Mountain bikes have come a long way in the last 10 years and so have the components that are used with them. If you look back at how mountain bikes were just 5 years ago or so, you would be shocked at how much they improved along with all the top notch components that are now available. One of the greatest inventions for mountain bikes is the dropper seatpost. This allows you to raise and lower your seat to any position you like at any time you like by simply pressing a lever or pushing a button. |
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The reason for raising or lowering your seat is to allow you to be in the right position for various riding conditions. When riding a part of the trail that requires pedaling and especially climbing hills, you want your set to be in a raised position, so you are able to use the full stroke of your legs for optimum power delivery. Then when you are going downhill you want the seat lowered so its out of your way when you need to lean back or take corners at speed.
Back before dropper posts you either needed to bring a wrench with you to manually raise and lower your seatpost as needed or at least have a quick release clamp to speed up the process. Either way it was a manual process that involved stopping your ride and getting off of your bike to make the adjustment.
Nowadays there are many different dropper posts on the market and one that we recently tried and really like is made by OneUp Components. OneUp makes all sorts of bike parts and accessories such as pedals, chainrings, axles and a variety of trail tools. Their dropper post is a simple design that is cable actuated and doesn't require any bleeding. It also has sealed cartridge internals that can be replaced for around $60. And to help you get the perfect ride height, you can use their travel adjust shims to get things just the way you like them.
The OneUp post features internal cable routing and is compatible with many different remotes. As for size options you can get one in 120mm, 150mm, 180mm, 210mm lengths. As for the weight, it varies depending on what seat tube size your bike requires.
30.9 - 570g
31.6 - 590g
34.9 - 710g
OneUp's claim to fame is having the shortest stack height and shortest total length of any dropper post on the market. This means you can run a longer/taller post on your bike if you go with their dropper. We put this claim to the test... with a test. We had a 150mm Fox Transfer post on a large frame and it fit fine. Then we tried a 175mm Fox Transfer on the same bike and it was too long. Next we installed a 180mm OneUp post and it worked just fine. In fact, it allowed the post to sit lower in the frame than the 150mm Fox while providing the same ride height. As you can see in the image, the actuator on the 180mm OneUp post on the left is much shorter than that of the 150mm Fox Transfer resulting in an overall shorter length for the taller dropper (if that makes sense).
As for the performance, so far its been working great. Its not quite as smooth as the Fox Transfer but very close and we liked the seat mounting clamp design better on the OneUp. As long as the reliability remains, this should be a great post and not need to be changed for many years. There is not much to judging a seatpost rather than either it works or it doesn't. Since the OneUp post is very reasonably priced at $209 it's a great bargain and worth checking out if you are in the market for a new seatpost.
