Bike Yoke Revive 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. 

There are so many dropper posts on the market, and it can get hard to pick which one to go with. If long term is your game, add Bike Yoke Revive to your radar. Our friend, Kurtis, has been running the Bike Yoke, see what they think! 

Overview

The BikeYoke Revive 185mm = a near perfect seatpost. I know this sounds like hype, so I’ll start with my background.

I was a late adopter to dropper posts. When they first came out, people on the forums raved about them one week and then would be complaining about problems the next week. Reliability is something I value, so I held off until the basic issues were worked out. Once I finally did get a dropper, I became addicted to it. I’m pretty sure I adjust my saddle height more than I shift. Over the last few years I’ve owned nearly every brand and most are good, but they usually have their quirks that keep them from being perfect.

Until the Revive I would have said that the Fox Transfer is the best in the market. I own three Transfers and the only downside to them is that the longest post is 150mm and that you have to send them in to Fox about every two years for service (total service cost is about $100). Regarding the service, it’s not a huge negative but ideally, I would like to be able to service the post myself without needing any proprietary tools. This is how the BikeYoke Revive initially caught my attention. It can be rebuilt with fairly basic tools.

The second thing that intrigued me was the Revive’s 185mm of travel. I’m a believer in having as much post travel as possible. Bikes are becoming more versatile and having the ability to adjust the saddle height even further helps the rider.

After some research and internal dialogue about spending more money, I decided to go for it and ordered it from Worldwide Cyclery. I was a bit nervous about whether or not it would fit in the frame. My measurements told me I could go up another 35mm (150 to 185) but the post collar was going to be close to the seatpost clamp. I knew I could slam the Transfer to the collar and it would fit. The Revive’s lower section was compact for a “185mm”. When it first arrived, I was very happy to see that it was only a little bit longer than the Transfer 150mm, see picture for comparison.

Install was extremely easy and similar to every other cable actuated dropper. I did opt to continue using my Wolf Tooth Light Action Remote, instead of the included BikeYoke lever. The mount for the included lever requires that the grip be removed, so this would have been a bit of a negative for me since I use glued push-on grips. The quality of the Revive is top-notch. Lever action is extremely light, lighter than KS, while having near the nut crushing speed of the Fox Transfer. The force to push the post down is also relatively light. Side-to-side wiggle that is present in pretty much every dropper is only slightly noticeable when applying force by hand and never noticeable when riding.

At this point the post has a few hundred miles on it with conditions ranging from dust to extreme gritty mud & rain. It’s been through a few crashes, one which totaled my saddle. I was worried the Revive was going to have some issues but it kept on working like it did on day one. A couple of weeks ago I was getting some resistance with the remote, so I pulled the post out and noticed some dirt had gotten inside and was causing the actuator to be sticky. I sprayed the actuator with some compressed air and applied a little water resistant grease to the mechanism and now the lever action has been as good as new. At this same time, I got some sponginess in the Revive so I did the “Reset” with the 4mm hex and the post is nice and firm with no squish. This is such a cool feature!! I highly recommend watching a video on it if you haven’t already seen it. The only potential downside I’ve noticed is that if you’re the type that likes to pick the bike up by the saddle when the post is down, it may extend out a little if you yank it hard. The Fox Transfer on the other hand is solid in this respect. (I don’t know if it’s bad to do this to a post, I’ve heard differing opinions but the reality is sometimes this is the most convenient way to pick up a bike.)

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking for a new dropper, even if it’s something shorter than a 185mm, I would highly recommend looking at the Bike Yoke Revive. It’s a good time to be a mountain biker.