Dropper posts are awesome. I mean ‘are’ as in currently, now, today. Frankly, we should all say thank you to the early adopters who dumped heaps of cash on absolute sh*t like the Speed Ball, Command Post, Joplin, and early Reverb to get us here because, while many Gucci options now exist, today it is possible to get a really good dropper post, with all the travel, and a nice remote for under $300 and that is pretty damn cool. 

Dropper posts are a great convenience. Push a lever and my seat is always back right where I want it. Exactly right where I want it. Hit the button again and lower it anywhere within a 6-8″ range depending on the model – usually, I just go with whatever is all the way down, but whatever. And they are so fast that plenty of places that I would never get off to raise or lower a saddle manually I am reaching for the easy button.

Yes, dropper posts are a great convenience. But a convenience that comes into play well after I’ve looked after good geometry, good tires, good brakes, good grips, good saddle, good pedals, good beer, a good rear hub, and etc. Maybe the shallower terrain of other locales boosts their priority over rubber or brakes, or even geo but all the actors in this experience live right here on the North Shore. 

I have plenty of recent experience between a Trek Stache 7, Marin Hawk Hill 1, and Rocky Mountain Growler 20 to talk about riding local terrain without a dropper post and you know what all those bikes have in common? They are ridiculously fun. And do you know what all those bikes have in common with every other mountain bike I have ridden? Once the post is dropped far enough and I am pointed down a trail they have sweet f*** all to do with how the bike performs.

This seems like common sense to me. Three bills are still a hefty chunk of change to make the seat of my bicycle go up and down and frankly, as much as I enjoy the convenience, a dropper post is not changing the game I am playing most days – pedal & plunge with the odd break to have a snack and raise or lower my seat.  

But try telling that to the local shop staffer who believes that mountain biking is not for you, or your kid, if you cannot drop thousands of dollars on a bike. “You need a dropper post.” “You need dual suspension.” “You need a 1x drivetrain.” “You need… you need.. you need.” The fact is you do not need sh*t other than any bike, a helmet, a willingness to pick yourself up when you fall down. Just add dirt; BOOM, instant mountain biker. 

Oh, that may be true other places “but this is THE SHORE man!” 

Exactly. There are plenty of riders here out really enjoying trails on ancient slag that cannot even fit a dropper post. If Buddy cannot make it down solid true-Black trails on a basic hardtail machine, bone f***ing stock, then they have ZERO business telling any prospective customer what they can and cannot ride on a basic mountain bike. 

Okay, he has obviously been riding nothing but the freshest top-end sh*t since he was a grom. But the owner of the shop he works in should rectify this issue by adding a $999 hardtail to the demo fleet and making it a right of passage for Buddy, and any other disconnected employee for that matter, to ride it everywhere for a month. And more importantly, riding that bike is the only way they are going to be able to put themselves in customers’ skate shoes with really min-maxing monies when it does come to upgrade time, and that, bike shop staffer, is part of what gives you local value. 

When a kid tells you they are going to take their used Rocky Mountain Soul down Expresso for the first time you can laugh and talk about your basic hardtail experience. Curtail your expert advice to offering to remove their kickstand. When that kid tells you their friends are riding high dollar machines with the latest everything you can now tell tall tales about almost keeping up to your friends’ on their super-bikes riding a budget hardtail with a few key upgrades. When it comes time to spend $300+ I will guarantee a dropper post is way down that list. 

What is worse than that shop-staffer telling everyone they need a bike with a dropper post? Even worse than when said bike comes with a cheap OE 120mm dropper on a large frame that is going to get scrapped anyways? It is the rider who buys into that bullshit. 

Do not whine to me that you cannot ride this weekend because your dropper post has to go in for a service. Buy a $20 shaft, stick it in your bike, and go for a f***ing ride. Hell, you can probably borrow a basic post from any number of folks you know who have one kicking around from when their first-generation dropper post sh*t the bed every couple months.

Oh, you don’t have a quick release? How long does it take you to pull that fancy tool out of your steerer tube and loosen the collar? You don’t take any breaks longer than 15-seconds on a ride? 

Oh, there’s that one trail where you raise and lower your post one hundred times because it undulates along for about 3-minutes in between aggressive DH sections? Try just lowering your seat “an inch for fun.” Oh, there’s a short steep climb in the middle of the trail you really want to do this weekend? Stand. Wait, do you usually clean that climb? Right. 

I love high-end boutique bike stuff too. Maybe more than you do. I am a total nerd. But you do not need any of that sh*t to have fun, on the North Shore, on a mountain bike. And neither does anyone else. And I can’t be the only one who’s tired of hearing the myth that “mountain biking is so expensive” when in reality it can be incredibly fun for a relatively small investment.