Dropper Post for XC Racing?

Well I'm not at the pointy end but here's my 2c.

I've just taken my dropper off so have a decent comparison of with and without. I've taken it off for a race - more for reliability than weight saving (it's a multi day event half way around the world so not risking a mechanical).

Droppers are absolutely brilliant. For me they make the technical sections of the dam/gahnia just so much easier to ride and just more comfortable. Riding the dam without it has been OK but the fun factor has definitely been reduced and I'm certainly slower over the technical bits.

However! The dam only has 3 places I use the dropper and I wouldn't be able to tell if the losses over the technical bits outweigh the gains due to reduced weight.

Also - for a dropper to be useful you need to know the course. You need to know when to drop it before the technical bit is coming. In a race if you don't know what's coming up it may be of limited value.

For me, I will never ride without one except in certain circumstances. They add massively to the enjoyment (and safety) of riding for me.

Finally - I believe droppers have been seen at the world cup level xco races.

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/xc-pits-world-champ...

on your original question Hawkeye but thought this recent review might be relevant. Date says 2015 but article is dated Feb 2016

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/dropper-post-test-r...

I ran a dropper post for the Wildside race this year (finished 15th so close to the sharp end). To me 200g of extra weight is not a big deal for the extra confidence on descents and more enjoyment when racing. It is a bit like the hard tail vs dually argument and depends on the terrain.

The combined weight of me, my bike and gear is 90+ kg so 200g represents a 0.22% weight increase. If an hour stage has 30 minutes of climbing, where power to weight matters, adding 0.22% is 4 seconds. I think in the 10 minutes of descending during the same hour stage I will make that time back.

I don't think you need to know the course either, I rode every stage of the Wildside blind. Often you can see a long decent coming up or there are caution signs proceeding the technical sections.

The Olympic XC Champion Jaroslav Kulhavy uses a droper for the more technical world cup races- http://www.bikeradar.com/au/mtb/news/article/spe...

Bought one to put in the Scalpel to ride Serrata, but picked up the Trigger shortly after as a share bike with my son/fun bike for me. (It already has one, and X-Fusion HiLo.) So I haven't fitted it yet, and my young bloke is giving me a hard time about it!

I won't stick it in for the Shimano GP round on Saturday as it's never a good idea to fit untried gear straight before an event, but I might give it a go later on.

One of the guys I know from Syd MTB who races WSMTB A grade has one on his Niner and he swears by it.

Yeah for sure(I am slow though).

I'm with this bloke-

http://youtu.be/ykfElfH5LvI

Firstly, if you are not at the pointy end of the field (which , with all due respect, you are not) then why does it matter what those guys ride?
They ride tyres that you wouldn't, the run gears that you couldn't, and have skills that you don't.

Dan Mac did and does ride one. 200grms really is no penalty. There are many others who run one too. The biggest issue faced by many racers is that their skinny XC bikes often have 27.2mm seatposts, so the choice of a good dropper is limited.
If you are a taller rider, then you will be higher from the ground, so the CoG is higher than someone riding a 17" frame. So - there is more sense to a taller rider running one than a smaller one.

Finally, the biggest consideration for me at least: "set your bike up to help where you struggle most". If you lose time on hillclimbs, then build a 7kg noodle. If you lose time on ST, then run fatter tyres and a slightly lower saddle. If you lose time on rock drops and technical features - then run a dropper post.

If 200grm is the only downside, and its already in your head - the itch wont be scratched until you have tried it.

There's xc, and then there's xc.

With the almost non-existant elevation in Perth, I don't think i'd bother for an xc race here. Even the double black trails here are more like intermediate xc for much of the world.

Anything with decent elevation it would be well worth it.
Having ridden a bit of DH around the place, it's always hilarious watching xc and cx riders go OTB on some pathetically easy sections. Skill or not, there's only so much you can do sitting so high up.

I recently went from a 100mm to a 150mm post, and the difference is substantial.

That's great to hear, I have never wanted to race XC but if more tracks sounded like that I'd be interested.

After Glenrock I'll be fitting my dropper post as soon as I get the XC bike back from service. Not having ridden there for ages and racing on a few of the trails without a seeing them before to work out lines thru sections like BJ's, a dropper post would have saved me a minute or two a lap.

Being able to run the saddle at roadie height would have helped on the climbs.

Have been playing with the Trigger in the meantime and getting used to using a dropper on that.

I'm slowly coming round

Not saying couldn't ride those bits with no dropper, just that I'm not so good at riding techy bits without stopping and taking a good look first. Once I've screwed something up I then need to unlearn that for next time which makes it harder.

A dropper post would have taken the anxiety out of tackling those bits the first time and helped avoid getting the wrong line stuck in my head.

I reckon I might also have been a bit faster down thru Easy Way Out from getting lower on the bike.

Go for it because I think we're going to see droppers specced on a wider range of bikes in the future - XC bikes included.

http://www.mtb-mag.com/en/bike-check-julien-absa...