Fresh for $199 – The New PNW Range Dropper Post & Remote Package

Product Talk

I will warn you now that I am going in multiple directions with this one. I love history, I gave the movie Furiosa a perfect score, and I have been pedaling around for the last year with the same knot in my stomach as everyone else who feels we are currently shuffling along a perilous goat path of drastic societal change on par with the industrial revolution. And I promise I will link it all together with the Range Dropper.

But if you just came for the gritty dropper details, everything you need to know is up in the header and there is a teardown photo or two below. To recap, PNW Components is selling their new Range Dropper Post and Remote, along with a cable kit, for US$199. It is a great deal when you combine their excellent customer service and after-sale support, reputation for quality, and the fact that it goes up and down as advertised.

This should not come as any kind of shock. The smoothness of the Range post does not compare to ultra-premium options like the ~ US$350-$390 Wolf Tooth Resolve Rev2 or the ~ US$350-420 BikeYoke Revive Gen3 and the PNW Range remote is not as nice as those brands’ Triggy or ReMote options, or, indeed, PNW’s premium remote the US$70 Loam Lever .

With that out of the way, the Range remote has a very usable action, and the post is certainly smooth enough to use without a second thought. The whole thing can be stripped, re-lubed, and reassembled in less time than it takes to remove it from my bike and the same goes for down the trail when the gas-charged cartridge eventually needs to be replaced.

Always with the price in mind, I do have a couple of suggestions for running changes that I would like to see, which I have included below. At any time if you want to jump off, just scroll down to the "Suggested Changes" heading.

Being Ned Ludd for a Minute

All right, a quick break for some real talk, and then I will get back to it. Blanketed over all the solid economic news in North America over the past few years, there has been a malaise of angst and anger which I would argue has strong correlations to the 19th-century Luddites, oath-taking saboteurs in Britain during the Industrial Revolution who attempted to pump the brakes on progress. They were about as successful as me trying to slow down on a steep greasy rock roll with 60a rubber tires, but maybe, in both cases, we can appreciate the attempt.

Like so many skilled creators today – artists, musicians, authors – these folks, from labourers to skilled technologists, and society in general, watched their crafts broken down into their smallest binary tasks and then reassembled such that their work could be performed, copied, by machines and the wealth from their labour concentrated in the hands of those who owned the mechanized means of production. There are always pros and cons, but it is important to recognize that not many changes carry the significant net positives of, say, the printing press or electricity. For example, the jury is probably still out on the internet.

As a greater society, we seem to generally welcome the idea of disruption but also lament, in real-time, what we lose in the process. For example, I have a friend who loves the interesting content being created by the decentralization of control over movie production. And who also complains that most people do not want to journey to go sit silently in movie theatres and experience films on the big screen anymore. But he definitely does not want to discuss the stout bridge joining these two phenomena.

I do not intend this comment in judgment, but simply to make an account of the huge changes that currently hover over my life and livelihood. On a smaller scale, people choosing, as is their right; to purchase and ride motor-assisted-mountain bikes is having a profound effect on how bicycles are designed, sold, and serviced and I fear an acceleration of the long-heralded and slowly unfolding demise of many non-vertically integrated (i.e. not brand-owned) stores is nigh.

Certainly, like car dealerships, there are questions on how small independent bicycle dealers with survive. Service? Selling used, reconditioned, bikes?

Likewise, folks choosing to use A.I. to privateer art, text, and music – as is their right unless and until legislation around copyrights and plagiarism is re-tooled – are discombobulating the value of these skills and endeavors. Essentially trading away a foundation of human society since we lived in caves – the creation of art, music, science, philosophy, etc. assisted by technology – for convenience. Humanity is unchecked by the concept of enough (fast enough, powerful enough, rich enough, full enough) and so we continue while often lamenting our progress in real-time. Just add electricity (no, really, energy storage and transportation grids are desperately behind on updates, everywhere).

CV Dazzled

Looping back to the Range Dropper, PNW’s new post has me building this trail for two reasons. The first is their white graphic on the PNW seal head. For years now, and I have reviewed a few PNW posts with good results, every time I look at the said white graphic, I automatically start singing my favourite The Zolas song CV Dazzle . A song about the practice of using stylized makeup and other asymmetries in an attempt to defeat computer visualization algorithms.

