These Are The Best Dropper Posts Available In South Africa

by | Feb 13, 2024 | Buyer's Guide, Bike, Featured, Sports

We scoured the South African market to find the best dropper posts available to give you more freedom of movement on your mountain bike!

Seatposts used to be one of the most simple and cheap components on a bicycle, but they also used to get in the way when descending steep and technical trails. A few people had the bright idea to integrate suspension technology to a seat post to make it telescopic, able to drop down out of the way when necessary and rise back up to offer support when on the pedals.

Cover Image Credit: KS

Seatpost travel and actuation

There are a host of dropper post options available on the market now with travel ranging from 60 to 240mm and different actuation options from cable pulled to hydraulic or even wireless systems. Cable actuated dropper posts are the most popular and affordable and are easier to maintain than hydraulic ones. Wireless droppers are expensive but some prefer their easy of actuation and simplicity of setup and clean handlebar look (no cable routing required). 

Best Dropper Post In South Africa
Wireless droppers are starting to become more common. Hopefully we’ll see more on the local market soon. (c) KS

When it comes to travel, there has been a big trend towards 200mm or longer dropper posts on trail and enduro bikes in recent years to allow for maximum freedom of movement. Longer does mean heavier though so for the more weight conscious riders a 60-100mm travel dropper is more likely to be the choice, sacrificing some travel for a lower weight. Some droppers can also have their maximum extension adjusted so that you can fine tune the maximum drop to suit your seat tube length.

Infinite drop or set positions

Most dropper posts offer infinite set points along their travel range so that you can set your seatpost height at any point that you would like. Others are marketed as 2 or 3 position models that can either be set at fully extended or fully dropped and might have a middle position as well. These are normally lighter but more limited in adjustment up and down the stroke if you, for example, just want to lower the seatpost a couple centimeters for a technical climb.

Best Dropper Post In South Africa
Dropper posts like the V2 and V3 from One Up Components can be travel adjusted with the use of a plastic shim (c) One Up

South Africa has a slightly more limited range of offerings than you might find internationally but we still have some really solid options to choose from if you’re looking to upgrade or get your first dropper post. We’ve scoured the market and selected what we believe to be the best options in the value, lightweight, long travel, and wireless categories.

The value dropper post – Lyne Contour

Lyne Components’ Contour dropper seatpost has long been regarded as the best value for money buy on the South African market. These seatposts are robust and trouble free to use, easy to service when needed, and come with a great ergonomic lever.

All of Lyne’s Dropper posts, with options from 100mm to 200mm of drop available, retail for under R4 000. You can check them out here: on-lynecomponents.com

These Are The Best Dropper Posts Available In South Africa
Lyne Contour Dropper

The lightweight dropper post – Vertical Helium 

Vertical’s Helium seatpost options come in from 281g (320mm long with 60mm of travel) to 334g (410mm with 90mm of travel). They offer a range of seatpost lengths that combine with either 60 or 90mm of travel so that you can get the shortest seatpost possible to suit for your bike and the travel that you desire. These beat the 327-437g weights of the popular FOX Transfer SL (that retails for ±R10 000 locally).

The Helium is used by world class riders Tom Pidcock and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot and distributed in SA by Phil Buys Sports. To check out their range head here and then contact [email protected] to order. They retail for around R9 500.

One Up Components’ New V3 is claimed to be “the lightest infinitely adjustable dropper on the market at any given travel.” At 325g for 90mm of travel it is on par in weight with that of the Helium (which is not infinitely adjustable but rather a 2 position dropper seatpost, either fully extended or fully dropped) but offers infinite saddle heights within the range of travel depending on how much you push the saddle down, like most droppers. Their 120mm V3 (370g) is the shortest travel option we can find locally at the moment and it retails for R5750.

The long dropper post – One Up TwoForty

One Up are well known for their long travel dropper posts that are reliable and easy to live with. Their V2 seatposts come in options from 90 to 240mm in travel and retail for R4870 locally or you can check out their V3 posts retailing for R5750 and coming in a range from 120mm to 210mm.

Their V2 TwoForty is the longest travel option available locally and does wonders for long legged riders looking to get that saddle right down out of the way. One Up’s V3 (and V2) posts are highly acclaimed for their low stack heights and insertion depths, allowing you to get the maximum drop possible onto your bike. The V3 boasts shorter insertion depths over the V2 as well as a lighter breakaway force for dropping, longer service intervals, and a lighter overall weight.

All of One Ups seatposts come with 10 or 20mm travel reducing shims that allow you to tune the travel to suit your frame and needs.

Their 240mm post is their longest travel option and serves the long legged gravity riders unlike any other seatpost!

The One Up V2 and V3  posts are available here: trailtechcycles.co.za/

Best Dropper Post In South Africa
One Up’s range of droppers

The wireless dropper post – RockShox Reverb AXS

RockShox’ Reverb AXS post has been the most popular wireless option for a long time now but the competition is rising up. KS Lev released the Circuit recently, a wireless dropper that offers up to 200mm of travel. That’s 30mm more than you can get from the Reverb, something a lot of riders have been asking for. It should retail a fair bit cheaper as well, given the Reverb comes in at over R20 000. It doesn’t appear to be available locally yet but if the KS Lev Circuit can beat the RockShox on price, it’ll trump it as our best wireless option.

You can buy the Reverb here: bike-addict.co.za

Best Dropper Post In South Africa
RockShox Reverb AXS

We have heard chatter of a wireless dropper post from Lyne on the horizon but can’t confirm release dates for now. Hopefully it won’t be much longer before we have more wireless options available on the local market and at a more affordable price.

Once you’ve got your new telescopic seatpost installed and want to start getting to grips with it, head over to our video guide here on getting the most out of your dropper seat post. It may take a few rides or weeks for it to become 2nd nature but once it does, it will change your riding completely for the better!

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