KS LEV CI Dropper Seatpost: Rider Review

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for.

Quickly becoming a must-have on any mountain bike, a dropper post, for the most part, are a necessity. Not only are dropper posts convenient but they can also save you from getting hung up on your saddle and crashing. Our friend Brian shares his view on his KS LEV CI dropper post. Check it out!

Overview

I was a bit skeptical about even trying a dropper post at all. Most of the riding I do is purely XC riding and so I didn’t really myself in need of one. However, my new XC bike came with a dropper post included and once I started using it there was no going back. I decided I needed to put one on my fat bike as well. I use my fat bike year-round and it is usually my scout bike on new trails. Having the dropper post really changes the way you ride trails and will give you MUCH greater confidence when going over technical terrain, steep descents, jumps, etc…

I chose the KS LEV CI dropper post for a few reasons: One is that it is what came on my XC bike and so I already had positive personal experience with it. Second is that I am a weight weeny and this post is as about as light as you can get with a dropper. The third is that it comes with a lever. Yeah, that is not the greatest reason, but when you factor in the $60+ for a lever that you will need to buy with a FOX Transfer, it’s really in the same realm price-wise.

Installing the KS post was straight forward. Be sure you keep the protective plastic cap that comes with the post! It has the cable length guide for cutting the cable at the proper length past the housing. This has to be somewhat precise and the included cap/guide works perfectly. If you are doing internal cable routing, I would suggest purchasing a lifetime investment by way of the Park Tools internal cable routing tool. It makes routing internal cables super easy (dare I say fun). Using carbon assembly gel is a must, in my case it was carbon (post) into carbon (frame), so no brainer there. Lastly, be sure to properly torque the seat post clamp! I know everyone knows not to over-tighten things and some people (okay, most people) take a pretty cavalier attitude to tighten up bolts on their bikes. You are clamping down a $400+ seat post, Don’t F' it up trying to guess whether or not you are at 5Nm.

Final Thoughts

Thus far I have used this post on two separate bikes for roughly 600 miles or so combined. I have no complaints, it drops and returns super smooth with a very nice damped feeling. It doesn’t feel cheap/springy. There is almost ZERO noticeable “play” between the inner and outer post – you feel absolutely no relative movement when riding at all. If there is any critique to be had it is maybe that the drop lever is a little Spartan. However, you will need this lever design if you are running a left-hand shifter. So in some cases, it is actually a handy design. On my XC bike, the left thumb is driving the suspension lock-out, so the included lever works perfectly. If you have nothing on the left side of the bar and will constantly be using the dropper post, then yeah, you might want to upgrade to something a bit beefier. But at least you have something to get you going right out of the box. So yeah, it's not cheap. But considering what you get and how it operates, I would argue it is actually a very good value.