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The telescopic seat post has revolutionised the mountain bike. Before 2012, you had to lower the saddle by hand for more freedom of movement on the descent. Today, all you have to do is press your thumb on the handlebars and the saddle sinks towards the top tube under the pressure of your own body weight. The price of comfort, however, is an additional cable that runs from the handlebars through the frame to the lower end of the seatpost. Although this is clean, depending on the bike model it is so tight in the frame that the bottom bracket has to be removed to fit the seatpost. Because press-fit bearings are often damaged during removal, installing a dropper post can quickly become significantly more expensive than planned. Frames with threaded BSA bearings have a clear advantage here.
Installing the radio-controlled Reverb AXS seatpost from Rockshox is even easier: Insert the seatpost. Connect the controller. Get started. All without laying cables. Only the battery should be charged before the tour.
Most dropper posts are closed units with a tube-tube design - i.e. a seat tube and a down tube. But wouldn't it be clever to use the seat tube itself as the outer shell of the dropper post? The Eightpins post utilises precisely this idea (photo at the top). Not only does the manufacturer save around 30 per cent weight compared to conventional telescopic seatposts, the bike also looks tidier. Apart from a slightly wider "clamp", only the standpipe is visible, which disappears completely into the frame at the touch of a button. Depending on the model, this enables a maximum stroke of 258 millimetres. To adjust the seat post to the rider's height, Eightpins has developed a smart system that allows the saddle to be adjusted to the leg length in 6 millimetre increments. To ensure smooth operation, the integrated seat post should be serviced regularly. Eightpins provides a service kit and spare parts for this purpose.
The disadvantage: If something breaks, you are dependent on the manufacturer's spare parts supply. Simply fitting an alternative dropper post does not work here. Retrofitting an eight-pin post to a standard bike is also not possible without further ado and is only possible with the use of a special reduction sleeve. This is because the installation actually requires a specially designed frame. The seat tube must have an unusually large diameter of 35 millimetres and a mount for the thru axle to attach the seat post at the lower end. There are currently only a few models from Liteville, Ghost, Bulls and Rotwild that fulfil these requirements.
The costs
The installation of the Eightpins seatpost alone is more time-consuming and more expensive than that of a standard telescopic seatpost. Eightpins 90 euros, standard model 45 euros
