PNW makes elements up in effectively, the Pacific Northwest, primarily for mountain and journey bikes. They solely make a handful of elements: stems, a brand new line of handlebars, and their bread and butter—dropper posts and dropper submit levers. Full disclosure, a 12 months or so in the past I purchased their externally routed Rainier mannequin for my outdated bikepacking rig with a 27.2mm seatpost. It labored positive, felt stable, and seemed terrific. Had no points in any way with the dropper, a finicky half to make sure. Then I (stupidly) offered that bike. I’m positive the submit is easily dropping and elevating for the brand new proprietor this very second. The purpose is PNW is aware of easy methods to make a dropper.
And now they’ve waded into the world of suspension posts with their “Coast” mannequin. It’s a suspension dropper submit at that.
The Coast is the primary air-sprung suspension dropper submit to hit the market. At the least, in response to PNW. And Bikepacking.com. An organization referred to as Redshift crowdfunded their manner into manufacturing of their ShockDrop final 12 months, a dropper with a pivot/bearing setup that can permit 35mm of suspension journey, however which a strange-looking bend within the seatpost.
Prior to now, there have been loads of goofy-looking suspension seatposts, none of which ever appear to essentially catch fireplace, however dropper posts are clearly right here to remain. And your writer has ridden a number of dropper posts that had by accident develop into suspension posts, as they sagged for no apparent purpose. However that doesn’t precisely depend.
Picture: PNW
PNW’s air mannequin appears like a regular dropper submit—you’d by no means realize it was constructed with suspension simply by it. Comes geared up for inner or exterior cable routing. The Coast suits gravel or highway bikes with a 27.2mm seatpost, or beefier grime rigs with a 30.9 or 31.6mm seatpost. No matter seatpost dimension, you get 40mm of suspension journey and both 100 or 120mm of dropper journey.
This most likely isn’t the submit for mountain bikes that have already got loads of squish. In truth, PNW says they made it for bikes loaded down with numerous gear that may have numerous awkward begins and stops. Much less so, the get it down and out of the best way wants when hightailing it down bouncy singletrack. It’s straightforward to think about a submit like this including sufficient bounce to function a poor man’s rear suspension setup on a hardtail. A lot lighter setup, that’s for positive.
Now then, we haven’t truly had the prospect to check experience one in every of these puppies, we had been simply intrigued by the providing. Suspension seatposts generally is a bit wonky, and the merger of a dropper and suspension, effectively that’s sorta obtained our knees confused simply occupied with it. So we requested a number of of our journey biking professional buddies for his or her takes on the thought.
“Although I haven’t ridden one, in idea, it sounds prefer it’d assist take the sting off the tough stuff when bikepacking or grime touring,” mentioned one. “Although I’m unsure I’d discover a want for it on my go-fast gravel racer resulting from weight and the variable seat top scenario.” This rider was involved that a dropper plunging and climbing would always change leg size, placing stress on the knees, too.
Picture: PNW
“I’ve spent lots of time poring over dropper design and sturdiness,” mentioned one other rider. “Probably gimmicky however I believe it’s price attempting. Something comfort-oriented might probably assist some people discover extra enjoyment in using. I might undoubtedly see hardtail riders being . In truth, I used to be telling a pal about this yesterday on a experience, and regardless of being a retro-grouch, he mentioned he hoped somebody would come out with a dropper with a little bit of suspension for his hardtail. In order that’s one purchaser proper there.”
Lastly, the least wordy of our consultants, had this two say: “Personally saving my pennies for 2 of ’em. That’s lengthy been the grail for multi-day journeys, IMO.”
We hope to get the prospect to strive one out ourselves within the coming weeks. Hopefully on a beautiful multi-day experience with simply sufficient tough stuff to present these 40mms a very good exercise. If you wish to strive one your self, they run $200 for the 27.2mm choice and $179 for the bigger diameters.
