Dropper or No Dropper in XC Racing - XC Rider's Perspective
We can’t really use the weight argument any longer can we? Maja Wloszczowska rode to a Silver medal at the 2016 Olympic Games on her hardtail with a dropper seat post. Julien Absalon resumed his winning ways at World Cups again in 2016 also sporting one. When it comes to performance, execution means more than grams.
Maja with her seat lowered, riding with more confidence and enjoying it.
 | It so much better, more comfy, and fun! And I think that having fun is the biggest advantage of using dropper seatpost. - Maja Wloszczowska |
Did a dropper make them faster in their races? Maybe. Honestly, most descents on XC courses are short time-wise and XC riders are adapted and pretty darn good at riding with our seats up. You typically can’t win an XC race on a descent, but you can certainly lose one. The difference descending with a dropper in an XC race against an equal rider is likely fractions of a second which you may then lose carrying extra weight up the next climb, but, it’s not just about snapshots in a race, going up or down. It’s the entire 90-minute picture, as well as where we want to take our riding, enabling faster learning and a different ride style with more room to progress.
The ability to drop your seat can enhance your confidence and aggressiveness on features by increasing stability, allowing you to lower your center of gravity, rotating your hips more for cornering and giving you more vertical room to move through while you load and unload your bike for jumping and rough terrain.
In the past racers have chosen not to run a dropper seat post for more reasons than just weight:
• Droppers introduce another lever to the cockpit (less an issue with single chainrings)
• another split second decision to get right or wrong…that awkward seat up descent
• another piece of equipment that could have an issue
• we’re fast without them… and yeah, we’re afraid we might like it, get dependent on it and not be able to ride well without it. This is only an issue if you feel the weight penalty or reliability risk is too much, but why their adoption will be gradual and dependent on seeing others adopt them successfully.
As XC racers, we're pretty adapted to riding with our seat up, but could we gain more with a dropper? I tested my Orbea Oiz with a Fox dropper on a twisty, three minute descent at home. The time difference was only one second, not that significant, until you compare my heart rates, 10 beats lower with the dropper. I would call that a difference maker in racing. Image by Waldek Stepnioski.
After spending more time on a trail bike with a dropper I can relate to the growing masses that feel their bikes are neutered without them. That saddle thing just gets in the way when you’re cornering, jumping and riding steep or rough stuff. They enable bikes and riders to be capable of more.
CP Have you ever or would you personally use one for XC racing?
JN I’ve used one in training and liked riding with it yet found it too time-consuming to push the button and drop the post to actually use it in racing.
| I think in a few years time it could actually become standard, because you have a lot more room to move your body in downhill sections. - Jolanda Neff |
Like any skill you want to use in racing, you need to train it so that when you’re racing it is second nature, there is no additional cognitive demand slowing you down. You also can’t become so dependent on it that you freak out if it doesn’t work, forgetting the skills that enabled you to ride well with your seat up for years. But, if you do believe that a dropper enables you to ride more aggressively and precisely, then it probably does make you faster.
Catharine is wishing that she was using a dropper going into this rock section in 2015.
Droppers are here to stay. People are growing up learning to ride with them. Once you develop your ride style around them, you are unlikely to go back because of one pound. So, let’s see where they take XC racing. My guess will be to fatter tires and more stylish, aggressive riding.
- Catharine Pendrel
MENTIONS: @cpendrel / @orbea / @shimano / @foxracingshox / @CLIF
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Enduro is better than downhill mountainbiking just because it eliminates the chicken legs and obese from competing.
But still, electric assisted bikes (ebikes) have just as much bicycling as downhill mountain biking.
Technical mountainbiking has more physiological similarity to motocross than it is to cycling. It's all about how good you can handle your bike and how good you know the limits of your bike's suspension.
"Enduro is better than downhill mountainbiking just because it eliminates the chicken legs and obese from competing."
For a start you clearly know NOTHING about fitness required in DH racing.
Secondly, I think you're meaning to call out/par bike parks and park rats but your argument would still be as floppy as a piece of celery. Slate us park rats all you want but I'd rather be a parkrat then some doctor who buys into all the latest industry standards and chats shit and rides shit on an expensive (but pretty shit) trail bike or something, which im just going to assume you are.
Of course, knowing how our sport goes, they're probably give it a lame new name like "Enduro Short-Track" or something.
Trail, DJ, DH = Alpine Skiing +
Seriously? You REALLY think you've got the credibility to dismiss the ACTUAL EXPERIENCE of a World/Olympic class athlete?
