Whether it can be repaired or warrantied.. I still need an adjustable seatpost for now. Dragging out my "open grave" groundsheet of too lazy to keep away parts... its time to resurrect the Gravity Dorkper.. errm I mean Dropper.
It somehow wasn't working well after last pulling it apart to service.. OK stupid me.. found the reason today... collar was on too tight and a bit too much grease... making the magnetic pin just stick a little too much.
Been bone dry the last 2 weeks as rainy monsoon season seems to be finally over. I could never get over the look of the boot protection on the GD. Many people have simply removed it and rode without problem elsewhere. But here with half the year mired in mud.. I just didn't think it can last long enough between scheduled full servicing of the post.
Guess what I needed is a quick release guard while out on muddy trail rides...
So... its time for another simple Reduce Reuse and Recycle DIY...
1 side- Old fork boot (fark I think those belong to the Jurassic era of my mtb days)
1 Piece of plastic saddle rail retainer from a saddle's packaging (who would have kept such things!)
1 cable tie (indispensible.. even our world class transportation, SMRT swears by them)
1 velcro (optional)
Now that certainly up the dork factor over the original accordion ugliness by a factor of 10. Thing is it can be removed in 1 sec without the optional piece of velcro as a secondary securing over the GD collar.
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In retrospect, after the LEV busted, I'm more or less convinced that when it comes to 27.2mm droppers... those infinite travel hydraulic-pneumatic ones have too many constraints limiting their usefulness. Most manufacturer that came out with this size (and not many) limit the travel to 100mm while their other models can can another 25-50mm more. And this size was also seen as the one that was promised and then pulled off the shelf. Some like the LEV eventually made it.. some simply disappeared from the news altogether. One of the reason is to cram all those parts in leaves very little room for the air chamber pressure. Reducing the size of the piston/ stanchion will add back the necessary volume for the air chamber, hence most are max out at a shorter travel of 100mm.
Even with all that compensation, the 27.2mm model are somewhat different from the rest of the lineup. In the case of the LEV-- there is no external air adjust valve like its 30.9 and 31.6 counterparts.
One common problem that 27.2 non mechanical post suffer or what many have feedback is a rather sluggish return. I believe this stems again from the volume of the air chamber. While reducing the travel has allow for sufficient volume but it probably doesn't gel well with being pumped to higher pressure, risking having all the parts blowing all over. Well mine still did and yes it was a lot more sluggish with no means of adjusting compared to the 30.9 I have on another bike or compared to my DSP Big Horn and previous KS i950. Anyway will open up the busted post to take a look at the innards later on and see if my deduction so far is correct.
Back to mechanical... search the latest and some more obscure ones.. well, there is this one called ICE Lift V8. First off it uses a modified version of adj dropper remotes that is my fav... except much like GD, the knobbed end of the shifter cable reside in the post leaving the other end needing some kind of setscrew thing-a-ling to do the job.
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| pic from http://wideopenmag.co.uk/news/17106/first-look-ice-lift-v8-mechanical-dropper |
Like the fact that it has 3 position which my aging GD doesn't. Price is really good too. Cheaper than most...
Not likely that I will swipe the plastic again since the GD is working-- but certainly I would want to hunt down one of those remote or at least DIY again since I have a spare one from Xfusion Hi-Lo that just need to see how to cram a set screw in...
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