Orbea Digit Dropper Post: First Look

 250mm is a lot of drop

 it is cool. I wish I had that a few years ago when I couldn't afford a proper dropper post. I hope this gonna be a good value for kids' money. And I'm guessing my dad would love to buy one. that is a good idea.

 I am honestly so stoked for this! for people like me who can't afford a dropper and don't have enough seat tube for climbing/descending using a single post, this will be miles better than the other double clamp options out there out there!

 Look up tmars dropper on ebay. It's a gravity dropper knockoff and you can get them for $60. It's been reliable for me so far, and it's super simple to tear down and fix if it ever stops working.

 Not to mention this could allow the seat post to go ALL the way down to the frame with out the extra 1.5 inches of reverb sticking out.Would really help people, like myself, who prefer bigger bikes but have the problem of long seat tube lengths.

 It was cool 15 years ago. Norco sold a similar two-clamp post for bikes with an interrupted seat tube. Would have worked the same, minus a set screw to act as a stop.

 What I'd like is a similar bare bones concept with a head mounted lever (like the thomson elite seatpost option). No oil, no remote, no return speed adjustability, no infinite adjustability. Hell, it doesn't even need a spring, just a super light, guided seatpost with a handle under the seat's nose to release the clamp pressure so you can easily pull it up or down. I bet it probably already exists somewhere.

 Excellent idea. I'd buy one today if I could. I want that ks wireless dropper post, but who knows when it will hit the market? This would be a good stop gap for people like me who want a dropper but hate extra cables

 @PLC07 I think you kind of have to have an oil-based system to put the lever under the seat nose. Otherwise you would need a way (like a cable) to transmit the force from your hand down to the seat clamp. The seat lever only works because it's actuating a hydraulic lockout. A mechanical seat lever would create the same reliability/aesthetics issues as a remote, so you might as well put it on your handlebars.

Gravity dropper has a non-remote option that uses a coil and no hydraulics (just holes drilled in the shaft to act as stops... which also means you can add your own positions if you have a steady hand). But the switch is located down at the top of the outer tube. The Tmars I mentioned could easily be modded to work in the same way and is dirt cheap. Or there's a KS eten version that has a seat lever. It has oil but it's cheap and reliable from what I hear.

I just sprung for a real dropper post, but I like bare-bones stuff like this orbea thing. For your home trails that you know well it would work just fine; probably 90% of the stuff I ride at home is done in full-extension (climbs) or a midway position (almost everything else) on my 3-position post. If you know when you need to drop/raise the seat, something like this would work just fine.

 @jaame I have one of the most minimalist cockpits I've seen (brakes + matchmaker reverb remote and 1x10 X0 gripshift) so the cables don't really bother me all that much. I just feel that the remote, the hydraulic system, nitrogen cartridges, seals and questionable tuning options are really over complicating a concept that is simple in itself (a seatpost that goes up and down without having to stop the bike). Does it really need to weight over a pound and cost 400$?

That being said, with the type of trails I ride, I'm really thankful that I have mine.

 @bkm303 I used to think it could work with a lever that pulled back a pin that locked into shaft holes. Or an inner tube that has an expanding collar putting pressure on the outer tube and the handle would compress the collar, letting the inner tube move up and down freely. The expanding collar idea would be more complex but it would have infinite adjustment (if anybody even uses that).

 @jaame are you talking about Thomson bluetooth dropper or KS also have something coming?

 @PLC07 I totally agree. I NEED that for my XC hard tail. This solution is only barely better (and heavier) that simply using a quick release with a height and center reference scribed on the post.
Part of the appeal of a dropper is using it to adjust to the terrain on the fly.

 @plc07 I agree. It's just a seat post that goes up and down. It doesn't need the quality or tech of a bloody suspension fork.

