Am I the only one confused by gravity dropper / joplin etc?

jonnyc2420

......its just that I cant help looking at them and thinking.....my QR clamp and 'normal' seatpost will do the same thing..........for about £100 or so less.......

I gues it would be nice having a remote to drop it - but looking at the amount of travel they have i'm not that impressed with most of them, if I want to drop my seat for something 'dodgy' I want it a lot lower than that! and would probably stop to check the drop out first anyway so manually dropping the post I have can happen at that stage....

or am i missing the point? :?

please tell me i'm not getting too old to appreciate 'new fangled' gadgets......

Anonymous

they are expensive and heavy but if you ever get to try one you will realise they are the business.

GHill

jonnyc2420 wrote:

......its just that I cant help looking at them and thinking.....my QR clamp and 'normal' seatpost will do the same thing..........for about £100 or so less.......

Not very easy to change the height with QR and normal seatpost without actually getting off the bike. You do pay a big premium though.

I've heard that with the "adjustables" you end up changing the height a lot more often than you would if you needed to stop and get off. Sounds good if you ride a lot of technical trails.

Northwind

jonnyc2420 wrote:

......its just that I cant help looking at them and thinking.....my QR clamp and 'normal' seatpost will do the same thing..........for about £100 or so less.......

No they don't. It's about raising and dropping on the move. People talk all the time about flow in riding, well, you can't flow if you've seen something interesting to ride down, stopped, fannied about with your seat post, ridden down it, then stopped and put it back up. It's not that useful at places like glentress red- up then down- but for anywhere that the trails run in both directions, it's fantastic. Kirroughtree- pedal pedal pedal, rock garden, pedal pedal pedal... Glentress black or Drumlanrig- up down up down. And general XC riding is where I really love mine.


4 inches of drop is more than adequate for most stuff... I do like the feeling of just having the saddle slammed and completely out of the way but at 4 inches down, it's easy to deal with.

Tom Barton

I often ride trails i know or have ridden before and know where the scary bits are (i.e. no longer need to inspect prior to launch) and like to get my adrenalines worth. However, I found it a nusiance having to stop and readjust my post height before and after these sections - i appreciate it doesnt take long to use a QR lever but its nice not having interupt the flow my ride by stopping more than I have to.

Works for certain types of riders - I guess other riders do look at them and like yourself think 'why?'. I like climbing up the hills and riding for a certain amount of endurance - but I do love to pin it back down. I like mine alot!

Horses for courses!

scale20

I looked at them and thought exactly the same as you, 'why do i need one when I can just do what I've been doing for years, stop and drop!'

There was a joplin sat in my LBS for a few weeks and every time I went in I was drawn to it but decided that I could not justify spending the £180 for post and remote.

Ends up that my other half treated me to an early xmas pressie and I've been using it for a couple of months now and what a piece of kit. Don't get me wrong they are a right pain in the ass keeping them running smooth and having to strip and lube it after nearly every ride but it makes riding such a pleasure, you just flow through trails keeping your rhythm adjusting the post as you go.

There is plenty of travel in the post for most types of trail/all mountain riding.

Northwind

Course, they're not all reliability disasters. I overuse this photo, but still...



I've given the gravity dropper a quick wipe of oil twice, I think, since I got it, and it's as spot on today as it was on day one. Honestly, I think people are much too forgiving of crap reliability with these things, especially since there's a product out there that just works, and is lighter than most of the rest to boot. But it's ugly

BigJimmyB

I've got one and have now had 2 on different bikes.

I wouldn't bother forking out the extra for the remote when the lever on the non-remote on is pretty much between your legs.

If you can find your d1ck, you'll be OK, and have a few quid in the wallet for other stuff.

Not had any maintenance issues in 18 months....

