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Who needs a Dropper Post?


nickc

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I would love one but at R3200 odd Rand its a bit out of my budget!

 

https://www.buycycle...product_id=1064

 

Giant makes a dropper that is good value and works well for around 1300 Zuma ronts. Not as refined as a Reverb, but it does the job well enough. Three of the guys I ride with have them and so far they are holding up.

 

Having a dropper is not a neccesity, and we all rode fine without them. It's only once you have ridden one that you realise how much more you are capable of. It gives you the confidence to tackle technical sections faster and you are able to move around so freely that you start to believe in yourself, so you start riding more technical stuff.

Sure you can stop and drop your post to ride a knarly drop off and stop and pull it up again. But when you riding in a group with other guys who push one, you tend to choose the chicken lines so that you can stay on the bunch. With a dropper you just ride everything and keep going. It's liberating !

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hehehe i have one of those donkeys too

 

agree on the CB comment, dropper post in general got a bad rep because of them. Believe the newer ones are much better. To be honest I wouldn't know what to do with it...whenever things tech I get out of the saddle and it has never bothered me ito positioning my body. But then again, I am used to it.

 

Muuuuuch better. Mind you, the one I tested WAS Crow's, on his Mojo HD, and it was his Lev 150mm so it *could* have been a combo of the bike and the post...

 

And fair enough. If you're used to it, then great - I just prefer to drop my saddle when things point down, and then when I need to pedal again (cos I'm an unfit lazy lard ass bastid) then it's aaaaall the way down and I feel like Erckel on a tricycle.

 

If you know what I mean...

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So where you get the gaint ones? At 1300 Ront I can almost justify one. At 3200 Ront I can suffer witha normal post!

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hehehe i have one of those donkeys too

 

agree on the CB comment, dropper post in general got a bad rep because of them. Believe the newer ones are much better. To be honest I wouldn't know what to do with it...whenever things tech I get out of the saddle and it has never bothered me ito positioning my body. But then again, I am used to it.

I got tired of getting my knackers knackered on the rather steep tech ST section, so I started dropping my post. Made a huge difference to the ride, but I would have to lift the saddle again and even with the post marked I would still be fiddling to get it 100% right height and aligned with the stem again.

 

I have worn out a few QR seat post collars like that. SO with the dropper is a up and down on the fly, no loss of flow on the ride and the height and alignment are always 100% right for less tech and climbing sections with the post fully extended.

 

To be honest with respect to weight, once you also subtract the weight of a "std" spec seatpost the extra weight you are carrying with a dropper is weight well spent!

 

The price I paid for my Reverb though was really very little as it was a second hand dropper at a give away price .... R3200.00 is a little steep, but if you plan / save for it as a medium term project the rewards are really there for the taking when you get the post.

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This is also starting to sound like the early debates when disc brakes came out and the arguments of disc brake vs v-brakes ..... sit tight boys and girls, droppers will be more readily available as OEM products on bikes, production volumes will increase, prices will "drop" and sooner or later it will become rather std equipment.

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I got tired of getting my knackers knackered on the rather steep tech ST section, so I started dropping my post. Made a huge difference to the ride, but I would have to lift the saddle again and even with the post marked I would still be fiddling to get it 100% right height and aligned with the stem again.

 

I have worn out a few QR seat post collars like that. SO with the dropper is a up and down on the fly, no loss of flow on the ride and the height and alignment are always 100% right for less tech and climbing sections with the post fully extended.

 

To be honest with respect to weight, once you also subtract the weight of a "std" spec seatpost the extra weight you are carrying with a dropper is weight well spent!

 

The price I paid for my Reverb though was really very little as it was a second hand dropper at a give away price .... R3200.00 is a little steep, but if you plan / save for it as a medium term project the rewards are really there for the taking when you get the post.

I hear you but still a bit porker for me, thus I cannot justify

 

my seatpost = thomson masterpiece = 192g

RS Reverb = 530g

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Ok point taken by the guys who actually own one.

 

But if you ride it at full extension, doesn't it move? I remember the first ones had play from left to right. Is that a thing of the past?

 

Crap Brothers....

 

The only good thing that they've made to date are their 50/50's and even that's debatable.

 

I run a KS950iR. Picked mine up from Jason @ International Trading for a mere R2k a few years ago. Initially I thought it was a bit steep. Then I used it.....

 

You have to understand that there are two camps here. The AM/Trail guys who aren't too fussed about weight but rather functionality. Strong wheels, Ali frames, bash rings, chain guides, droppers etc. Then you get the weight weenies.... 'Nuf said.

 

My 'Goose weighs in at a portly 15kgs. Do I care? NO! The fun factor FAR outweighs the fat factor!

Edited by Grebel
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Weight should not really be an issue for the AM rigs, as they are inherently heavier than the xc machines.

 

The xc guys worry about 60g on tyres, do you really think they are gonna slap on an extra kilogram for the sake of dropping a post when it gets a little technical?

 

horses for courses.

 

to answer (or agree with) the OP, i dont think one needs a dropper post on a xc rig, rathet get the right technique for riding down big obstables than worry about a dropper post.

 

all mountain and enduro is a different story all together.

 

personally i have never been bucked off my bike by my saddle - once only have i been knocked in the nuts at vg but that was because i hit an unexpected obstacle, and would not have had the time to hit the drop button on my dropper if i had one.

 

maybe i need to ride bigger obstacles...we only have dirt roads here in the city of gold, and dirt sidewalks..

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Sure you can ride down one obstacle with a high saddle. but if you hit a series of obstacles which requires quick fore and aft manouvering, possibly with changes of direction on a steep descent, then you are bound to eventually come unstuck. The dropper just allows you to be more active in your movements on the bike which will make you a better technical rider.

 

More and more bikes are coming standard with droppers. These days even 29ers have cable routing for droppers. It's a good thing since all races XCO and even XCM seem to be becoming more technical.

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Yeah, and at $600 it's a steal.

 

PFFT.

Aggg koot missed that part....ok so masterpiece it is.

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Fabian Barel also likes a dropper post:

 

 

and if you look at the way he jumps, there is not really space for a high saddle, especially not if you want to get good airtime on your jumps.

 

 

The whole idea behind dropper posts, is to make your awesome trail/AM machine even more versatile than it already is. The only penalty is 300g in weight.

 

You can ride XCM, XCO, trail, AM, Enduro and even downhill on a good AM machine and the dropper post enables you to adapt the bike for jumping or technical downhill on the fly.

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Fabian is one of my favourite riders.

Dont know if I would be jumping like that on those SLR's though .. I've seen a few of those wheels pretzel !

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