Dropper posts, why and should I?

I ride all kinds of terrain but when I adjust my saddle I never move it by more than an inch. I've only tried a dropper on one demo day but it was a decent ride and I was unmoved. I just don't see that I need a dropper myself. I read a blog yesterday where the author said he had one but never remembered to use it whilst riding. They are scandalously expensive for a relatively simple device. A shock for £80 has more components so why are we asked to pay £300 for a dropper?

Re:

Agree with most of what's been said and think they're ace. It will depend on the type of riding you do but with modern bikes being so capable I find I use mine loads. I automatically drop it at the beginning of a down hill section but find myself loosing the saddle on flatter technical bits where standing up and giving it the beans makes the track more fun.

If you get used to one it'll become second nature and well worth having.

Duxuk":31tg4zfe said:

I ride all kinds of terrain but when I adjust my saddle I never move it by more than an inch. I've only tried a dropper on one demo day but it was a decent ride and I was unmoved. I just don't see that I need a dropper myself. I read a blog yesterday where the author said he had one but never remembered to use it whilst riding. They are scandalously expensive for a relatively simple device. A shock for £80 has more components so why are we asked to pay £300 for a dropper?

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Cheaper ones are available, but I agree they seem expensive for what they are. I guess they take a bit of a beating though (always getting sprayed with mud, carrying most of someone's body weight, need to be able to move a lot as well as remain static).

I have definitely become a more confident and faster rider who is willing to do more technical and steeper stuff since getting one. That's probably true of most who have one, but nothing suits everyone.

I've got a Brand X cheapy that I bought for my old FS bike and a KS carbon top of the range thing that came on my new bike...personally I rarely use them. Only on the steepest most technical stuff i ride (which may or may not be actually steep or technical), i find them useful, it's defiantely easier and a bit faster, but I could ride all these bits before I had a dropper. and that about 1% of my riding.
If I ride somewhere i don't know, I like to have one just in case as they do make tech stuff easier, but I could happily live without one.

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I thought they were a gimmick when they were first introduced, thinking, 'what's so difficult about using a quick release when needed?' but since trying one, I'm sold. For example; mid climb, there's a technical feature (let's say a bomb-hole). In the past you would have had to make do with the high position, or stop and lower your saddle, which isn't ideal for resuming the climb out of the bomb hole. With a dropper, you enjoy your climb, bung the seat down for the drop into the hole and ping it back up and dominate the climb back out again. Trails are far more mixed nowadays, climbs have technical features, and descents flow straight back into climbs, so not having to stop to muck about with seat post QRs is really worth it, IMO, but each to their own.

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I think a lot of it depends on your riding style. If you're a head down/arse up, clipped-in, lycra-wearing mile-muncher then probably not so much.

If you like riding your bike like it's a big BMX then you'll probably appreciate having the saddle out of the way more.

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Thanks for the replies. I'm veering towards using a reverb as I have it. I was going to use it on a 27.5er but suspect I wont get round to building that for some time, if at all.

Really, since you already have one, jsut put it on and ride it, see if it works for you. As you can see they are definately either "Best thing ever!" or " Meh", so ride with one a bunch and see how it takes.

Supratada":3ho9c0o7 said:

I noticed someone selling a bulk load of mtb parts and they had two of those seatpost spring things in there. Did they ever work? You'd have to have a very greasy pole, so to speak, for it come back up again.

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On ebay? Got a link if so?

greencat":34tqqjvw said:

Duxuk":34tqqjvw said:

A shock for £80 has more components so why are we asked to pay £300 for a dropper?

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Cheaper ones are available, but I agree they seem expensive for what they are.

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You can get them for about 100 quid. 80 quid suspension forks are utterly shit and barely function. 300 quid droppers aren't particularly shit and work quite well. Part counts is a really shit way to work out how expensive something should be.

You can also get travel restrictors, or 3D print them if you're up to it, for most of the posts around. (I've got a 35mm restrictor sat on SD card ready to go on the printer next time i fire it up.)