Do Dropper Posts Belong on Gravel Bikes?

I’ve received a few questions of late regarding dropper posts and gravel bikes. Like, do they belong? Why aren’t they more common? What do I need to know before purchasing and installing one. Finally, what are the downsides?

Okay, let’s get the easy one out of the way: Do dropper posts belong on gravel bikes? Maybe. That’s probably not the easiest answer, but really, it’s not all that complicated. It comes down to this: Are you descending steep hills? For anyone who is a mountain biker who has been down something and wished they had a dropper, well, you’ve got your answer. In most of the country, people are unlikely to encounter anything steep enough to make one all that necessary. Here in Coastal California, they are super-handy. 

Okay, why aren’t they more common? Well, they drive up the price of a given bike, so there’s that. Plus, for most frames, they would require a slight change in frame design to give the dropper post housing a place to exit the frame near the head tube. So adding one isn’t like adding a seat bag. 

Also, most gravel bikes feature a seat tube with an inner diameter of 27.2mm while the great majority of dropper posts have a bigger diameter, like 30.6mm. So there just weren’t lots of them available and consumers weren’t crying out for them. 

There’s also been a remarkable struggle to figure out the best design and location for the lever. I’ve encountered a few that placed the lever on the bar top and that’s just no bueno. What I found is that I’d begin a descent in the drops and not immediately drop the saddle because I was still pedaling. Then the descent would get steeper and I’d want to drop the saddle but by then taking my hand out of the drop was also lacking in bueno. 

Shimano, Crank Bothers and at least one other company have come up with a design that can be clamped just below the control lever body and it has a long lever that can be pulled up while in the hoods as well as a trigger that can be depressed with the thumb while in the drops. 

Now here’s the real issue someone might want to consider before adding one, and no it’s not the weight, though a dropper post with cable and lever may weigh or four times what a lightweight seatpost may weigh. 

It’s the way your arms are turned. On a mountain bike, your hands are wide apart and your arms are oriented in a way that allows you to support your upper body weight effectively. When your hands are in the drops, you just aren’t able to support your weight in the same way. 

What I found when I did a big point-to-point ride up in the mountains in Mendocino County was that I ended up using my legs to support my weight to a much greater degree than I do when on a mountain bike ride. Nothing wrong with that, but it did increase my fatigue on what was already a very long and hard day. The next day I was toast and I had been planning to ride back to my start and my legs were sore more from my dropper post use than from the riding. So, it will come with some new fatigue. That’s no reason not to do it, but you’ve been warned. I suggest starting with some shorter rides to start building a different kind of strength. 

Here’s the most surprising thing I discovered about having a dropper post on my gravel bike: In a long day of riding I found that I didn’t reserve it for the steepest descents. I quickly learned that I liked using it any time I was moving fast enough I to stop pedaling. A low center of gravity always feels good.