Just a thought....

lawman

Why is it that everyone moans when they have issues with their dropper seatposts after a few months/a year or so abuse, when most people have their forks/shock serviced every year and don't bat an eye lid at doing so? Just seems odd that the technology and service intervals of forks, which people are familiar with seem to be an accepted thing, but as soon as a dropper post gets fubared or abit slack, people get hacked off...

peter413

I kind of agree but at the same time look at how many cycles a dropper goes through in a ride, 30 at the very max I would say, most will be less than that. Then look at how many a fork or shock goes through, that many in a matter of seconds. I would think a dropper is probably used in a year about as much as a fork or shock is in just one ride.

It's an interesting point though and I still think they should be serviced regularly, I give mine a quick lube after most rides. I know that isn't servicing but it's general maintenance. Problem is though, it's not always obvious where you get them serviced and it isn't obvious if servicing it yourself will void the warranty. Several people said it was fine to service my Lev myself but others said it would void the warranty. If it's another thing that has to be sent off to be serviced that's over £300 annually to get your fork, shock and dropper serviced assuming it costs the same as suspension does and that it only needs done annually.

EH_Rob

Its kind of a good point.

Especially when everybody knows they have a poor reliability record - what do they expect? This is the reason I haven't bothered yet - keeping an FS running is expensive enough already!

lawman

EH_Rob wrote:

Its kind of a good point.

Especially when everybody knows they have a poor reliability record - what do they expect? This is the reason I haven't bothered yet - keeping an FS running is expensive enough already!

But is it really that poor a record though? In most circumstances a fork will start to feel rough after a year, so you get it serviced, no big deal it needs to be done. A fork cost on average say £300-400ish and a service is about £100, so its nearly 30% of the original cost of a fork. Most dropper posts cost similar amounts, I know my old Joplin had it not been under warranty would have cost £40 to service. £200 seatpost, £40 service so about 2% of the cost of a new post. I've no idea how much a service for a Lev/reverb/D.O.S.S etc would be cost, but if its even close to my guestimates, are your forks actually more of a rip-off than your dropper post when it comes to servicing?

EH_Rob

I would say its pretty poor, only anecdotally though. Everyone I know bar one person who has got a dropper (which include Lev/Reverb/Chronolog) has had problems of some sort, most way before any suggested service interval. Like I say though, that's just my own knowledge of other people's experiences, I'm sure others are different. In that time my seatpost hasn't broken once.

In my mind no, my fork/shock isn't a rip off, because as Peter said, a fork goes through a lot more cycles than a dropper post in the same time period, and that and its position relative to the seatpost makes me think its probably exposed to a bit more crud. Plus I service it myself to save pennies.

The other thing (totally from my point of view) is that the fork is an essential piece of kit, the dropper is not. I ride amount with suspension knowing I have to pay to maintain it, and that's fine, as without it I can't ride. The dropper I don't need, so I don't have. Although it would be nice.

They'll definitely get better with time as they figure out how the majority of failures occur, and come up with better enclosure and sealing solutions. I'm sure I'll jump on the bandwagon sooner or later, when I'm a bit more convinced about reliability.

bennett_346

lawman wrote:

EH_Rob wrote:

Its kind of a good point.

Especially when everybody knows they have a poor reliability record - what do they expect? This is the reason I haven't bothered yet - keeping an FS running is expensive enough already!

But is it really that poor a record though? In most circumstances a fork will start to feel rough after a year, so you get it serviced, no big deal it needs to be done. A fork cost on average say £300-400ish and a service is about £100, so its nearly 30% of the original cost of a fork. Most dropper posts cost similar amounts, I know my old Joplin had it not been under warranty would have cost £40 to service. £200 seatpost, £40 service so about 2% of the cost of a new post. I've no idea how much a service for a Lev/reverb/D.O.S.S etc would be cost, but if its even close to my guestimates, are your forks actually more of a rip-off than your dropper post when it comes to servicing?

My Revelations are coming up on a year and a half and havent needed serviced once. Maybe Fox need more maintenance, not sure. And who actually pays £100 for a service when you can do it yourself for a quarter of that?

Also not sure about your maths there, 40 is 20% of 200 but i'll assume that was a typo

Either way i'm not sure i follow your point, you ask why people get annoyed when their dropper post gets slack after a few months then go on to say a normal service interval on a fork is 1 year, so by that logic they should be right to be annoyed. I've never had a fork go slack and i'd be alarmed if it did, as would i with a seatpost, something built to support my entire body weight.

EH_Rob

Fox service intervals are a bit shorter I think. I try and do a seal replacement, oil change and general inspection of the insides every 8 months or so usually depending on how much I ride.

Stu Coops

lawman wrote:

EH_Rob wrote:

Its kind of a good point.

