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I've just finished lobbing this together:
The Eagle-eyed amongst you will notice the old HiLo dropper with the lever under the saddle, I've set it up with this because I didn't have enough gear outer for the bar remote and I wanted to give it a bit of a shakedown ride tomorrow...
Trundling round the garden it's not actually too bad and it's got me half wondering about keeping it like this just for simplicity sake. The routing for a dropper on this frame is frankly stupid.
Would any of you lot consider this or am I just being silly?
Having no remote almost defeats the point of a dropper if you ask me, as taking a hand off the bars to fiddle with your crotch on a rough bit of trail, just before you drop in to something or suddenly get to a sharp climb, at full speed is less than optimal.
I mean, it’s better than a standard QR, but not much.
What tomhoward said.
On the other hand, most of the trails I ride, I use the dropper like a QR, drop it at the top, raise it at the bottom. I’d be quite happy with a seat lever dropper.
Yeah.
Thinking back I did actually use it with the nut-cracker lever for a short while, but that was about eight years ago on the HT I very first fitted it to, I might have been trying to convince myself it wasn't too bad...
Yeah I reckon I'm going to hate it aren't I... More outer has been ordered, but honestly sorting out the routing for it is going to be the worst thing ever.
I'd definitely consider it
Take it for ride or 2 and if it drives you mad then go the dropper and remote route. Not much to lose really.
Nice looking bike btw.👍
Saddle excluded perhaps.lol
I've got a remote dropper on one bike, and a lever one that gets swapped between 2 bikes with 27.2 seat tubes.
TBH I notice it for about 5 minutes when I swap bikes, but I honestly don't find that it's much more hassle. Maybe the lever one needs 5% more forethought, but it's still 100% better than no dropper 😉
I've got both. I like my ks drop one saddle lever. It's simple, easy to maintain, less clutter etc.
I tskr my hands off to change the forks abd shocks, it's just the same. The only difference is you have to forward plan but on a bar lever you don't.
Having just installed a dropper on my stump jumper which was a ball ache I was half tempted to go back,
I'd be fine with that around the Peak, but occasional dropper use for obviously difficult stuff suits me. If you're more of a continual seat adjuster, or riding consistently technical stuff up and down, then it's going to be aggravating.
Either way you can put it though its paces and see what it's like. Who ever heard of staying in because the dropper cable routing wasn't right?
Was always fine for me as i tend to drop at the top of a trail & leave it down...only downside of non-remote to me is that the lever area is prone to mud/water reducing the long term reliability; was on my ks dropzones and prior to that CB Joplins
Who ever heard of staying in because the dropper cable routing wasn’t right?
All of my previous frames have been externally routed and worked just fine. is one has a port just behind the headtube, then it pops back out, under the top tube, just over the shock so there's a very good chance of the outer rubbing the shock when I drop the seat unless I get the length just right.
It's the worst internal-external cable routing; like they were deliberately trying to find a terrible way to do it... And succeeded.
^^ Slings like one of those jobs to leave till a wet and windy weekend over Autumn/ Winter mate.
Just enjoy the last few weeks of Summer using the non remote dropper. That's what I'd do anyway but I'm lazy.lol
I run an under-seat-controlled dropper for much of my riding. It's far, far better than just using a quick release. TBH I can't see how anyone that has actually used one before thinks they're comparable. I'll use mine every 5 mins when the trail needs it -- with a QR I'd be reluctant to use it more than a couple of times an hour.
Having said that, for more techy trails a bar remote is much better still. But I do like the simplicity of going without one, and the ability to switch a dropper to another bike in 20 seconds.
The Eagle-eyed amongst you will notice the old HiLo dropper
Sorry, I'm seeing nothing but that saddle, which is a far more pressing concern than your dropper arrangements.
🙂
That looks like a fizik test saddle.
Got an underlever on my hardtail it's fine for 99% of the time, can't be arsed paying for and fitting the conversion
Nothing wrong with an under saddle lever unless you struggle to briefly ride one handed or have zero ability to look ahead.
To say it's defeats the point or is close to a qr is ridiculous.
That looks like a fizik test saddle.
It is, got it in a charity auction off ebay (PSA'd from STW)
Went for my shakedown ride yesterday, 25miles and I was exhausted the dropper wasn't too bad, but I was mostly doing trundle, winch and plummet on local cheeky lines. But it does sort of prevent you doing those odd little seat height adjustments mid trail that come in handy...
The bigger issue is going to be dialing in the suspension...