Is this the next thing for road bikes?
 

Oh god. I can see it coming now.

Dropper seatpost vs. normal seatpost on a... ROAD BIKE.

Let the arguing begin!


(Cliffnotes: Dropper was 10 seconds faster over a 4 km descent, however it's 300g heaver, not that it matters for the pros, where they add weight to the bike to get it to the lower limit anyway...)

I'd take a dropper just for use in normal life. Oh, to be able to stay seated while waiting for a stop light. Descending faster with more stability would just be a bonus.

The dealbreaker here being that a nice one, like a Thomson, is about $400. I guess my laziness does have a price.

Don't think those will make it big in Florida. You would already be at the bottom of our hills in the 10 seconds you save. :)

Dropper seats are popular for Mtb riding, so that on steep descends, you can get your butt further back to help maintain a central balance and not get nose tippy.
I don't see it transferring over to road cycling at all. Any possible downhill gains (minimal at best) would be offset by the additional weight, even if ever so slight.

Dropper posts for road use mean nothing now that Chris Froome has popularised his method of descending... because it literally nabbed him the yellow jersey in the TdF.

Actually, Specialized did sell some Diverge models with this a few years back, so it's been done already... Unless you don't consider the Diverge as a pure road bike :)

Geoff

meh...no thanks. Unless it was standard on every model, I'd seek out the model that didn't come with it. And if they all came with it, I wouldn't use it anyway.

I'm gonna try to nullify my life
'Cause when the blood begins to flow
When it shoots up the dropper's neck
When I'm closing in on death
And you can't help me now, you guys
And all you sweet girls with all your sweet talk
You can all go take a walk
And I guess that I just don't know
And I guess that I just don't know

After seeing Froome's TDF ride, I could definitely see droppers making their way to road bikes.

On a side note a personal prediction of mine has been that suspension forks for road bikes will eventually appear as well. As manufacturers look for new ideas to force new road bike sales, I think they'll turn more and more to mtbs for inspiration. I could totally see smaller, lighter, less travel suspension forks appearing with the argument that they keep road bikes from jostling around as much on rough pavement, allowing for a faster, steadier ride.

My butt hurt just watching him do that and my nerves were tense as I wondered if he could hold on should he hit a bump and get a wobble or something like that....

It was a calculated gutsy move that worked for him, but could have just as easily cost him the yellow if something went wrong. He knew what he was doing and it worked for him. I don't think I am ready to give it a try at those (or any) speeds.

But they already have to add weight to the pros bikes to get them up to minimum weight, why not use a dropper instead?

I love my dropper on my mountain bike. I've never felt a need for one on the road where I live.

For those of you who don't know, you can buy aero ones or "internally routed" cabling ones, so the aesthetics aren't an issue.

And yes, they're expensive, even though they're just a glorified suspension seatpost with a lockout...

Do they move up and down when you hit a bump?
I thought they were just adjustable for seat height?
The cables are ugly but I'll take ugly w function any day

If you hold the release, then yes, they'd act just like a suspension seatpost. A crappy one though because it's not made to support weight when the release is held. So I guess it'd act like a BLOWN suspension seatpost. :)

Yes, they're supposed to move then stop wherever you want. Then you sit on it. Hence a "glorified suspension seatpost with a lockout." :)

Most of the super nice ones have internal routing so no cables.

At first I didn't know what this has to do with the thread, but by the end of line two my brain lit up and I recognized these lyrics. I can't remember phone numbers or the names of people I just met, but a song I heard on a portable phonograph player in my cousin's apartment in Chicago in 1978...that, that's what my brain hangs on to? And now I get it..."dropper". Thanks for the "velvetty" flashback, that was extremely cool.

Didn't they have those on Paris-Roubaix bikes for a while, and they died out from lack of interest?

Dropper posts might catch on because Chris Froome demonstrated how much faster getting really low can be. There may be riders who might like to get most of those gains without risking their testicles.

Ben

You guys are all aware that riders have been descending on the top tube for years now, right?

In fact, I can find discussions about this on message boards dating back to early 2009.

Yes, but the pedalling at high speed added a new dimension to it, in my opinion. It wasn't just a case of sitting on the top tube and letting the bike roll as most riders do. And certainly, I don't recall a Grand Tour winner doing it... Nibali, Quintana, Evans et al.

True, true. I swear I've seen Peter do it in the past, at least the top tube, but I'm sure I've seen him pedal before - could all be in my head tho.

Did Froome actually benefit from pedaling in that position? It looked terribly awkward and inefficient.

The funny thing about this is Froome riding in any position on the bike looks terribly awkward.

Haha, even his running is awkward.

Touché.

Oh yes, he definitely did. He had a bigger chainring fitted to the bike for that particular stage, and even though the attack was a spur-of-the-moment thing, it was obvious he had rehearsed the technique in training, and this was stated as so. He left his main opposition, chiefly Quintana, floundering. Nevertheless, as I recall, he was some kilometres an hour faster on that descent that all the other drafting riders.

And SpeshulEd is spot-on. Gangly comes to mind.

This isn't the first time a lone cyclist in a Grand Tour has outpaced a group on a descent, whether first up the climb or gapped off the back. It seems fairly common even for the lone descending cyclist to be faster given that they have more of the road to use and can pick better lines through the corners. Perhaps the aero penalty of pedaling while sitting on the top tube isn't that bad due the air speeds being lower near the road and feet not being all that wide to begin with, and perhaps Froome isn't a good enough descender to make those sorts of gains on a chasing group without pumping out some massive watts.

Quintana was left floundering because he took so long to react in my opinion, though Froome can also take a big chunk of credit for a very well planned attack.

Well, the point was that according to interviews with Froome afterwards, it wasn't planned. The style of descending was as evidenced by Froome's comments about the extra teeth on his big chainring, but the strategic location and timing wasn't. The group that Froome left at the top of the mountain wasn't very large.

Yes, it isn't unusual for a lone cyclist to outpace a group, but that has as much to do with the talent of the riders involved, and in this case, it was Froome getting into the best aero position and adding to that with pedalling (when needed to exit corners or when the incline flattened slightly).