Fox Shox Transfer Factory Dropper Post [Rider Review]

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The Fox Transfer Dropper Seatpost has been a shop favorite since its introduction several years ago and it's easy to see why. With its good looks and reliable performance, it's a no-brainer to have on any mountain bike. Florian has been riding his for some time now and has been loving it. Read on for more!

Overview

So a while ago I updated my stock 125mm dropper to a Fox Transfer 150mm dropper and I was pleasantly surprised about how reliable it was. My stock dropper had a slight wiggle to it when I was pedaling and the saddle would move slightly to the left and right. Not good. So this was all gone with the new Fox Transfer dropper post. Also, it looked great with the nice Kashima coating.

When I first saw that Fox released a new, longer dropper with a 175mm drop I wasn't really sure that I really needed that extra 25mm in dropper travel. I mean, seriously, it is "just" a 16% increase. That isn't really required, no? Until the other day my seat bumped me forward on a poorly executed drop and while I survived it, it made me realize that I seriously give the longer dropper a try.

On Trail Performance

Installing the 2019 Fox Transfer 175mm was a breeze because it uses the same mechanism as my old 2018 dropper. And while 25mm doesn't sound much, in practice it really seems like much more. As you can see from the photos the saddle is quite low over the frame now. Needless to say that the extra clearance makes riding quite a bit easier since you don't need to think about the saddle at all anymore. One side effect of the longer drop that I didn’t take into account easier is the following. Since most seat tubes are angled a bit backwards, a longer drop means that the saddle will move forward when it drops. Now it drops even 25mm more which, for my bike, means the saddle is not only 25mm lower, it is also about 5mm offset to the front. That makes it even easier to get behind it when riding downhill. Win-Win!

The new dropper also keeps the saddle centered, and even after a couple of months of use, no side-to-side wiggle developed. One slight issue might be that the dropper isn’t really self serviceable. But it seems like that basic care should be able to get you by without really sending it in to a Fox Service center.

I ride almost every day and logged more than 3000km and it still operates and feels like day one.

One improvement over the 2018 version is that the internal mechanism is tuned a bit and it operates more smoothly. The 2018 dropper occasionally hung when coming up, but the new 2019 dropper has yet to hang for me.

 Final Thoughts

Overall I am quite happy with the Fox dropper and I value the "install and forget" approach Fox allows be to pursue here. It is virtually maintenance free besides an occasional wipe down to keep the stanchion clean. Highly recommend!