big john

No I get it. Makes sense. Someday if I get a gravel bike I'll check it out.

tempocyclist

Probably not a lot of use for a dropper post on Zwift, although it might make getting on and off the trainer bike a little easier!

Eric F 

With the supertuck banned, I would not be surprised at all to see dropper posts start showing up on pro bikes...for about 3.6 seconds, until UCI bans those, too.


That didn't go quite as you imagined, did it? LMAO.

rsbob 

I see the most benefit for tall people on large frames. Have a dropper on my MTB and use it a lot. Would love to have one on my large frame road bike for fast windy descents. For people under 5’10’ probably not much benefit.

urbanknight

That was my first thought before I even opened the thread. Now that the tuck is banned, there's definitely an advantage to be had from have a saddle drop out of the way.

Darth Lefty 

The quick adjustment aspect is probably the limit for a conventional roadie, but even that would be nice. Just the saddle height a little, for different shoes or knee pain or seat pain that day. Or tilt or offset… You can imagine something related to that Specialized dropper from a few years ago that changed the seat angle too.

SapInMyBlood

Like this?

Kimmo 

Not what I was getting at with the UCI - their literally ret@rded stance on allowable designs rules out the best innovations in frame design, like Zipp's 2001, and a bike like that could be made to drop the seat without adding 400g to the top of the bike, more like 100g behind the head tube.

It's about time the UCI got with the damn times; it's not like a monocoque carbon frame of the most exotic shape imaginable is out of reach to the average punter anymore.

PeteHski

What? Are you trying to say 80s and 90s MTBs were more stable than current bikes when descending? I think not. A dropper post would have saved me quite a few trips over my bars back in those days! Unfortunately they didn't exist so you had to make use of a quick release post clamp or get behind the saddle, which was far from ideal. Being over 6ft tall with long legs made life hard work before dropper posts. Especially when MTBs still had road geometry with steep head angles and short wheelbases. Longer/lower/slacker couldn't come soon enough for me!

PeteHski

+1 and it's simply more comfortable with a lower saddle on long road descents. Just having the ability to fine tune saddle height would be quite useful on a long ride. I've read that some pro riders drop their saddle height by as much as 10 mm throughout the course of Grand Tours because of fatigue. Also think I read somewhere that Merckx used to adjust his saddle height during races. Having said that, I don't think I would get much benefit on my local riding loops. But I think it would be worth it for some of the events I do with a lot of serious climbing and descending on steep slopes, even with the weight penalty.

Zaskar

I don't think pros will do it - they're not looking for comfort on descents and they get plenty aero.

I'll admit there are times when it'd be nice to drop the saddle - not for aero, or handling on descents... but to sit up and stretch a bit. I'm only 6'1" but have really long legs. I'm "supposed to" ride a 61cm to accommodate my legs/inseam. But I went down to a 58 with more stem and seat post. The bike is super comfortable 95% of the time. But on those 60+ mile rides... I'll occasionally sit on the top tube just to sit up straight for a few seconds.

WhyFi

If they have to ballast their bikes to meet weight anyway, why not?

Zaskar

I agree the weight wouldn't be an issue. I just wonder if the dropper would be useful enough. It would (initially) come with some clutter - the bar-mounted lever and cable. Mtn bikes have the cable routed inside the down tube and up into the seat tube. This would be tough to retrofit on a carbon road bike frame. Clearly, for the top pros, it can be accomplished. I just wonder if the guys will want it that badly.

Darth Lefty 

I see what they are trying but feel like the steps are too big. +-10 deg is a LOT

Also I did not know BF would embed Instagram posts

mattcalifornia

Point taken. I guess I just got used to it. Nonetheless, I'm keeping my dropper off my gravel bike (at least for now)

big john

Wireless droppers are available.

Zaskar

A wireless dropper... damn.

Bearhawker

I ride a fatbike as my road bike, since my roadbike got clobbered in a dog incident.

The fatbike has a dropper post and it is a game changer for riding down hills on the highway. It's what got me to 70km/h on the Cabot Trail.

tempocyclist

Imagine adding yet another battery to your road bike. Say you've got SRAM eTap (four batteries), pedal powermeter (two batteries), cycling computer, and now dropper. Seven batteries!

Pretty cool bit of tech though.

big john

Pretty sure the wireless post has 2 batteries which makes 9!

Kimmo 

Because the weight is so high, maybe.

Isn't it about time people started losing patience with the UCI keeping bikes in the 20th century? How much weight do you think a dropper on a beam bike would cost?

Darth Lefty 

Gravel bikes have that sorted already, nearly the same fashion the MTB did. The right shifter goes to the 1x rear, the left lever goes to the dropper, and the cable gets routed where the FD cable used to go. Shimano ST-RX810-LA for example. SRAM has the same thing.

When MTB droppers were gaining popularity a few years ago there were still some frames that had ports for both FD and dropper but they are pretty rare now. The early dropper levers were odd low profile things but they are all now the same shape as the cable pull lever on a shifter.

There was a KS Lev post that had a lever underneath the seat and no cable, that seems more like what you'd want on a 2x road bike if you were only going to use it for little fit changes.

Dean V

I do not think many or any of the modern disc braked aero road bikes the pro's use are under the 6.8kg limit.
Also they all have an aero profile seat post which would add another complexity to a dropper post design.

big john

I think they could make a road dropper that was only 150 grams heavier than a standard post, maybe less.

rsbob 

Have an aero post on mine or else I would go for it. My center of gravity is uncomfortably high for fast twisty descents without one, so I need to back off.