Cube Aim SL 2021 dropper seat post

stevenkiel

Hi All,

I'm very new to mountain biking and have had some good advice to fit a dropper post to my bike. Now, I know my frame has internal routing but I can't see where it would enter the seat post tube so my question is will an internal post actually fit or is it external only? This bike has 3 sprockets at the front (referred to as 3X I believe?) so there's no obvious cable route in this area of the post.
If anyone has experience of this particular Cube bike could help me out I'd appreciate it!

reaperactual

Hello and welcome.👍Not familiar with your bike but looking at pics it's very much aimed at XC, gravel roads, smooth trails and probably good on the road too.

Your bike does have internal routing for the brakes and shift cables, etc. but unfortunately that doesn't mean it has routing for an internal dropper post.

Not having relevant holes located in the frame for a smooth cable route means you would be better off buying an external dropper or possibly an 'under the seat lever' without a cable like the KS E10 for example.

Worth taking a close look as you could possibly have spare existing external cable guides to neatly route the dropper cable to the handlebars. 😉

stevenkiel

Thanks @reaperactual That's pretty much confirmed my thoughts but I had to check! The cables that are routed in the down tube basically pop back out in front of the crank and I've looked again and can't see any way they would route back into the seat post tube. External dropper post it is then, Cheers for the reply

reaperactual

Your welcome @stevenkiel. Congrats on the new bike, enjoy! 😎🤟

JBA

Cube’s description of the bike states that “the frame's internal cable routing even allows for a future dropper post upgrade”.
The photos on the website show spare ports at the top of the down tube so the dropper cable routing is probably to enter there and then loop inside the bottom bracket up in to the seat tube.
That’s a fairly common dropper post cable routing and isn’t too difficult to do.

steve_sordy

Take a look at the Brand-X Ascend dropper seatpost and the Ascend II also
They do droppers that are bottom entry and also top-side entry. The come in a range of seat tube sizes and also dropper travel. They are much cheaper than the high end droppers like the Reverbs, but don't let that put you off, they are great quality and get good reviews.

Start here to look. https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/seatposts

When you open a web page you will see a picture, That picture will have several other options and one will be a dimensioned drawing that will enable you to determine if the dropper is the right one for your bike. For example: With the dropper fully extended, yet the body fully inserted into your seat tube, is the saddle too high for you? Yes I know that you can use the dropper function to drop the saddle, but having to do that every time you use the dropper becomes an irritating chore after a while.

If you have the misfortune to have an awkward seat tube diameter, all is not lost, buy a smaller diameter dropper and use a shim. You can buy shims of all sizes on the web.

stevenkiel

JBA said:

Cube’s description of the bike states that “the frame's internal cable routing even allows for a future dropper post upgrade”.
The photos on the website show spare ports at the top of the down tube so the dropper cable routing is probably to enter there and then loop inside the bottom bracket up in to the seat tube.
That’s a fairly common dropper post cable routing and isn’t too difficult to do.

That's where I got some of my info from mate, the Cube website! When I went to fit the post last weekend, I removed the original seat post and shone a torch down the tube only to be greeted with the bearing and bush assembly butted right up against the hole at the bottom! I'm assuming the info on the site is for the 2022 models not the 21 range but I could be wrong, cheers for the reply

stevenkiel

steve_sordy said:

Take a look at the Brand-X Ascend dropper seatpost and the Ascend II also
They do droppers that are bottom entry and also top-side entry. The come in a range of seat tube sizes and also dropper travel. They are much cheaper than the high end droppers like the Reverbs, but don't let that put you off, they are great quality and get good reviews.

Start here to look. https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/seatposts

When you open a web page you will see a picture, That picture will have several other options and one will be a dimensioned drawing that will enable you to determine if the dropper is the right one for your bike. For example: With the dropper fully extended, yet the body fully inserted into your seat tube, is the saddle too high for you? Yes I know that you can use the dropper function to drop the saddle, but having to do that every time you use the dropper becomes an irritating chore after a while.

If you have the misfortune to have an awkward seat tube diameter, all is not lost, buy a smaller diameter dropper and use a shim. You can buy shims of all sizes on the web.

Hi Steve, thanks for the info a great help! I've looked at these already but was unaware of the sizing and additional info on the website so I can have a good look at those. It appears I do have an awkward size being the 27.2mm type which seem to be quite hard to find, well at least priced under £150 that is, it seems that 30.6 or 31. something are the norm for MTBs, mine appears to be more of an XC or gravel as mentioned by others on this thread......just my luck to be awkward :-)

Thanks again for the advice/help mate

reaperactual

stevenkiel said:

JBA said:

Cube’s description of the bike states that “the frame's internal cable routing even allows for a future dropper post upgrade”.
The photos on the website show spare ports at the top of the down tube so the dropper cable routing is probably to enter there and then loop inside the bottom bracket up in to the seat tube.
That’s a fairly common dropper post cable routing and isn’t too difficult to do.