I think if Nino Schurter can think about pulling whips off of jumps when he's racing then he can probably get his head around pushing a button (if he so wishes).
I would say that most things with riding become second nature with a bit of practice, first timers will sometimes struggle to disengage from clipless pedals but how often do most riders have to think about it once they are used to them.
Remember there are no unsupported riders at WC level in XCO as most riders are part of their countries Olympic training program so at worst have some level of national support. With a team mechanic even a Reverb has a half decent chance of lasting for 5-7 laps ;-)
Any sort of derogatory term including the word Lycra - 1 drink
Any term using the word spandex - 2 drinks
Describing a seat at pedalling height as 'in the stratosphere' 'up their arse' 'mile of seat post' - 1 drink
Suggesting that the extra weight of any component can be offset by having a shit pre race - 3 drinks
Describing an xc race as fireroad bashing - one drink
Suggesting that xc racers do something that makes riding slower but more fun - 5 drinks.
Add any rules you want. I'll check back in after getting my stomach pumped
Of all the changes made, the dropper is by far the best. By dropping down rather than leaning back you gain so much control (see the PB article on this). The Nimby 50 main red bull descent Overnight Sensation when from downright scary to manageable. I now ride things I would have never have previously ridden.
For cream puff XC I could not be bothered taking it off, It depends on what you ride, but for me - its now an essential part of my gear.
I have a dropper on an xc rig and is great fun on a huge amount of trails, even with 12ft jumps as long as you lands smooth.
And two very solid am rigs.. one that is good for full on dh tracks, and one that still does it all. But they are overkill on a fair few trails.
Now it's off for warranty (unwanted sag) and I feel something important is missing from my bike. I must admit that I did notice the bike feeling lighter under me on technical moves, but the added weight is a compromise I'm more than willing to make.
Racers are usually pretty resistant to change. They put so many hours on the saddle, they know what works for them. They need solid proof (race results) in order to adopt new. Looks like the change is happening though.
Fun and not giving a shit - oh yeah!
"You *should* be able to do this. You won't run into any issues with the BB shell, but you'll probably have to remove and either reinstall or replace the BB. The head tube cable stop may not allow a full length run of cable housing, so you may need to get creative with that."
I sure appreciate the help and advice.
Under 300g weight added but oh so much better to ride steeps with it. If you're riding a course or even a loop with dismount and remount sections on rough and steep terrain it makes possible to restart pedaling with so much more ease if the saddle is lower by 3-5cm. Also on long freewheeling descents if you drop 35 to 50mm the lower cg and improved aerodynamics will give you a turbo boost free speed-seriously!
And on curvy twisty sections where you only need to soft pedal to get by (slight down slope) the lower cg makes it easier to negotiate the bends. Aaaand on tight turns, lowering just a bit will surely help with stability. I use Specialized's Command Post XCP which is fairly light and reliable.
But then again I'm 14 stone with the flexibility of a wooden ruler.
I rather prefer go for a road ride than ride a mountainbike without dropper post...
Sitting down is lazy, stand up and hammer.
So I'd say a mtb rider should be able to have a low seat. If they also need to have it up every now and then during the race, they'll need a dropper post. I wouldn't be surprised that most of them have been using the first droppers when they came out and they might have been put off by their reliability. I doubt other advancements like hydraulic brakes (rim and disc) and maybe even suspension haven't been that unreliable when they first came out.
So I'm still racing a 16" 26" wheeled steel hardtail, with gears and a fixed post.
It does me fine, I came second in my local 6 hour race this summer.
I haven't tried a six hour race yet. Usually my ADHD doesn't make me distribute my energy that nicely so after a few hours (if I haven't had to stop for a repair) I'm too shot to be competitive. But yeah, I'm a shade under 6' tall and also ride a 16" 26" wheeled steel hardtail (DMR Switchback) with a 9sp (11-32t) cassette in the rear, oval 32t chainring. You Brits keep pumping out some mighty fine frames
How is sitting down spinning a really low gear improving our sport?
Ride like a hooligan, as fast as possible and try not to crash. That's what it's about.
I have argued that the dropper is one of the most cheap, reliable and game changing piece of componentry that's been innovated on MTB's since disc brakes started to gain traction. NO BRAINER
drop that seat, hit the meat (tire side down) for the descent! Jacked seats are a liability for disaster when it comes to skill progression on the downhill sections of trail.