Dropper posts... am I missing something?
All the blogs/reviews are gaga for dropper posts. "Most game changing piece of bike equipment," they say. Having ridden them a bit and tried more than my share, I have to say I don't quite get the hype. In some very rolling terrain, it might be very nice. However, isn't the "enduro" way to climb/shuttle a fire road, then bomb the downhill? In these types of trails I was just as happy lowering my seat with the QR and setting it a few inches down. Then you can set it back for the uphill. If you have a good seat qr and mark your post it takes 5 sec max.
Now admittedly I haven't tried every model out there, but I've used a few dropper posts in my time, back from the original (horrible) crank bros ones to some modern models. They're all fairly heavy and consistently the least reliable piece of equipment on the bike. Am I the only one who feels this way about them?
Dropper posts... am I missing something?
If you can get away without one, all the better. As you said, it's lighter not to run one and there is one less moving part to break.
For me, where I ride, it adds significant flow to my experience and having one is worth the (minor) drawbacks of added weight, more bar clutter and potential reliability issues (which I have had none after a year and a half on a Reverb and 6 months on a KS ETen).
Any equipment decision is a compromise in one way or another.