That's where I got some of my info from mate, the Cube website! When I went to fit the post last weekend, I removed the original seat post and shone a torch down the tube only to be greeted with the bearing and bush assembly butted right up against the hole at the bottom! I'm assuming the info on the site is for the 2022 models not the 21 range but I could be wrong, cheers for the reply

I did go back and double check on the three retailer websites I looked at and no mention of 'internal routing for
future dropper upgrade' or a spare cable port on any pics for your specific model.

If you do find a suitable dropper but only internally routed there is the opening under the bb shell you mentioned where the other cables come out so perhaps you could bodge some more exit space and then go externally under the downtube? 🤔

In this case I personally wouldn't like such a tight cable turn around the bb even if it is physically doeable inside your frame. 😬

steve_sordy

stevenkiel said:

................It appears I do have an awkward size being the 27.2mm type which seem to be quite hard to find, well at least priced under £150 that is, it seems that 30.6 or 31. something are the norm for MTBs, mine appears to be more of an XC or gravel as mentioned by others on this thread......just my luck to be awkward :-)

Thanks again for the advice/help mate

How about this?
https://www.wiggle.co.uk/brand-x-ascend-ii-dropper-seatpost-1?lang=en&curr=GBP&dest=1&sku=100622460&utm_source=google&utm_term=&utm_campaign=&utm_medium=base&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6-qPrqD08gIV4mDmCh3aUQW8EAQYAyABEgIJvvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

PS: Kind Shock (sometimes called KS) also do 27.2mm droppers.

stevenkiel

reaperactual said:

stevenkiel said:

JBA said:

Cube’s description of the bike states that “the frame's internal cable routing even allows for a future dropper post upgrade”.
The photos on the website show spare ports at the top of the down tube so the dropper cable routing is probably to enter there and then loop inside the bottom bracket up in to the seat tube.
That’s a fairly common dropper post cable routing and isn’t too difficult to do.

That's where I got some of my info from mate, the Cube website! When I went to fit the post last weekend, I removed the original seat post and shone a torch down the tube only to be greeted with the bearing and bush assembly butted right up against the hole at the bottom! I'm assuming the info on the site is for the 2022 models not the 21 range but I could be wrong, cheers for the reply

I did go back and double check on the three retailer websites I looked at and no mention of 'internal routing for
future dropper upgrade' or a spare cable port on any pics for your specific model.

If you do find a suitable dropper but only internally routed there is the opening under the bb shell you mentioned where the other cables come out so perhaps you could bodge some more exit space and then go externally under the downtube? 🤔

In this case I personally wouldn't like such a tight cable turn around the bb even if it is physically doeable inside your frame. 😬

Yeah it transpired that the current info is for the 2022 year bikes and not the 21MY so the new range has the spare port and routing for a dropper.....just not on mine :-(

I'm getting an external one, porbably a brand-X as I've seen the link in Steve's post and that looks very reasonable. Cheers for looking though, appreciate it!

stevenkiel

steve_sordy said:

stevenkiel said:

................It appears I do have an awkward size being the 27.2mm type which seem to be quite hard to find, well at least priced under £150 that is, it seems that 30.6 or 31. something are the norm for MTBs, mine appears to be more of an XC or gravel as mentioned by others on this thread......just my luck to be awkward :-)

Thanks again for the advice/help mate

How about this?
https://www.wiggle.co.uk/brand-x-ascend-ii-dropper-seatpost-1?lang=en&curr=GBP&dest=1&sku=100622460&utm_source=google&utm_term=&utm_campaign=&utm_medium=base&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6-qPrqD08gIV4mDmCh3aUQW8EAQYAyABEgIJvvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

PS: Kind Shock (sometimes called KS) also do 27.2mm droppers.

Thanks Steve, I'm going to grab one of those and the price is pretty good compared to others I've seen and quality is also good so I'm told.

steve_sordy

Yep, my grandson's bike a Ragley Marley 1.0 (for sale by the way) came with a Brand-X as standard and it has lasted two years without a single complaint. In addition, I had fitted one to his previous bike that he had for over two years and that too was without issue.

Compare that to the multiple Reverbs that I've had that all failed just after the two years were up or within a few months of being new and Brand-X droppers do well.

I just sold a bike that had a Kind Shock dropper on that after two years developed a little bit of side to side seat wobble, but never got any worse in the following six months until I sold it.

I would certainly buy another Brand-X without hesitation. They seem to have hit the Goldilocks spot of just above "cheap as chips" but retaining the high quality and good performance that should come with the premium brands but sadly is not guaranteed.

stevenkiel

Thanks Steve, I'll be getting sorted with one next week then I'll get it fitted and go out to play!