Fitting a stealth dropper seat post to an Orange Five
steve_sordy
Posts: 2,453
My grandson's Orange Five had a Reverb C1 stealth dropper seatpost (ie. the hydraulic hose exited the bottom of the dropper and went through the frame). It had failed out of warranty with the usual 5-6mm drop under rider weight before going solid. I know from experience that it only gets worse if ignored. To repair was going to cost £100 (ish) for a service kit, plus LBS labour (no idea) and no warranty of course. The LBS I went to told me very clearly that I would be very lucky to be able to find a service kit as they just could not get any.
To be honest, I didn't fancy shelling out well over £100 with no guarantee that the dropper would last much longer afterwards. I had a look at an alternative and found a Brand - X dropper from Chain Reaction Cycles for £89 reduced from £140, then further reduced by £10 because I was spending more than £75. That makes £79. I hadn't been expecting the extra tenner, so I spent half of it on next day delivery. £84.98 all in. Not bad! I had fitted a Brand-X dropper to his previous bike so I know that they are very good and robust items and I have confidence in them. But it wasn't a stealth one, instead the hose went outside the frame. Not as pretty but a doddle to fit. The Brand-X dropper is cable operated not hydraulic like the Reverb. It uses ordinary gear cable (wire inner and wire-reinforced plastic hose outer).
Now I have some tips, because fitting the stealth aspect was an absolute swine!!!!
The stealth hose runs inside the down tube and then turns through a very tight angle through a small hole and up into the seat tube. That frame was not designed for stealth droppers!!
Tip No1: This is not a one-man job. My grandson and I managed, eventually, but I could not have done this job by myself.
Tip No 2: Remove the crankset and bottom bracket. Essential! I can't think of how we could have done the job without this step.
Tip No 3: Remove the Reverb remote from the bars to give some slack in the hose so that you can feed it through the frame while you are pulling the Reverb out of the seat tube. Slowly does it.
Tip No 4: Once you have 3-4" of hose out of the seat tube, cut through it close to the dropper connector! Yes, cut it, preferably with a proper cable cutter. Then feed the inner wire down the centre of the Reverb hose, as far as it will go. That very neatly gets the inner wire past the nasty angle turn and past any other protuberances and edges where it might snag. Then pull the Reverb hose out from the Remote end, feeding as much of the inner wire inwards as you do so from the seat post end. When the hose finally comes clear, the steel wire will be poking out of the frame at both ends!
Tip No 5: Feed the new hose onto the wire at the bar end and keep pushing until the hose comes out of the seat tube. Well, that was the plan! What actually happened was that, despite the wire guide, the hose kept jamming on the edge of the small hole at the bottom of the down tube. We had no alternative other than to keep pulling back the outer hose and pushing forward again until suddenly it found the hole and emerged at the bottom of the seat tube. We could see it with the aid of a torch. But there was no way that the hose would turn the corner!
Tip No 6: I could just about get my finger through the opening left by the removal of the bottom bracket and then through the small hole in the bottom of the down tube. That enabled me to nudge the hose. I will miss out all the trial-and-error attempts and go straight to what worked. I had a spare length of outer hose about 8” long and I bent over one inch at almost 90deg. Work this through the same holes and prod the end of the outer cable upwards and into the seat tube! That little tool was the key. That plus another tool I made earlier by using a piece of inner wire and bending a hook onto the end of it. Pushing the hook down the seat tube to pull on the hose and the outer cable to prod enabled the corner to be turned in 5 mins. After that just follow the instructions that came in the box.
Once we had removed the crank and bottom bracket, our first attempt took a frustrating 90 mins, during which time I made the hook tool. I made a few errors (I hang my head in shame) and we had to start again. The second attempt took an hour, but would have taken longer if we hadn’t made the prod out of the piece of outer cable. We high-fived and went for lunch at that point. But the first thing we did when we got back was to pull the hose backwards past the bend!!!!!!!!!! OMG!
We had to start again. But the third attempt only took five mins this time. Yes, that’s right only 5 minutes!” High-fives all round! 
Below is a picture of the essential tools. You should be able to zoom in, or copy and zoom.
To be honest, I didn't fancy shelling out well over £100 with no guarantee that the dropper would last much longer afterwards. I had a look at an alternative and found a Brand - X dropper from Chain Reaction Cycles for £89 reduced from £140, then further reduced by £10 because I was spending more than £75. That makes £79. I hadn't been expecting the extra tenner, so I spent half of it on next day delivery. £84.98 all in. Not bad! I had fitted a Brand-X dropper to his previous bike so I know that they are very good and robust items and I have confidence in them. But it wasn't a stealth one, instead the hose went outside the frame. Not as pretty but a doddle to fit. The Brand-X dropper is cable operated not hydraulic like the Reverb. It uses ordinary gear cable (wire inner and wire-reinforced plastic hose outer).
Now I have some tips, because fitting the stealth aspect was an absolute swine!!!!
