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I'm struggling to find much info on this. Will any type of lever work and what sort of cable and outer do I need? Thanks.
Any dropper lever you want, and a gear cable (inner and outer) which will probably come with the lever anyway
I use the OneUp lever, not cheap but it’s been faultless. I use a Shimano stainless gear inner (1.2mm diameter) with Shimano quality outer and sealed ferrule.
You just need one where the non-barrel end of the cable terminates at the lever i.e. most of them.
The ZTTO Dropper Lever (eBay, AliExpress) is a decent budget one. Shimano / Bontrager are ok too.
Going a bit more spendy, the One Up V2 lever was discontinued and replaced with the V3 lever which works with both the V2 and V3 posts. I have a V2 post which came with the V2 lever but i changed to the V3 lever because you can replace the thumb pad with different coloured ones and I am a sucker for color-matching bike components. 😆 Not noticed any difference in use.
Going super spendy, the Wolf Tooth dropper levers are great and the smoothest actuation I've ever managed to get was using a Wolf Tooth V1 lever with one of those Brand X Wiggle posts a good few years back. In hindsight though, £70 for a dropper lever is overkill.
Hard to look past the Shimano Deore lever imo. Cheap + good.
In hindsight though, £70 for a dropper lever is overkill.
I've always been a bit offended by how much dropper levers are, even at half that price. Like, it's just a simple lever to pull a bit of cable - how is it reasonable for it to cost a load more than a front shifter?
Great thanks!
I use a Brand-X Ascend V2 one with mine and it has been fine. I know Brand-X aren't available any more but this looks like the equivalent Shift Dropper Seatpost Lever – Ascend Components
Honestly, having both the Shimano lever is miles better than the Brand X for around the same price.
Yes the £20 Shimano one is brilliant value. Even functionally I would put it above the expensive ones honestly, it's smoother and ergonomically brilliant.
Most people's needs are covered by the options above. However if you have a front shifter (??) or remote lockout lever on the left then you'll have difficulty getting a dropper lever to play nice. In those cases or if you needed the lever on the right I've had good success with the Wolftooth remote 360. It's design is the most flexible position and activation direction wise. Activation is from any direction and mounting you can put it above, below, alongside, rotated up or down etc into the ideal position.
I use the Bontrager Line Elite lever with mine, and any inner/outer cable I have in stock.
That Shimano one is now on my radar for next time though.
The ZTTO Dropper Lever (eBay, AliExpress) is a decent budget one. Shimano / Bontrager are ok too.
I've had all of them. The ZTTO (which is a copy of the Wolf tooth, or at least the 1st gen of it) is a faff to install as it all falls apart when you take the bolt out.
Shimano and Bontrager (SRAM) are both nice to use, slightly different shapes, but I'd go with whichever fits onto your brake levers for simplicity.
The really like the Bonty line elite, but that shimano one looks good as well.
Hate the brand x one, or more spicifically the tiny little barrel bolt thingy that falls out and has you crawling around on the garage floor cursing....