Especially when everybody knows they have a poor reliability record - what do they expect? This is the reason I haven't bothered yet - keeping an FS running is expensive enough already!

But is it really that poor a record though? In most circumstances a fork will start to feel rough after a year, so you get it serviced, no big deal it needs to be done. A fork cost on average say £300-400ish and a service is about £100, so its nearly 30% of the original cost of a fork. Most dropper posts cost similar amounts, I know my old Joplin had it not been under warranty would have cost £40 to service. £200 seatpost, £40 service so about 2% of the cost of a new post. I've no idea how much a service for a Lev/reverb/D.O.S.S etc would be cost, but if its even close to my guestimates, are your forks actually more of a rip-off than your dropper post when it comes to servicing?

20% of the cost i think you mean

lawman

Stu Coops wrote:

lawman wrote:

EH_Rob wrote:

Its kind of a good point.

Especially when everybody knows they have a poor reliability record - what do they expect? This is the reason I haven't bothered yet - keeping an FS running is expensive enough already!

But is it really that poor a record though? In most circumstances a fork will start to feel rough after a year, so you get it serviced, no big deal it needs to be done. A fork cost on average say £300-400ish and a service is about £100, so its nearly 30% of the original cost of a fork. Most dropper posts cost similar amounts, I know my old Joplin had it not been under warranty would have cost £40 to service. £200 seatpost, £40 service so about 2% of the cost of a new post. I've no idea how much a service for a Lev/reverb/D.O.S.S etc would be cost, but if its even close to my guestimates, are your forks actually more of a rip-off than your dropper post when it comes to servicing?

20% of the cost i think you mean

Yeah that was a typo, my bad

I'm sure it's not true for all, but from my experience, my rev's lasted a year before they pretty much seized solid likewise my reverb lasted about year before it developed any issues, so like for like service intervals were similar give or take a few weeks. As I say I'm sure thats not true for everyone.

Your forks may not go slack so to speak, probably bad wording there on my part, but their performance is bound to drop over the course of time, if you never adjust your rebound how are you sure it still does whats its supposed too when you adjust it? Yes dropper posts do still have question marks over their true long-term reliability, but from my experience of similar short-term life spans of fork, shock and seatpost, is it really that much of a big deal to expect to have to have it serviced every year?

Yes a fork goes through a lot more cycles, but the stress is shared over a number of seals over 2 fork legs and largly protected by the fork brace. Bear in mind a seatpost is right in the firing line of crud from the back wheel, hence why most bikes have forward facing seat slots, and it has to support you whole body weight I'd imagine its a much higher stressed part... All things considered I'm beginning to think the complaints about the supposed cost and un-reliability is somewhat unreasonable.

bennett_346

I'm struggling to see the actual point you're making, infact, i'm not sure there is one to your thread.

What are you trying to say?

lawman

My point is why do so many people moan about the reliability and expense of dropper posts, when stuff like forks have similar short-term service intervals? Why do people moan when their seatpost breaks after they've used it for longer than it was intended without having some form of maintanence.

As I said before my droppers have proved just as reliable as my forks, and cost less to service so why is their so much of a deal made when people do have problems with droppers?

bennett_346

I see more people moaning about people moaning about droppers tbh.

Having said that it seems the trend is that if you bought a fork and a dropper at the same time, the dropper seems to be likely to break before and more often than the forks, and the ability to service them yourself is much less than with forks.

supersonic

It's still a developing technology, they will get lighter, more reliable and easier to service.

lawman

supersonic wrote:

It's still a developing technology, they will get lighter, more reliable and easier to service.

I'm hoping the Thompson post will be all the above!! I don't mind sending it off it blows up, but lighter and more reliable seems a fair trade!

supersonic

Don't think it is a good start for Thomson - that won't get clogged up with mud...

cooldad

supersonic wrote:

Don't think it is a good start for Thomson - that won't get clogged up with mud...

lawman

The stealth style one is what I would go for tbh, I've seen a DIY hack for the HD to make it stealth seatpost compatible

bennett_346

That sounds safe

97th choice

I want one but the reliability issue is putting me off, the only one I would consider would be the giant connect as it is significantly cheaper than the rock shox or specialized, but 150 is still a big investment on unproven kit.

Dick Scruttock

bennett_346 wrote:

That sounds safe

Probably as safe as assuming that one and a half year old revelations don't need a service.

lawman

bennett_346 wrote:

That sounds safe

A guy on MTBR slightly drilled out a bottle cage boss so the hose would fit through and it works great from the looks of it, the frame was designed with the hole already there, so makes next to no difference.

bennett_346

Ah that does sound fair enough. I had visions of down tubes being drilled and hacksawed!

appy

I dont understand why so many people have so many issues with droppers, Ive had 3 Joplin's, my missus has one to and I've never had issues with any of them. A rinse after each ride and a squirt of lube job done....Takes 2 minutes.