I was an early abandoner of dropper posts. That first Crankbrothers Joplin, as awful as every other product that originated out of Maverick bicycles, was a sour 80mm introduction to the next expensive mountain biking must-have with a routine service schedule. Then there was the Gravity Dropper, which could be fully rebuilt with a hex key, hammer, and box cutter, but consumed itself with an angry prejudice and included an almost unusable remote. 

By the time the Reverb came along, there was no way I was ever running a dropper post again. What was the point? I climbed with my seat up, descended with my seat down, and dropped it an inch for fun on rolling terrain. If I was caught out with my seat in the wrong spot I’d either stand up and straight leg the descent or stand up and crank out the climb – simple. Not to mention, I could put my seat down as far as I wanted. 

It seemed that every time I heard the siren’s call of ‘The Game Changer’ I would luck onto a group ride where someone’s post failed completely and that would sober me right up. 

What’s a bike geek to do? I brought up dropper posts one day whilst high-posting a Bridal Path [sic] ride and, commiserative at the time, the infamous Rick Loader shrugged his shoulders, put on his best sideways glance, pointed at my quick release and said: “just drop it an inch for fun.” And, I gave it a try. And, it worked pretty well. 

Now sure, since then I’ve come to terms with some great 150mm+ dropper post options like the PNW Bachelor, X-Fusion Manic, or Crankbrothers Highline and hell I can barely write about bikes without mentioning how awesome the Wolf Tooth ReMote is to use – oops, my bad, again – but I’ve never stopped looking back to a simpler time when every performance mountain bike leaving the shop had a Chromag quick release and a Thomson Elite seatpost. 

Now look, I’m not melting down my dropper post to fix the tongue on the horse-drawn wagon I use to haul my daughter to school. Riding a full suspension bike up, down, and across, on technical trails, they really do improve the experience. Not mandatory by any means, especially since most Shore trails still follow a pedal up & shred down layout, but really nice to have when the going gets technical in either direction. 

What I’m getting at is that the best rigid post on the market and a really nice quick release still cost a decent chunk of change less than the least expensive reliable dropper post with a usable remote. Putting together a proper mix-maxed budget build? I think there’s a strong argument to ditch the dropper. 

Especially if that bike’s a hardtail and, therefore, a lot more conducive to standing. 

And maybe, maybe, there’s a decent argument to go back to high-posting & low-posting on even the most boutique hardtail that’s being choked through our winter months.  It’s beyond easy to remove after a wet ride so my frame can breath and the only maintenance is soaking the Chromag QR’s brass guide in oil once in a blue moon. Buy a 27.2 post for a nicer ride when seated and shim it to any now common size – 30.9, 31.6, 34.9 – so it can easily travel from bike to bike. 

I certainly notice a lot more dropper post wear in the ‘off-season’ and a little extra out-of-the-saddle pedaling can’t hurt after a hundred holiday-beers. Or, it could be I’m just a bit of a Luddite at this time of year. What does ICBC charge to insure a wagon!?