Ok, so people love dropping their saddles at the top of a descent. My mission has been to try and forget the height adjusts and just ride, as an element of my back to basics approach.

Do you do the same?

Can you really NOT ride stuff without hitting that button on the heavy expensive post, or stopping to do a twist ‘n’ drop?

Of course you can but is it as much fun?

Yes, all the time. Never bothered dropping my seat until a mate told me how great it was, but I didn’t like it; felt like I was missing the ability to control the bike using my thighs against the seat.

I’m sure people find the ability to drop the seat a big help, but I don’t.

Quite a lot recently. Bit me in the ass the other day and had to climb off the front of the bike.

Ok, so people love dropping their saddles at the top of a descent. My mission has been to try and forget the height adjusts and just ride, as an element of my back to basics approach

been thinking the same and have come to the conclusion that I would never use a dropper post.

I used to. It was OK. Now I have a droppper post and drop it. It’s much better. Some people ride all day without changing gear, too.

There are things I won’t ride with the seatpost up, absolutely. It just depends what your riding entails really.

But most of the time it’s not can you, but why would you?

I never drop mine. I suspect that I should learn to so I’m buying a dropper post to take away any excuse for not doing it.

Don’t have a dropper post, just old fashioned QR
Would never ride without dropping my seat for descents – particularly techy ones. Allows me to get my weight back/let the bike move around. Can’t imagine riding downhill properly with the saddle up anymore

sorry? what? faffing with saddle height on a ride? sorry I work on, get on bike pedal, loon about and have fun..only stop when time for cake. Is this stopping to adjust saddle height a trailmincer thing, or another excuse for the terminally crap? “yeh man, i would have cleaned that gnar-radsik root hop, but my saddle was like 1″ too high man”

tazzymtb – Member

Is this stopping to adjust saddle height a trailmincer thing, or another excuse for the terminally crap?

Don’t think so. Is this not dropping your saddle lark something that people that never ride anything difficult do? 😉

A long time ago people used to seat post QR’s most people gave up on them, what seems to be happening is that some people have discovered an expensive way of basically achieving the same thing. Agreed they might work a bit better, WHEN THEY WORK.

The number of people i have met and heard of who are constantly complaining about dropper posts not working, wearing out etc.

Are they here to stay, i am not actually that sure, certainly for some, but like most things bike related they will go out of fashion and reemerge at a later date…

mrmo – Member

Agreed they might work a bit better, WHEN THEY WORK.

Which, with both of mine, is all the time- they’ve been more reliable than standard seatposts have been for me! (I did manage to break my KS in the alps by whacking the lever off a mountain, at which point it stopped being a dropper post and because a normal post. I can deal)

Honestly, half the problem here is that people keep buying the bad ones, or the untested ones.

I used to and was quite happy with it on the whole. Descending feeling like I was constantly about to go over the bars was kind of entertaining but never that fast

I started to learn to get the wheels off the ground, and started to drop the saddle more and more (though not a lot as felt unstable without my thighs on the saddle) as a way to make doing more out of my comfort zone eaier

Got to the point that the ~80mm seatpost drop of my frame (post was chopped so on minimum frame insert at pedalling height) was getting a problem on steep steppy stuff, went with a dropper in an attempt to stop me ‘justifying’ a new frame

2 and a bit years later the post breaks, never got round to getting it fixed. Ran with old post for ~8months, could ride everything I could already ride, but progression/new things were evident as a potential issue
Feeling bike was getting abused/perhaps keeping me back from more stupid stuff I was making it do, so got a longer travel frame with full saddle drop. Now riding with saddle slammed more often
A 6″ dropper appeals, but for dropping more than 6″, would actally be more of a faff than dropping my normal post. Also I find dropping a normal post on the move quite easy

My mission has been to try and forget the height adjusts and just ride, as an element of my back to basics approach

yep.. me too..

deffo not a good idea on a rigid Soul around some of the steeper technical rocky descents of East Dartmoor.. It’s all still rideable (just about, as long as you’ve got good handstand skills and retractable bollocks) but it’s no fun, and is definitely courting disaster..

Don’t even have a QR seat collar & aven’t felt he need to drop my saddle in 20 + years of riding – I must be shite I guess.

The main advantage of dropper posts for me is that the in ride punctuation of stop-at-the-top-of-a-descent-put-seat-down then stop-at-the-bottom-of-a-descent-put-seat-up thing is slightly less tedious; I’d just ride the descent and carry on, with the ‘I don’t know how you can ride that with your seat up’ chorus in my ears.

I ‘simply’ ride the bloody thing with my saddle at (more or less) the right height for everything. Very very rarely do I think ‘whoaa, need a dropper here’. I have occasionally dropped the seat for proper steep stuff but for the amount of that kind of riding I do….
Done Lakes rides where it gets steep & I’ll drop it but for my usual stuff I just go!

Saddles up arses = check X 2.

depends where I’m riding. rarely drop it in the UK as the descents tend not to be either a) that long or b) that technical. Even in Scotland i tend not to.

In the alps, at the top of an alp, i often do so, just because I know I’m going to be descending for an hour or two.

Off to the alps in a couple of weeks, and probably won’t drop my saddle there though, tbh, as I’ll be on the race bike and i can’t be done with faffing with allen keys.

if i decide to do the trans nepal this december, i’ll not be dropping my post as i descend a himalaya…

I do 🙄 when i hear people say you ‘have’ to drop your seat for a paticular trail though.

