OneUp Components Dropper Post: 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. 

The dropper post is pretty much a must have for current mountain bikes, what was once a luxury or only for DH and freeriders, is now common on bikes down to $2,000. With the simple press of a remote, you can drop the saddle out of the way and be free to ride downhill, and once the trail points up you can press the remote again and up goes your dropper set to your preferred pedaling height. There are a ton of companies that make these dropper posts, but one of our favorites and most popular is the OneUp Components Dropper, check out the cool features that Forrest explains in this review below.

Forrest's Review: 

As I built a new bike for my wife, I was having an incredibly hard time finding an all mountain frame that would fit her. The next challenge was finding a good dropper seat post for it. Some smaller full suspension frames can’t even take a dropper post. I wanted to get the most travel out of a dropper, but it was incredibly tricky finding one that would fit well. The OneUp Components dropper is very unique in that it offers the ability to shim the post and reduce travel as well as the lowest overall insertion length of any dropper post on the market. 

Installing the Dropper Post:

The v1 post comes in two lengths - 150mm and 170mm. With the shim, travel can be reduced by 50mm. I measured everything perfectly and contacted the frame manufacturer to verify the insertion length. It looked like I would have about 50mm to spare. I was wrong. Not only did I not have 50mm to spare, but I was off by another 20mm. There were two key factors that played into this. The first is that the insertion length of the OneUp dropper does NOT include the actuator which extends out the bottom of the post. That’s about another 25mm. The second issue is how sensitive the actuator is to the cable bending in the frame. It needs a very gentle curve, which is another 45mm.

The shim saved all this. The process of using the shim is easy. That said, the hardest part was finding it in stock. So if you order one of these posts, I suggest ordering the shim set at the same time. There are three shims in one package.

Other than the sensitivity of the actuator in relation to the curve of the cable, the installation was about the same as any other cable actuated dropper. There is now a v2 of this dropper, and the actuator is further into the post. By their specs, the v1 150mm had max insertion (with actuator) of 255mm. The v2 150mm max insertion (with actuator) is listed as 237mm. So it’s a little shorter, theoretically. However, the shim on the v2 can only reduce travel by 20mm.

Overall, it worked out well as I was able to set the dropper at 130mm travel and it works great. (For comparison, I’ve also used Rockshox Reverb, Fox Transfer, Crankbrothers Highline, PNW Components Bachelor, and PNW Components Pine droppers.)

On the Trail Impressions:

I paired this with a PNW Components Loam lever and it operates with ease. My wife has used quite a few droppers on demo bikes (eg Fox Transfer), and this setup works better than all of them. She now has quite a few rides on this and it continues to perform well. The OneUp post offers some great features like the ability to shim it down along with the lower insertion length and stack height makes this great for short riders or riders looking to get the most out of their dropper post-travel.