Easiest to service at home dropper post

GravityDropper is the easiest to service if that's your only concern.

You could try a DIY fix of the LEV - I've got an ancient one that I did this on recently and now it's 99% fine (full extension is a couple of mm short of where it used to be, but otherwise OK).

Fix a sagging Kind Shock LEV dropper post - Let's Do Maintenance - YouTube

I've been running One Ups and Brand X for years now and once a year I take them apart, clean and lube them and top up the air and they just keep working. This is easy to do.

+1 for brand X. Not much to go wrong and they don't tend to wrong. Only £50 so you could try one and see how you get on without too much worry

I think that the Bikeyoke revive is one of the easiest to service with many spare parts available. I understand that the cartridge on the Brand X and OneUp posts aren't serviceable so you just replace when broken. The downside with the Revive is that it costs much more to purchase in the first place (you could get about 3 Ascends for one Revive).

I paid over £100 to get my Reverb serviced, now I just use Brand X. I’ve not had to service one yet but the replaceable cartridge seems easy enough to change. And if not at the cost of them you’re nearly better off just replacing the whole thing vs a Reverb service. (Ignoring the environmental issues).

Another vote for brand x. The service kit is £25 odd including brass keys and seals, saying that just stripping it down, cleaning and re-greasing is normally enough to keep it running smoothly.

Working on it is really simple too, takes me longer to take the saddle off and remove the post than it does to do the service.

I think that the Bikeyoke revive is one of the easiest to service with many spare parts available.

serviced mine after 5yrs neglect. feels as good as new again. took about 45 mins although 15 of that was filing down a spanner to fit

I've got two Reverbs sat in a drawer somewhere in the garage, both of them needing serviced to work properly.  Having paid >£100 for the last service on one of them, I'm not touching them again.

OneUp, Bird or BrandX droppers running on all our bikes now, and they have been faultless, at most needing a simple, tool-free open up, clean and re-grease.  Really like the easy travel adjust option on the OneUp ones.

There are 2 different parts to droppers, the 2 sliding tubes, with bushes, (PTFE ones on reverbs, etc, plain plastic on Brand-X, One-Up has PTFE upper bush and plastic lower) these are all extremely easy to do with no special tools, I replaced all the bushes and pins on my One-Up last night in about 20 minutes,

The inner assembly which makes it go up and stay up, or come down and stay in position, are either a sealed cartridge on Brand-X, One-Up etc, which can only be re-pressurised at best, or completely serviceable like a Reverb, requiring specific clamps and tools, and a good level of ability.

Bike Yoke are almost the best of both worlds, extremely easy to pull apart and completely service both the outer sliding tubes, plus the inner air shaft assembly, without any specific tools, the only downside is the price.

All the cheap droppers have considerably more friction/resistance that a Reverb/Bike Yoke/Fox etc, which have a much faster return speed and faster more accurate drop, which make them worth the extra money for me on my main bike.

£100 for a service does indeed sound mad when you can pick up a very reliable Trans X / Brand X adjustable 170-200mm travel for around £60. Fit and forget.

I don't have a Bikeyoke Revive but knowing how easily they can be serviced and knowing how much smoother they are than anything else I've tried, I'm tempted to get one 2nd hand.

I've had RS reverbs, Fox transfers, KS Levs, oneups and brandx.

Of those the easiest to live with is the brand x closely followed by the oneup.

<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">The fox and the RockShox certainly had a nicer action but not by much and since I ride with my post either all the way up or all the way down doesn't really matter what it feels like. - it's not suspension.</span>

My friend has a bike yoke and that thing feels bloody lovely and just keeps trucking. I guess that's the best of both worlds except for the price.

I wouldn’t buy a bikeyoke now, but when I did I was properly fed up of reverbs et al it wasn’t that much more expensive. The cheaper options didn’t really exist.

If it drops by 10mm can you just raise your seatpost up another 10mm to compensate?

All joking aside, my 200mm Brand X is brilliant. It was cheap, works great and reliably and the remote seems fine as well.

£100 for a Reverb service is unfortunately an honest price when you add up the cost of the service kit, tools required and labour. It's far less effort just to replace.

We have a mix of One Up, a Reverb and a Crank Brothers highline, which is yet another good price point sealed cartridge alternative and fortunately has none of the shortcomings of older CB droppers.

a much faster return speed and faster more accurate drop, which make them worth the extra money for me on my main bike

Hilarious nonsense.

Hilarious nonsense.

Oh, so very much this - speaking as the owner of a Specialized Command Post. I had a Reverb and it sucked. One of the Udderlets got one with a second hand bike and I'm waiting for him to grow out of it so I can sell it. They're such a pain.

We've owned a *lot* of Brand X posts (I think six in all), plus Giant, OneUp and Specialized. I've yet to service the Specialized but it's been utterly reliable. I've serviced the Brand Xs before selling them on to make sure they were 100% and the grease has invariably been clean. The Oneup needs an upper service every couple of months.

If you're not worried about total length (I'm a shortarse with weird frame predilections, so I am) then a Brand X is a no-brainer. The same OEM manufacturer makes the Bird and PNW ones, from memory, but I've always had the Brand X ones, and they're well-sealed, easy to service and just completely reliable. If I could fit a 180 or 200mm in the bike with the OneUp, it'd already be there.

PS: you can tune return speed on most posts by using more pressure in the cartridge and lighter lube - but you'll need to increase maintenance intervals as a result.

Thanks everyone for your responses.  Much as I thought One-up or Brand-X for the win.

Crank brothers highline is simple and not too expensive to service, it's the best dropper I have owned

After reading this I decided it was time that my 3 year old Highline had a service, a quick clean and a bit of fresh grease plus a new cable was all it needed, hardest part was getting it out of the frame (steel hardtail)

I hadn't touched my brand X for 5 years before it stopped working. Bought the service kit and took my time, now works perfectly and as it always has, no differently or perhaps even better than the two KS Levs I have.

I’m tempted to get one 2nd hand.

One of my Ebay ‘saved searches’ is a Bike Yoke Divine SL, but they don’t crop up very often. I’m guessing this is either because if you have one you hang on to it, or there isn’t the volume of sales to sustain a large second hand market.

Although I have marvelled at the user serviceability of my Bikeyoke, and it's great, I've also got a Brand X and for the money I think it's excellent. Performance advantages of the bikeyoke I can't really discern myself. So if I was buying now I'd go for Brand X. In fact I did recently, if nothing else just so I've a spare in case either other one needs attention.