

Yes, I am justifying my dropper a bit but it makes my riding better as I can adapt how I ride to the terrain on a much more frequent basis. No more dropping off odd things with my saddle in my balls! Less mashing a bike along with the saddle down! More fun!

If you have chance to follow a really good rider and I mean really good (Harry Heath, Josh Bryceland ) round a flat corner and watch the grip they generate, then look at their body position on the bike, hanging off the outside of the bike with their torso twisted to the direction of travel, maximising the load on the outside of the tyre, there is no way with the seat stuck up in the air it would be possible, so despite the obvious for up hill and downhills , IMHO it is cornering the gives the dropped post its ultimate purpose.

There was a day when folk would spend a lot of money to get the lightest seatpost they could. Now people are buying **** heavy ones.
I was curious a while ago but since then I remembered I am lanky and quite happy riding with my post up. I will stop and drop it before a long steep descent. Some mates I ride with have them, they are no faster than me, and they don’t have to wait for me to manually drop my post before a long lakeland descent, as they are usually dying on the floor from the climb.
As with everything its personal preference but I cant see anyone who has spent £150 plus on one admitting it was a waste of money.

I can drop my seat post easily enough without stopping, there’s no need to dismount or wipe any mud off anything.

How do you get it back up without stopping?

I can stop my bike with V brakes 😕

Are you serious? To get it back up, I lift it up instead of pushing it down 😯

They are great – I have an old maverick with remote lever. The most useful feature is the ability to get the seat back up to the perfect height without having to think about it as that is more critical than how much it is dropped. If there is any possibility of mud I use a mudguard to keep it & my ar$e clean. No mudguard in the wet = asking for trouble imho

As with everything its personal preference but I cant see anyone who has spent £150 plus on one admitting it was a waste of money.

Mine was such a waste of money that a second dropper post was the first thing I bought for my new build…

It’s reassuring to see how many people get the point of a dropper now – it being more for putting your seat up from a default down position than vice versa, it being at least as valuable for cornering as for descending. It’s also a lot safer than having your seat up high when riding new trails at a good speed without being as exhausting as always have your saddle dropped.

I suspect the dissenters are either roadies, dirt jumpers or downhillers at heart. A dropper may not always help you ride faster but it’ll usually help you ride better…

having to send it back after 3 weeks is reliable how? that was in 2010 has been used all year round 2-3 times a week since then with no problemS, It was one of the very first Reverbs, they did a mod it was there and back in 3 days great service and hasn’t missed a beat since.

Ha ha.. I’m a roadie, downhiller and dirt jumper but not a dissenter. I have a reverb for days when 125mm drop will do. (Ie. No sweet jumps or super steep/tech gnar)

mrvear – Member

As with everything its personal preference but I cant see anyone who has spent £150 plus on one admitting it was a waste of money.

How about all those folks who went out and spent more for a second one, or a third?

It seems to me that a predictor of how useful a dropper might be for you would be whether your saddle is higher or lower than your bars in your normal riding position.

A dropper came included with my latest bike, but I only lower it on steeper or jumpier trails by maybe an inch, and bring it back up as soon as I need to pedal more than a few strokes. The thing is, I was perfectly happy without one before and I wouldn’t be that bothered without it now. I believe the reason for that is because I’m short with short legs and a long torso so my saddle is a bit lower than my bars. I have no problem dropping off the back of my saddle if it gets proper steep and plenty of room to move around when in the attack position. My other bikes don’t have droppers and I have no burning desire to get them one.

I’m curious to know though if anyone has developed a dropper suspension post? That could be pretty cool for a burly hardtail where the suspension travels up and down between the point the post has been dropped to. I’ve got an old Alu Spesh P3 which is bloody uncomfortable on the hard trails here so I never ride it. If a dropper suspension post existed it could be reborn.

If you don’t need a dropper post ^^ why not just buy a suspension post?

stevomcd – Member
They’re not the future, they are now.

Watching our clients, we’ve gone from a handful of riders using them 2 or 3 seasons back to over 90% this year.

They’re awesome by the way – I’ve done 2 seasons of guiding on a Reverb with no hassles at all, other than a pilot-error induced broken hose.

This, exactly 🙂 must have been 3 summers ago following Stevo and his merry crew down trials and being able to react to what was coming (in an ungraceful Michael Jackson Crotch grab way – lever operated KS) that mad the holiday even more fun. Popping it back up for the pedals was brilliant.

