PNW Bachelor Dropper Post Rider Review

Introduction

Grant Loomis from the Gem State (Idaho). I have done most of my riding in the McCall, Idaho, and Pocatello, Idaho areas and a few fun days at City of Rocks National reserve (excellent rock-climbing area). I am a beginner/novice to mountain biking and most of my time is on trails, nothing extreme. Since I am a full-time resident of Idaho and currently in the winter months, I don’t get many outside rides in, most rides are on the indoor trainer. But after purchasing the PNW Bachelor 170mm dropper I wanted to try out and see how well it would operate right out of the box in the freezing temperatures. At first, I thought I needed to play it safe with a 150mm drop since I knew it would fit but I wanted to go big or go home. I measured all my specifications to see if I could fit a 170mm drop instead of 150mm and based on my educated guess it seemed to be a good fit.

Installation

After installation, which for me was quite simple as I have some basic mechanic skills, the main hurdle was the routing of the cable internally since my bike didn’t have a dropper on it before and this posed some challenges. I used the string and vacuum method and after some time ~30min or so (patience is key) I was successful. PNW is wise to save the money on paper instructions as I turned to the online owner’s manual which was very helpful and other supplemental videos. Completion of the install checked off as I attached the seat and I mounted the bike at the top height of the dropper. A feeling of success and panic occurred. Success because I finally had a dropper on my Rocky Mountain 730 Thunderbolt 2014 (XL frame), and panic, because I had missed calculated my measurements as my seat height was about 5mm too tall at maximum insertion into the seat tube. As I played around with the dropper up and down a few cycles and sat on the seat I realized that I like the distance of drop and that the Bachelor allows you to stop at any point so stopping it a touch shy of the total 170mm it is perfect but I can see how it will be annoying on the trail as it is a touch tall for me, not in the fact that I can’t reach the pedals but that I have to stretch a touch just outside of the comfort range.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the 3 rides I have done less than 15 miles in below freezing temperature the PNW Bachelor has operated perfectly out of the box without adjusting the psi in the dropper. I had expected a slow return or no return from the effect of the temperature but so far it seems to not be affected. The operation has been as good as RockShox's Reverb (the only other dropper I have used) in just a basic search it looks like the PNW Bachelor is $100-200 less than the Reverb, which was an important selling point to me as I am looking for the best parts at the lowest price as biking is a hobby of mine, not a full-time job, even though that would be awesome.

I would recommend the PNW Bachelor 170mm Dropper to any of my friends if they were looking to get a new dropper. The only complaint I have is the lever that comes with it isn’t too appealing, but it has been functional so far. But PNW has the Loam Lever if it becomes too large of an issue which one could upgrade to.