Kidding About Dropper Posts

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I have been kidding about writing a piece called ‘Going Without the Gamechanger’ forever. Taking the 3-month dropper-free challenge and rewarding my internal Luddite by shimming a 27.2 x 410mm Thomson Elite post into my single speed. I am no high poster but how long does it take to jump off and raise or lower my seat using the quick release I have installed anyway?

There is only one problem. I am full-on addicted to hitting that magic button and having my seat exactly where I want it for the next climb. Oh, but the climb is loose. I am slipping my rear tire. What do I do? Bang that remote button, dropper the post a centimeter or two, and experience a sudden boost in seated traction. Or drop the post out of the way so I can stand up and squat for every bit of grip that is available.

Yep, if I am ranking the various features of my bicycles, dropper posts are high on the list. Great geometry is free, I am quite happy to ride my rigid bike almost anywhere, so suspension isn’t key. I will take powerful hydraulic disc brakes over a dropper post in the mountains but on my groad-gravel-get-around bike, if you forced me to choose, I am going back to v-brakes before I give up my dropper post.

I truly learned to use a dropper post from watching my daughter use hers. It was a revelation and I instantly wished I could go back two years and install one on her 20” rig. The other product I wish existed when she was still riding a 20” is Maxxis Minion DHF tires. They were released concurrently with her transitioning to riding a 24” bike.

Say what you will about all the other tires that have come out in the decades since Maxxis launched the DHF, but these still sport a magic mix of predictable grip and good rolling speed that makes them hard to beat as an everywhere and anywhere mountain bike tire. Put another way, if the DHF was the only mountain bike tire on the market from 2.3” to 3” with every size in between, we would all be having fun mountain biking.

Anyway, where I used a dropper post like an instant-fast fixed-post-and-quick-release setup, my daughter used hers more than she shifted. Full-up for the pavement, a little bit down for climbing gravel, half-mast for a technical climb or traverse section, fully dropped for descents. I am certain some of that was born out of the fact that she could not use it all the way up for her first year of riding it. Either way, she became adept at instantly finding that just-right seat height for every situation and that is more how I use my post now too.

My kid’s dropper works well enough now, but it was not a perfect product or process when she was a few pounds smaller. For her to compress the post I had to run ½ the minimum recommended, adjustable, air pressure or she could not lower the post herself. Despite keeping it very well lubricated, the initialization required a bit of violence on her part. Plus, with tiny thumbs even the nicest bearing-pivot dropper remotes require a proper push to actuate.

It is much easier now that she has grown a bunch. Still, setting up this PNW Fern post on her former bike was a revelation. What makes the Fern kid-specific when PNW makes other dropper posts that are externally actuated with the same travel? The actuation is so light that the remote feels AWFUL. To me. But feels luxuriously light to a little kid’s thumb.

The post has no issue returning to full travel, but the combination of smooth sliding and being 90mm of travel allows for a gas charge that makes lowering it no problem for a sub-50lbs grom.

The leverage ratio combination of PNW’s Puget 1x remote lever and their Fern post’s lightest-action actuator makes for the lowest effort dropper actuation I have ever felt. That would not be a compliment if I were putting it on my bike, I prefer more feedback. For a kid’s bike, however? The effort required to initiate post-movement is perfect for tiny thumbs.

The fixed-cable external is perfect for the application. It means no drilling of frames to add a stealth routing cable exit on bikes that were not designed for it, and it shortens the insertion depth compared to adding an actuator. Yes, the tip of the iceberg – what is showing above the seat collar – is a bit taller but all told this is the compromise that will work best for the most 20” bikes and likely many 24” bikes as well.

Admittedly my grom has graduated to a 120mm drop setup on her 24” frame but this 90mm would have been perfect when we started, and we are on the cusp of moving up to the next wheel size anyway. I also had to add an exit hole and entry hole in her frame to accommodate a stealth dropper.

I will mention here that the cable on the Fern dropper post is external but thanks to the position of the actuator it is also in a fixed position. This is not like early external dropper posts where lowering the seat meant accommodating a significant amount of cable growth as the saddle was dropped.

The in-between step that I took for my grom, and by extension was a hand-me-down to my nephew, was installing a nice, smooth, easy-to-use quick release (QR) on her bike. The Wolf Tooth lever on this Early Rider, or the Chromag lever on my bike, works so well that groms can open and close them so that they can raise and lower seats themselves. It’s a nice boost to independence for riders who will often need a hand to lift their bike up and over features, or to lift it off them in any number of (don’t tell them and try not to laugh) hilarious bike-on-rider ‘crash’ events per ride when they’re starting out.

It is significantly less expensive to purchase a sweet seat-post QR than it is to buy into a dropper post and a good remote. That is true even when talking about a budget-friendlier option like the Fern & Puget setup I have installed here. But just as most adult mountain bikers I know would not choose to ride an XC, Trail, or Enduro bike without a dropper, kids will benefit from a better experience in most terrain with the addition of the ‘game changer.’

As always, get your kids out and try mountain biking on whatever semi-suitable two-wheeled contraption you can source for them. I know firsthand that catching the mountain bike buy is entirely possible on a complete piece of sh*t with gripless pedals, barely-brakes, and firm rubber treads. But, in hindsight, if I were looking at 20” wheeled bikes again and min-maxing my budget I would happily settle for some Shimano DX V-brakes if that meant getting my grom onto a dropper post like the Fern.

First up, it has to be great pedals. Amortize your life though, right? My daughter ran Chromag Radar flats from age three to almost ten and we’ve had great luck tracking down Five Ten and now RC shoes on clear-out. If they are the wrong colour just go ride in the mud a few times! Then, as with adults, I am looking at grips and saddles. Contact points! And speaking of contact points, tires. Folding DHF tires, run tubeless, have served us very well when it is wet and greasy and also when conditions are the loosest-loose over the hardest-hard.

Then, in the toss-up between disc brakes and a dropper post, even here in the rainforest that is the Canadian PSW (pacific-south-west), I think a dropper post would win for the riding we are doing. I will acknowledge some additional bias these last couple of weeks as I feel like between my kid’s bike, my wife’s bike, and yes, my bike, straightening properly bent rotors has been a job unto itself.

Okay, it is sort of silly for someone who doesn’t have to choose between discs and droppers to even be suggesting a winner in that bout. It is like asking me to choose beer or coffee. Um, well actually, coffee is the easy winner, but I would much rather choose both.

I have done well collecting & servicing SRAM Guide/G2 brakes for the kids in my life – and have passed a few sets on to other grom rippers as well. Adult mountain bikers are regularly upgrading to more powerful systems, but the basic SRAM 4-piston stoppers work fantastically for folks that weigh a third, or less, what I do.

On the other hand, dropper posts tend to be too long or too roached to pass down. And even when they are in okay shape, a lot of systems are too firm for kids to actuate – either at the button or in forcing the saddle to drop. At US$200 for the 90mm Fern Dropper Post and an additional US$50 for the new Range Lever , this is not an inexpensive upgrade nor, again, is it necessary. But for folks who can afford it, dropper posts boost the fun factor in a lot of terrain and that is even more the case with the kid-friendly action of this setup.

Going forward, I will be back with a longer-term review of the Fern as well as some grom-gallery comments on the ‘game changer’ experience.