To my points above, after managing to survive through pandemic restrictions, The Zolas have gone radio silent – except for a bit of CanCon AKA ‘Mandatory Beaver’ radio play locally, which I imagine pays pennies – with no concert dates planned or social media activity. I do not know their whole story, but it still beggars the question of how bands who cannot charge hundreds of dollars for concert tour tickets are going to support themselves in our new algorithmic age if laws don’t change to compensate them with a proper share of advertising revenue from music being streamed.

More germane to the discussion of dropper posts, in an age of brand stores and a growing number of independent shops that will only service bikes they have sold, it behooves riders to take stock of their mechanical abilities and facilities. Most shop owners will tell you it is a bit of a wasteland in terms of hiring mechanics but the significant increase in labour rates many riders are noticing recently is down to the accelerated importance of service dollars in keeping the lights on.

Most skilled mechanics I know have not seen a significant pay increase and have watched their purchasing power erode significantly. Service rates will only have to continue to go up if competition for their services becomes more heated. At some point some riders who have historically not looked after their own service needs may have to consider the economics of owning tools, making space, and learning how against the cost of paying to have work done.

I have had the tools and experience to rebuild a product like a Revive, Resolve, or Reverb in my kitchen since I was a young adult and I know plenty of folks who have similar capabilities, so even absent a local shop with a good tech to teardown these products or an affordable shipping option to get them to an authorized service center, I know that I am mechanically covered in my quest to create value by amortizing a dropper post over an infinite number of years.

If you do not, but you are considering a reality where the economics of working on your mountain bike yourself would be ideal, the PNW Range is not just an affordable dropper post, it is amongst the fastest and easiest to wrench on. If you can install your tires, swap a handlebar, or change a shifter cable then I am confident you can re-lube a PNW Range dropper post or swap in a fresh cartridge when that day comes. Anywhere, anytime. And if you cannot do those things? I am confident that you could master all of them with a tutorial by a patient friend.

The only tools you need are an adjustable wrench (I always recommend Knipex 2”/52mm Parallel Pliers), a 3mm hex key, a strap wrench (which has tons of other real AKA non-bicycle world uses), and a glob of Slickoleum .

Suggested Changes

With full recognition that this is a high-value, price-point-focused product and that every change will add to the cost, and in this case maybe enough that the cable and housing kit could not be included at the US$199 price. I would appreciate a longer channel of support on the lower saddle rail clamps.

This will probably not be a concern for most riders on modern steep-actual-seat-angle bikes running their saddles centered or even pushed a bit forward, but on most modern rigs my preference for a slacker effective seated position has me running my saddle very rearward in the rail clamps. For example, I have mulleted the Secondhand Spire and do not use any kind of pedaling platform on the rear shock, and still would not mind a more rearward position when grinding up climbs.

I understand that the narrow contact point does not put more stress on the rail where it meets the saddle clamp in high-load situations – where rails bend – but I would still feel more confident with a few more grams of material and a larger clamping surface. I will note that I am prepared to be called silly over this suggestion.

My other suggestion though comes down to differing philosophies. The first thing I do with any fresh PNW post I am riding is to unwind the seal head and dollop Slickoleum in there. I have talked to PNW, and plenty of other brands, before about shipping these seal heads dry, and wishing that grease will migrate up to them through usage, and it is a conscious decision made for a reason. When they previously shipped posts with a pile of lubricant under the seal, they saw a pile of concerns from customers that any excess grease purged through use over the first 1-2 rides was their post leaking.

I understand but still think there must be a way to ship a post with the seal head packed with Slickoleum and a sticker, or hang tag, etc. to educate customers. In the meantime, if you are picking up a Range, or any number of other posts, I always suggest a quick lube before ride one. Install the post in your frame, loosen the seal head by hand or with a rubber strap wrench if required, and wipe some of Arlo England’s sliding-system wonder lube in there. It is worth the 1-2 minutes of effort.

And that is that. The PNW Range Dropper and Range Remote are available separately, but the clearest most-drop-for-your-buck value is in buying the package. The remote, with its cartridge bearing a rubber thumb pad, gives the whole setup a feel that punches above its US$199 price class.

A range of drops that will suit most riders – 125mm, 150mm, 175mm, and 200mm – and they fit the three common seat tube sizes, 30.9mm, 31.6mm, and 34.9mm with a shim. They are extremely easy to strip for a clean and lube or to swap a cartridge, and they get the dropper post job done under the umbrella of PNW’s excellent reputation for product and people.