I have one fitted to my bike for about 3 years now, when I got the new bike the only reason I didn’t move the old KS over was because I got a LEV. The remote triples the benefit.

I’m glad plenty of people can manage without or don’t want to try them it’s your loss. It just means now I can do a local ride that involves tough climbs, long pedally sections, jumps and DH sections without ever getting off the bike. I ride for longer and harder now I have it.

There was a day when folk would spend a lot of money to get the lightest seatpost they could. Now people are buying **** heavy ones.

True but I just weighed the missus 150mm full sus last night in the bike shop after changing some bits and it’s 27.7lb with a reverb, it’s not killing it really 🙂 It could go to 26lb and still keep the reverb.

Plenty of people who spent £150+ have moaned about wasting money! just search for threads about CB posts, or the 27.2 Lev.
Just because you don’t want one doesn’t mean they are not worth having…

That picture from TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR perfectly illustrates my point. If you ride normally with the seat 10cm or more above the bars a DP will be a great benefit as this will drop the seat to the same height as the bars.
The alternative, as I do, is ride a frame the correct size for you and use headset spacers under the stem to raise the bars to the correct height.

scottalej – Member

That picture from TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR perfectly illustrates my point. If you ride normally with the seat 10cm or more above the bars a DP will be a great benefit as this will drop the seat to the same height as the bars.
The alternative, as I do, is ride a frame the correct size for you and use headset spacers under the stem to raise the bars to the correct height.

My pennyworth is having been a little sceptical, I dipped my toe into the dropper post with an ICE V8 earlier this year – it was affordable enough that if I didn’t like it, not too much outlay. It’s simplicity also makes for easy and quick maintenance.

I’m now fully converted. It’s all about lowering one’s centre of gravity and feeling a subjective increase in manouverability. Whilst not an ‘essential’, for me it’s very much a ‘nice to have’ bit of kit and given that the ICE is a 27.2, it’s going on my winter HT…. Conveniently meaning I can look towards a KS Lev for the FS 🙂

Fair point TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR, I haven’t been entirely clear. Mainly because I’d have to get a post anyway, and if I did so the reason would be to push myself far further than I’ve done before since this bike is expendable to me, so then a dropper might become more useful to me.

Plus it would just seem elegant to me if there were a post that did both since they both go up and down. A dropper could be likened to a travel adjuster on a fork, so I’d imagine suspension could be offered too, particularly where the mechanism is already hydraulic. Like I said though, I’m just curious really. Given how much a Reverb costs it would probably be too expensive for a might as well if you’ve got it user like me.

Just because you don’t want one doesn’t mean they are not worth having…

Posted 7 hours ago # Report-Post

scottalej – Member

That picture from TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR perfectly illustrates my point. If you ride normally with the seat 10cm or more above the bars a DP will be a great benefit as this will drop the seat to the same height as the bars.
The alternative, as I do, is ride a frame the correct size for you and use headset spacers under the stem to raise the bars to the correct height.

Ahem – the bike is about as close a perfect fit as I could get (at least in that model). I can just about claim to be 6ft and that’s a large. An XL would increase the TT length further and a medium (albeit reducing the TT) wouldn’t fit me seatpost wise. It’s been adapted over the years and see how high the bars actually are above the headset.

The dropper post puts the saddle a bit below when dropped…

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Untitled[/url] by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

And isn’t that far above when raised…

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Untitled[/url] by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

reverbs are ace http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/naughty-reverb

Okay…so I decided to order a Reverb from Merlin last week, a little earlier than planned. Rode with it for the first time yesterday and I was really impressed with it. There is a little play in the seat, but I think this is normal?

My ride was a mixture of long fireroad climbs and a good mix of natural trails. Steep bits, flat pedally bits and everything in between.

Next upgrade….2×9 to 1×10 😀

Just ordered a reverb myself……. Can’t wait to fit it!

Really miss the dropper I had on the full-suss before is was nicked already. KS Supernateral, it never missed a heartbeat over the six months I had it. I’d buy another without a second hesitation for the replacement build when I’ve got the money.

If anyone wants to try the future in 31.6 size then I’m selling my dropper as I changed frame so it no longer fits

pics of it HERE

I’m looking for 50 + postage. email in profile