I have only heard of KS developing a wireless post. This is the first I've heard of the Thompson Bluetooth dropper...But I'm going to look now

 Yeah the pin idea would work, but you'd still need a cable to run down to the pin mechanism (basically a gravity/tmars lever clamped onto your seat then). I guess it could be routed inside the post if you basically flipped the whole gravity dropper mechanism inside out and housed the pin mechanism inside the inner tube. But I doubt you could fit it all into the smaller diameter posts.

 Crank bros has a crappy pin system. If they did it better and used a light spring instead of air we all would be using them today. Too bad.

 I had never considered that the extra cable might stop people getting a dropper. You learn something new every day..

 @clackbot "for people like me who can't afford a dropper and don't have enough seat tube for climbing/descending using a single post, this will be miles better than the other double clamp options out there out there!"

This isn't any shorter than a regular seat post.

 I have a Tmars dropper, it is awesome, once you get the hang of lock/unlock the 3 positions, its like an extension of you like brakes and shifters.....

 @taletotell "if crank brothers wasn't crank brothers we would ride the stuff" hahaha

 Yep, a proper dropper is hard to beat.

 A dropper might not be all that useful to some users (e.g. on my xc bike, for example) so €250 would be way too much for a post that would remain up when going up and down when going down; this, instead, would be a very good and cheaper solution to, say, ride up the mountain, get off from the bike 3", lower the post in a jiff and start the descent with a good continuity, knowing that the saddle is as high/low as you want it to be and in the direction you want it to be.
Aaaaah, relativity.

 Buy once, cry once

 Buy cheap cry twice

 Totally agree with Alain...cant afford a dropper?...save. BEST upgrade to any bike

 this

 Yeah, no sealing whatsoever and an open hole into the mechanism right where the rear wheel throws dirt. Genius.

 You must be new to MTB; 4 years ago it was common to get a salsa/skg/hope QR clamp and adjust as you go. Every couple weeks you had to grease the cam... whatever. This version simplifies that.

 Sleeve with a cut length of inner tube maybe.....

 Not so really comparable, but the idea is that you are able to switch between high and low positions quickly and always have the seat straight and at the same height.

 Why do you need to stop? I can comfortably use the QR seatclamp to adjust the seat height on my enduro bike on the fly.

 For most of my riding purposes, it is a long ride up, and then almost fully downhill once you reach the trailhead. It is rare on my local trails to need to adjust the seat height on the fly. I might prefer to avoid a dropper post due to weight/cost/complexity/cables in favour of a typical seatpost that I adjust once at the bottom of the hill at the start of my ride, and then once again at the trailhead. This just allows you to keep the seat heights dialed, so that you're not adjusting multiple times to find the sweet spot.

 'Leg breaker' rides around here are UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN.. repeat. Either you have a remote dropper or you never ever get into the flow. That said I seriously prefer one really big up and one fun down.

 Better yet you could make RCs ghetto dropper, but there's still nothing to prevent rotation of the post during adjustment, and that could be super annoying.

 Doesn't work on an Epic. Doesn't come in the correct seat post diameter. He only gets a KS or the new Specialized Command Post SL.

 Genius

 I'm actually very impressed with that idea. I may use it myself as I always want a dropper post, but on a race bike, I don't want the weight

 And when money doesn't permit, you buy this post, easy.

 Didn't Pinkbike run a "Ghetto Tuesday" on this?

As someone who actually went and did it, how do you find using it in anger? Easy? frustrating to never have your saddle at the right angle?

 I have installed a spring in the (unbroken) seat tube of my bike with a huge cable tie to set height. Works pretty well but not really something you can use mid trail due to the strength needed to be used to loosen and close the qr. This clamp could be a solution but in the near future i'm looking to get an RSP Plummet which is only £80-odd so...

 If this had come out like a year ago I would have been bang on it. Still might if it is cheap and comes out before I have the spare cash for the Plummet dropper.

 ok so after thinking about it for a while (and i may still be wrong) but imagine this is a QR system but when you open the lever, your seat cannot twist. the post works inside a channel that only allows it to move up and down. so open the lever, the saddle drops down to a set height. i would still never buy one of these. i doubt they sell.