The stealth hose runs inside the down tube and then turns through a very tight angle through a small hole and up into the seat tube. That frame was not designed for stealth droppers!!
Tip No1: This is not a one-man job. My grandson and I managed, eventually, but I could not have done this job by myself.
Tip No 2: Remove the crankset and bottom bracket. Essential! I can't think of how we could have done the job without this step.
Tip No 3: Remove the Reverb remote from the bars to give some slack in the hose so that you can feed it through the frame while you are pulling the Reverb out of the seat tube. Slowly does it.
Tip No 4: Once you have 3-4" of hose out of the seat tube, cut through it close to the dropper connector! Yes, cut it, preferably with a proper cable cutter. Then feed the inner wire down the centre of the Reverb hose, as far as it will go. That very neatly gets the inner wire past the nasty angle turn and past any other protuberances and edges where it might snag. Then pull the Reverb hose out from the Remote end, feeding as much of the inner wire inwards as you do so from the seat post end. When the hose finally comes clear, the steel wire will be poking out of the frame at both ends!
Tip No 5: Feed the new hose onto the wire at the bar end and keep pushing until the hose comes out of the seat tube. Well, that was the plan! What actually happened was that, despite the wire guide, the hose kept jamming on the edge of the small hole at the bottom of the down tube. We had no alternative other than to keep pulling back the outer hose and pushing forward again until suddenly it found the hole and emerged at the bottom of the seat tube. We could see it with the aid of a torch. But there was no way that the hose would turn the corner!
Tip No 6: I could just about get my finger through the opening left by the removal of the bottom bracket and then through the small hole in the bottom of the down tube. That enabled me to nudge the hose. I will miss out all the trial-and-error attempts and go straight to what worked. I had a spare length of outer hose about 8” long and I bent over one inch at almost 90deg. Work this through the same holes and prod the end of the outer cable upwards and into the seat tube! That little tool was the key. That plus another tool I made earlier by using a piece of inner wire and bending a hook onto the end of it. Pushing the hook down the seat tube to pull on the hose and the outer cable to prod enabled the corner to be turned in 5 mins. After that just follow the instructions that came in the box.
Once we had removed the crank and bottom bracket, our first attempt took a frustrating 90 mins, during which time I made the hook tool. I made a few errors (I hang my head in shame) and we had to start again. The second attempt took an hour, but would have taken longer if we hadn’t made the prod out of the piece of outer cable. We high-fived and went for lunch at that point. But the first thing we did when we got back was to pull the hose backwards past the bend!!!!!!!!!! OMG!
We had to start again. But the third attempt only took five mins this time. Yes, that’s right only 5 minutes!” High-fives all round! Below is a picture of the essential tools. You should be able to zoom in, or copy and zoom.
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Comments
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Internal routing is good and makes for cleaner looking frame but Ime any internal routing job turns out to be a pain in the ar#e no matter what.
Any and all tips, tricks, methods come into play or are worth a go. Done them all, including the string sucked out with a vacuum cleaner nozzle.
Handy to use inner cables and have the route with at least something poking out at either end.
Did similar myself recently, seemed a doddle to get the hose and shift outer threaded through, I thought 'that was easy this time' then getting the tightly fitting rubber grommets pushed on took absolutely ages. 😫😀0 -
"String and vacuum cleaner" Brilliant, love it!
I will file that one away; it seems a lot more certain than magnets.
Fortunately, we (eventually) found a way to do it in five mins. I thought I would share.1 -
Difficult but satisfying when it's finally done Buddy.
Appreciate you sharing your workable method as usual Steve, duly noted as I may be tackling the same job when I get around to fitting a dropper. 😬
Must have been nice to have your helper and to enjoy an 'overcoming adversary' bonding experience together. 😎👍0 -
I always recommend this: https://www.wiggle.co.uk/park-tool-internal-cable-routing-kit-ir-12
It's expensive for a one-off job, but with most bikes now coming with at least something being internally routed, I think it's a worthwhile purchase. It's saved me many, many hours of frustration when building/upgrading various bikes.1 -
Ah yes. Every time that job looms I consider buying a kit like that.whyamihere said:I always recommend this: https://www.wiggle.co.uk/park-tool-internal-cable-routing-kit-ir-12
It's expensive for a one-off job, but with most bikes now coming with at least something being internally routed, I think it's a worthwhile purchase. It's saved me many, many hours of frustration when building/upgrading various bikes.
Would make a good addition to the toolbox. Pricey for what it is but weighed up against time wasted and sheer frustration saved it seems worth buying.
Lol.... maybe next time for sure?? 😀0 -
Following the item description I chuckled at this...
People who bought Park Tool Internal Cable Routing Kit IR-1.2 also bought....
Park Tool Shop Hammer HMR-82 -
I’ll stick this here. Used to pull electrical cable through conduit etc.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/nylon-cable-flex-draw-tape-30m-98/758071