Northwind

Mmm. I hated the post-mounted lever, I can generally find my knob without looking but when you're rattling down a mountain it's not so easy (and I found that most times when I really wanted to drop the post were also times when I wanted both hands on the bars). Just upgraded mine to have a bar-mounted lever and I'm loving it.

kangaroo

i have the i900 and its great, mud and stuff doesn't tend to bother it to much, and from what i can tell you don't need to service it like a joplin (not had a joplin so don't know for sure)
one thing i would like to add though is that it depends on what bike and what type of riding you do. for instance i have a enduro and its perfect for that. before i had it i was stopping and adjusting the seatpost with the qr all the time. but i have noticed when my enduro was off having its forks and shock service, and the lbs was kind enough to lend me different bikes (free) that some bikes just don't need one the same.
i tried a stumpy and a more recent enduro and you could ride the stumpy with the saddle in one place pretty much all the time. but back on a enduro and it was wanting to be changed a lot more. also recently I've ridden my old hardtail and once again i could leave the saddle all the way up and no hassle.
so I'm not sure if its just the bikes that are closer to 30lb that i feel the need to change the seat height or its a geometry thing. but some bikes need it more than others

scale20

Initaly I used only the underseat lever to adjust the height but started to find it a bit dodgy trying to adjust while on the rough stuff so I fitted the remote that came with it, the remote wire does look a bit of a mess along the top tube and up behind the seatpost but it does make adusting on the fly much better.

Only problem I'm starting to get with my joplin is that towards the end of rides it tends to drop an inch or so by itself. Tried pumping it a few times but it wont sort it. Anyone here adjusted the air pressure inside at all? I've looked in the manual but no reference to rider weight / PSI ratios.

bomberesque

I too suffered the OP's confusion. The price seems just far too high for what you're getting. Having tried out a grav dropper though I was convinced that on certain bikes the functionality is indispensable so I winced and coughed up the green for a Joplin. Works for me so far, although I still get a tight feeling deep down in my private place when I think about how much I paid for it.

cee

bomberesque wrote:

although I still get a tight feeling deep down in my private place when I think about how much I paid for it.

you sure you just dont have the joplin firing back up too fast?

bomberesque

cee wrote:

bomberesque wrote:

although I still get a tight feeling deep down in my private place when I think about how much I paid for it.

you sure you just dont have the joplin firing back up too fast?

I'm not always on the bike when I remember the cost

Anonymous

i agree with the above sentiments regarding the remote. there is little point in a post like this if you have to slow in order to remove a hand from the bars to adjust your height.

the remote means i can adjust the height willy-nilly and i use it all the time. try one, its a revelation.

ratty2k

jonnyc2420 wrote:

......its just that I cant help looking at them and thinking.....my QR clamp and 'normal' seatpost will do the same thing..........for about £100 or so less.......

I gues it would be nice having a remote to drop it - but looking at the amount of travel they have i'm not that impressed with most of them, if I want to drop my seat for something 'dodgy' I want it a lot lower than that! and would probably stop to check the drop out first anyway so manually dropping the post I have can happen at that stage....

or am i missing the point? :?

please tell me i'm not getting too old to appreciate 'new fangled' gadgets......

Certainly with my frame (09 Reign) I can drop the post lower with the dropper than I could with the 'normal' post.
Also, stuff can crop up quicker than intended and I have the ability to lower without stopping.... A mate of mine never used one, or lowered his saddle... Until he tried one and now he;s much happier (and quicker) with one....

jonnyc2420

dammit.......!!! - now i'm thinking that maybe I need one (or at least try one) after all...... right before xmas too....... :roll:

Northwind

Nobody needs one, don't worry about that, they're just nice to have.

jonnyc2420

nooo! - its like OCD - i will obsess about them now until new year, and probably see them all the time when out on the bike over xmas break..............eventually I will end up going into my LBS to ask for gloves or something and come out £150 or so poorer...... :oops:

ravey1981

I have a ks900 and I love it...its the lever version not the remote one...i didn't like the idea of flappy cables...

It has 5 inch of drop and on my bike (see marin below) allows me to drop the seat pretty much all the way to the bottom.

Expensive...yes. But once youve ridden with one for a while you wont want to give it up...

_Ferret_

It's all about getting the most out of your trails. Stopping to change the height of your saddle is a pain just the same as changing your glasses or putting on pads...

I'd advise anyone to try it. It is a great component and improves your flow from one terrain to another. (it does cost too much though).