 The idea seems to be that the redesigned QR lever combined with the channel guide make it easy/convenient enough to actually try and manipulate the height of the post without hopping off of the bike. I'd be inclined to try one out and keep one around as a spare post for when my dropper decides it has had enough, but it definitely wouldn't actually replace a real dropper. I also wouldn't be surprised to see that sort of thing specced on low-end trailbikes that normally would have a static post.

 I should add, it doesn't appear to have any sort of mechanism to keep the post up on its own once it reaches your max height. Seems that would require two hands; one to lift the post/saddle and the other to close the QR. The result would appear to be that you can drop the thing while riding easily but you would still need to hop off to raise it.

I wonder if there's some simple way to keep the unweighted post at your high set point to allow for one-handed operation. That would tie the product together, I think.

 Maybe it's for roadies?

 All it needs is an internal spring and a remote locking mechanism and it would drastically improve on the Gravity Dropper and look better too.

 @PHeller i think you just described a dropper seatpost

 @mikericci except the majority of dropper posts utilize an air spring that in most cases needs a rebuild sometimes measured in months. The Gravity Droppers use of a coil spring means that some owners haven't rebuilt them in the 4-5 years of ownership. Downside? Gravity Dropper looks like hell.

 So put a coil in the crankbros Dropper and you have it.

 Ya beat me to saying this. Thought of this in the late 80's as an alternative to a "Hite-Rite", which were great as they kept your saddle straight. But yeah, have a long spring with a disk on both ends. It drops into the seat tube. Run an extra long bolt into the upper water bottle mount, on the seat tube, as a stopper for the spring. Have the spring attach to the bottom of the seat post via a set screw or bar-end plug type expander. On the other end of the spring, a registration hole that the longer bottle boss bolt goes into, keeping the post and the saddle lined up in the right direction. Zip tie a boot or cut section of inner tube over the seat tube insertion point to keep dirt out and keep the post greased so it slides easy ( this was also done with Hite-Rites back in the day) Only thing is to ad a lever so you don't have to reach down to the seat collar. Undoing the QR really isn't a practical way to go. Even modern droppers that don't use a bar mount lever are, IMHO, not well thought out in terms of real world riding. A company back in the day did produce a friction, bar mount QR release. Can remember who, but it's possible. To me, it just seems all this gas and oil is a bit over kill. I'm keeping an eye out for one of those hand grip strengthener squeezy things to fab my own Hite-Rite. They sure look like they were an inspiration for the original Hite-Rite.

 Ha! love it. I can just see a big spring like that on my $8k bike. :-)

 Where are you finding a reverb for $250? That's insanity.

 www.chainreactioncycles.com/us/en/rockshox-reverb-seatpost/rp-prod84856?gs=1&gclid=CL2qt5KcrsYCFReUfgodNDIMUA&gclsrc=aw.ds
Cheapest i can find and at cost they cost its like $240

 ...

www.pinkbike.com/buysell/list/?region=3&q=reverb&category=21&price=..250

 www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/rock-shox-reverb-stealth-125-connectamajig-seatpost-30%2C9-mmx-right-90725
the german sites are insane. check out the tire prices while you're at it. schwalbe and conti are 35$ for high end tires, all sizes.

 We're talking about a seatpost, a friggin' tube which just needs to be solid, why would you need something more expensive than €30 for a normal seatpost?!? So, considering the entry level Reverb dropper costs €260, I think that €230 is a HUGE price discrepancy. And even if you go for a ridiculous €80 for a Thompson, the discrepancy is more than 2/3, which is plenty.
Maybe to you a €160 discrepancy is peanuts (we all know that expensive/cheap is a relative thing), but this is clearly aimed at those who don't have a spare €160. Like me. I'd rather buy it right away for €80 for my xc bike and spend €160 on beer for a month.

 Or with a soft srping....
Like...
Idk
Its soft, and has a spring...its cheap, why nit do it ?

 exactly what I was thinking...

 Seriously...that groove would be so full of mud.

 Thats what I thought