KS LEV 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. 

Adding a dropper post to your bike can seriously improve your bike's capability and your confidence while riding as well. KS makes a huge variety of dropper seatposts, and their LEV dropper is tried and true. Our friend Kris installed one on his Salsa and couldn't be happier. Read on for more!

Overview

I have a Salsa El Mariachi Ti that I have been riding for the last few years on my local trails and some gravel grinder type races, since I have switched to more trail riding the inconvenience of getting off the bike to readjust the seat post height just got old, especially after having the convenience of a dropper on my FS bike for years now. I was always reluctant to switch due to the weight and the fact that I had spent so darn much on a custom Kent Ericksen Ti post. That post worked great when I was on gravel and was insanely light and durable, but switching back to trail riding it just made sense.

I did quite a bit of research on dropper posts, I liked the Thompson post, the new Fox Transfer seemed really nice as well. Having run an LEV internally routed dropper on my FS bike it was kind of a no-brainer for the price to go with the LEV Externally routed. Now when I go on a bike packing trip or need to shed the weight I can clip the zip ties and pull off the lever and post pretty quickly. I paired this dropper with a Wolf Tooth Components lever and couldn't be happier, again, it's the same lever as my FS bike and has stood up to many trips to Moab, Steamboat Springs, Crested Butte, Grand Targhee, and Southern Utah. Arguably some of the toughest terrain for testing and abusing bikes.

Some of the things about it that I really like is the durability, I have never an actual issue with my first post, even being a fairly heavy rider at ~220, and the fact that it's user-serviceable. I did run into an issue where I came down on the seat pretty heavily off a drop and it developed a bit of play but that was easily fixed by replacing the bushing collar at the top end of the hydraulic portion. I have installed probably 8-10 different droppers in my little shop for people over the last couple of years and while all posts have gotten dramatically better over the years, this one started off as one of the better ones.

It still remains one of the smoothest and most reliable I have encountered.

One final note, I was pleased to find out how easy it was to change the routing of the cable into the dropper from the side (which was interfering with my seat tube clamp) to the rear where it was safely out of the way and protected.

Final Thoughts

This post kind of falls in the mid-range of dropper post price points, but I would say it definitely falls in the upper of the midrange. I would obviously buy it again since I did.