Pages

Tuesday, November 19

It wasn't all over

Waking up at 10:52AM on Saturday kinda killed the day.  I was going to take Mike Pierce on a local ride, but the drizzle we "rode" home in the "night" before woulda made the trails a mess... I think.  I didn't need to ride my bike anyways.  Plans to go to Pisgah on Sunday with Bill Nye TSG.  I was as productive as could be, rented a movie to watch alone, wasted a half hour trying to get it to play on the on-its-last-legs DVD player, lost another twenty minutes trying to get it to play on the home computer, and then finally sat in The Pie's office watching what ended up being a cinematic turd.


Dang. Just watched that and now I want to see it again.

Anyways, bags packed and ready to ride the Dickstickel Meatplow V.6 all Enduro™'ed out.  Only a 10% chance of rain when we get there... barely breaking the 30-40% by the end of the day.

Which means that by the time Colin and Tom Tom showed up at the hatchery at 10:43AM, it was raining.  Wet all day.  Bill Nye flatted twice and no feat of scientific ingenuity could save him.  It was more of a lack of will to borrow another tube and make us stand around in the rain while he fiddled with my almost useless mini-pump.  He headed back to the car, mini-pump in hand, and missed out on the slide-a-ride down Butter Gap, Long Branch, and Cat Gap.  Cold, semi-epic'esque day in the saddle followed by beers at The Pisgah Tavern and the Special Dinner at El Chapala.

So yeah, first ride on the new drooper.  What did I think?

I would have loved to stick with a Thomson drooper.  I really liked my 31.6 post and had the 27.2 version been available, I woulda been all over it.  I didn't want to hold up the Enduro™ing of this bike though, so concessions had to be made.

KS Lev.  That's what I got.  What do I like about it?

First and foremost, it came in 27.2.

Secondly, the cable mounts to the lower part of the post which means less bad rubbie things on the frame.

That's nice.  The actuation lever is also comfortable and ergonomically a win... although it was squeaky when I installed it.  Nothing that couldn't be fixed with Luber Pen

100mm of droop... just enough to get the saddle out of the way so I can get way back and let the 140mm Fjox fjork do its job.

With so much to like, why does it still get my Seal of Semi-Approval?

A few things.  The installation manual (and video) are not completely updated to reflect the design of the post and in some instances a couple other procedural things.  Woulda been nice and a little reassuring.  Nothing like wasting ten minutes looking for a tiny screw that doesn't exist.

Trimming the cable to exactly 22mm past the housing?  Measure seventeen times, cut once.

I could complain about how expensive it is, but droopers are all in the "It costs how much?" zone.  Get over it or just buy a quick release seat clamp and get dropped while others droop.

And then there's this:

Wiggle.  Out of the box wiggle.  My Thomson drooper spoiled me.   It never developed any play and was just awesome like that.  This makes me sad, and I can only hope that it doesn't get worse over time.  Do I notice it while riding?  Not so much, but knowing it's there...

mind sucking.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm still dumbfounded by your Friday night cinematic adventures...

Anonymous said...

Your fault for not renting Premium Rush....

JustinT said...

Can you post some sort of follow up to the KS Lev review? Give it 3 or 4 months..

Building my own Enduro 29er hardtail and it needs a fancy seatpost.

dicky said...

Can do... possibly more thorough than my Pacific Rim review.

BTW: The Thomson was stellar. Hated to let it go, but four single speed mountain bikes was/is one too many.

Riding with dogs said...

I'm surprised to see that much play in the seatpost, all the reviews I've seen said no play whatsoever. I've got 2 friends who own them, no play. Might want to send that one back. The cable attaching at the bottom of the post is the only thing I like about the Lev over my Thompson.

Rob said...

So what is the estimated ETA of the 27.2mm Thomson drooper post?

dicky said...

They are saying spring 2014... I believe.

Anonymous said...

I have the KS Lev 30.9mm with 100mm travel for about a year now and I have no play. I watched your video and that seems like way too much play, I think something has to be installed wrong or that post has a defect. I would check the saddle head clamp bolts are tightened, and did the top cap detents align with the detent bearings, I could see that causing play. Also trimming the cable past the housing was not that bad, there seems to be some play if your not exact. I did have the same problem of not receiving the set screw in the locking cable end, but they sent me one pretty quick and now I have 2 extra. Oh ACE hardware did not have same size as the set screw they use. Anyways mine has been working great and everything I read in the reviews was consistent with what I have experienced.

dicky said...

Nope. The play is in the shaft. Looks like I need to contact KS.

Bummer. Didn't want to give up the post so soon for a warranty issue.

Anonymous said...

Ugh, too bad it was not something simple. Yeah kinda crappy you have to send it in with barely using it. Hopefully this is not an issue with their 27.2mm line. Well Good luck, the service guy was friendly when I called to try and get the set screw.