Is this not dropping your saddle lark something that people that never ride anything difficult do?

😉

I may get an owie or booboo if it gets rough…strictly fire road extreme for me

Saddles up arses = check X 2.

yeah, but that’s hardly technical is it..?

It’s the whole having to change from arse on back tyre to balls on stem to arse on right pedal and back to arse on tyre again, all in the wink of a gnats chuff that I can’t manage with 18″ of seat post right in the way.. I’ve only got diddy short fat legs compared to those ahtletic fellas in the pics though

Never bothered my self

Even when i raced dh the saddle was still higher than most . I like to grip it with my thighs.

Rocked up to the les arcs and my guide told us we had to drop our posts to ride the downs.

No – infact i dont. Didnt slow me down any.

Define “hard technically”.

I’m not to sure I’d be able to navigate the gap in that berm/wallride safely which Absalon is making look easy up there.

Used ride everywhere with a saddle height too high for steep techy stuff and too low for ideal pedalling, dropper posts allow the best of both worlds, doesn’t make me any faster but makes a ride more fun 🙂

I’ve always ridden with a full height post – don’t know any different. What I’m curious about is what downhills people drop their seatposts for – is this for extremely hard stuff, or just stuff at trail centres?

I rode with a reverb for 6 months until it broke… Love it, thought id never go back. Ive been riding with a fixed saddle height for ages now and im more than used to it again.

The reverb always had play in it from new, so the fixed post feels so much better. Rode the full end2end and passportes with feeling the urge to ever drop my saddle.

You can but you won’t ride it as well. There’s a reason that every DH bike has its saddle low and every competitive gravity enduro racer uses a dropper post. I could comment on some of the stiff and slow riding I saw at Bristol’s newish trails recently, saddles up way too high to flow fluidly on bermy pumpy trails…

The other factor is that I think MTBing with a dropper post (and flats or good unclipping skills) is usefully safer than riding the same trails at the same speed without – I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve saved myself from a crash by getting my feet down and/or having my body lower.

Minds me of the fella who cursed me for passing him at the top of the final descent at 10 under the ben

He was droppin his saddle on his trek ex8 and as i passed him asked me to wait till he had gone as he would be passing me again in a couple minutes since i was on a rigid xc bike.

Never saw him again till i watched him come into transition.

Define “hard technically”.

no thanks 🙂

I know what you’re getting at, but those pics show very smoooth flowing trails though..
I don’t want to get into a ‘was the Olympic course hard enough’ type debate.. as FWIW I argued that it most definitely was..
Those pics show very little undulation though, not the type of riding that requires a lot of frequent, large and rapid shifts in weight distribution.. which is what I was thinking of when I used the term ‘technical..’

I’ve always ridden with a full height post – don’t know any different. What I’m curious about is what downhills people drop their seatposts for – is this for extremely hard stuff, or just stuff at trail centres?

Everything. It isn’t just about balance on steeps, it’s about being able to move better around the bike. If you can corner well with a high saddle, you’ll corner better with a low saddle.

It’s all still rideable (just about, as long as you’ve got good handstand skills and retractable bollocks)

Are those handlebar-remote or lever-actuated retractable bollocks?

You can but you won’t ride it as well

Everything. It isn’t just about balance on steeps, it’s about being able to move better around the bike. If you can corner well with a high saddle, you’ll corner better with a low saddle

LOL.

Some of us don’t ride that way.
Some of us ride well with a saddle up, and some of us have been doing it for years.

There are just different techniques and preferences. To some people it’s great to get the seat out of the way to fully lean the bike when cornering, or when going off steep stuff, but you can do it with the seat there if you like. Just it’s more comfortable and aids confidence with no seat.

The guys above at the Olympics are used to seats rammed up their arses though as much as wearing tight lycra. It doesn’t make seat lowering wrong. Just look at the DH races. And lets not forget the many crashes at the above said Olympics MTB 😉

Myself, on trails I’m comfortable with a mid height seat, but on climbs it needs to be higher. It’s way too high for me for anything but climbs though so has to go down. On descents, it’s just nice to get it out of the way and my technique is better if I’m on the pedals and not the seat all the time. I could and have ridden plenty with seat at a fixed position, but the ride has been more lazy and less technically competent… for me.

I can ride everything round here with my saddle up, but I’m much quicker and have more fun with it down.

I haven’t even got a QR….but I’m not great at descending….Having said that I’ve rode with lads that have dropped their saddles and I’ve got down with no probelems…and enjoyed.
Each to their own etc…some people just love faffing about and spending money…I’m not a fan of either..

Some of us don’t ride that way.
Some of us ride well with a saddle up, and some of us have been doing it for years.

Doesn’t mean you wouldn’t ride better with your saddle down (once you’ve acclimatised to being able to actually move!) But do go on telling yourself that you’re as good as you can be, if that makes you feel better. 😉

Just it’s more comfortable for me and aids confidence for me with no seat.

I’m a-fixing that for you with my seat up..

But do go on telling yourself that you’re as good as you can be, if that makes you feel better.

…and do go on telling me how much better I’d be if only I listened to you.. guru… 🙄

Are those handlebar-remote or lever-actuated retractable bollocks?

pah.. don’t be so old fashioned..

mine are electric and are operated by brain impulses picked up by a sensor implanted under the foreskin..