Doing some upgrades on the daughters bike and thinking about a dropper.

Needs to be and external routed 27.2 diameter.

Looking around the T-Mars 3 position ones can be had for around £45 which seems good.

Anyone had one and can comment on how good they are?

Or any other alternatives that won’t break the bank (stealth wanted add…..)?

Thanks

I had one for a while and it worked fine.

The only thing I would say is that they can be a bit tight, so need a bit of force on the trigger. My lad at 8/9ish couldn’t manage it. I put a bontrager lever on it which helped (was actually a massive upgrade) but was still too much for him.

I had one, it was fine until a very wet gritty Welsh ride.

I had a T mars one a few years ago, it was shit, worked well until the first wet ride.

My wife has had a 27.2 externally cabled KS lev for a couple of years, it’s been OK. Not mega cheap, but it actually works.

The brand x external 27.2 is really good with a quick action and almost no rotational play. It’s only half a year old though but has done lots of wet rides and seems fine so far.

@Yak I have a couple of Brand-X and been impressed with them.
But spending £100 on one for a 9yo is pushing it a bit.
Currently watching a couple of X-Fusion HiLo’s on eBay.

Got one on the wife’s bike. Doesn’t see a lot of miles but works ok. I put grease it in when new as it was a bit dry but it’s been fine since then. The options for 27.2 are a bit limited.

I’ve got one on my not so much used these days bike..

As said above the leaver can be quite hard to actuate. Also the The return spring is quite stiff. I moddified mine a little bit. I cut off a couple of turns from the spring and applied a lot of thin grease over the shaft and spring before reassembly. It’s a faff yes. But it still works after 6 years.

Just to add, I did look at better ones for the wife’s bike and decided it was actually cheaper to buy a second hand frame with 30.9 post and then there are more options for posts, especially second hand. Might be worth considering if your daughter is still growing.

Thanks again all – like the sound of the modification (of to hunt for a second hand T-Mars to butcher…).

@nickjb her next bike is sorted – she’s having her Brother’s NS Clash 26’er when he grows out of it.

I’ve got one on an old Trek 850. I had to do a fair amount of work to get it anywhere reliable though.
For the money, though, not bad. Be careful, as there’s a forward facing and a rearward facing version (the pin faces front or back).
As for the lever action, I found there is a bit of a knack to it. If you unweight the saddle, pull the lever, then sit to drop it, it’s a lot easier. Same with returning.
If you insert a lump of plastic inside the rod as well, this creates a bit of vacuum inside the cylinder, allowing you to control the return rate.

I’ve got one too. To make the trigger release easier you need to weight the saddle, but not your full weight… it takes a bit of getting used to coming from a ‘normal’ dropper but not that bad. Mildly annoying having to sit before raising it.

Mine also gave up after a wet muddy ride, very easy to take apart and clean though to get working perfectly again. Normal wet is fine but the boot doesn’t seem to keep out gritty slop very well.

I had one, worked fine, needed some love after wet/gritty rides.

Then it snapped…

Mine was always fairly unreliable. I tried to buy a new cable from the importer too and that was a painful process. But saying that I’d probably buy another for £45 for me kids, as they’d grow out of it before it breaks for good.

Mine lasted a year before imploding

I have one in bits that you are welcome to . I need to make sure all the little bits are there, but the spring is in one piece if you are worried about cutting a new one. I bought it as a spare but mine was faultless bar the rotation in the saddle. It might not be a T-mars but there were a few that were the same but rebranded

@TimP if it’s going spare then I’ll take it off you.
Just PM me and let me know how much you want for it.

Might be worth checking eBay for an RSP Plummet dropper post. There are 2 versions but the cheaper one is the original mechanical one – you can tell which one that is because it has a rubber boot over the main shaft.

It’s mechanical – so essentially a big spring to return the post to full extension with a pin that locks into notches on the shaft to locate. TRhink it was 100mm travel with a top / middle / bottom setting.

I used one for a couple of years with no maintenance or mods and it just kept going. The standard lever was ok (push down on it rather than a 1x style) and it just worked.

It was a little clunky as that type of dropper would be, but it sounds a lot better than the t-mars. I recently sold it for £25 plus postage on eBay.

I never did it but I understand they are easy to strip and re-grease. Mine had got a little sticky towards the end because I wasn’t using it very much.

Not mine but there is one on eBay at the moment – clearly I can’t vouch for its condition!

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F123858644373