Crank Brothers Highline Dropper Post: Customer Review

In this review, our customer Joel is installing a Crank Brother Highline dropper post on his wife's Liv mountain bike. Riding with a dropper post allows you to maneuver your body positioning from the front of the bike to the back with confidence and without the saddle in your path. Read more to see how Joel and his wife are liking the new dropper post from Crank Brothers.

Overview

This dropper post is for my wife's Liv Pique. I originally bought the 125mm travel as her old bike also fit a 125mm dropper post without any problem. Well, her old bike is a size Small, whereas the Liv is a size XSmall. In addition, the Liv is a full suspension bike so you don't have as long of a down tube. Lesson learned. I realized my mistake on a Wednesday night and wanted to have the bike ready for her by the weekend. I tried to look for the CB 100mm travel, but my usual shopping place (Amazon, Jenson) could not deliver before the weekend or didn't have it in stock. After a quick Google search, I found that Worldwide Cyclery carried the Crank Brothers Highline 100mm travel, but they don't have it in their local warehouse. When I asked when I could get the dropper post, they said they would overnight the item and it would be ready to pick up in store by Friday midday. True to their word, they called on Friday afternoon saying the dropper was ready to be picked up. Thanks to Worldwide Cyclery, my wife was able to ride that weekend!

Installation

This is my first time installing an internal dropper post. Routing the cable housing is a major pain without the proper tool, but I can't quite justify the price for the magnetic tool from Park Tool, so I struggled for 2 hours to get it installed :). After the housing was in place, everything else was quite easy. Another issue that I came across was that the cable housing connector that attached to the bottom of the dropper post is not a real tight fit, so when adjusting the housing cable, it would just come off. That's annoying as you have to be extra careful when pulling the housing to adjust it. As for the lever, I think it would be an ideal lever for a 1x setup, but my wife's bike is a 2x, so it does get a bit cramped there. The lever setup position is not as flexible as they make it seem in the video installation guide. I think I would prefer the KS type lever for a bike with the front derailleur.

Performance

Now on to the real review. My wife has no complaints about the performance of the dropper. The one thing she did notice though was that the seat will slowly crawl back up if she doesn't make sure the lever is all the way up. I think I can fix that by making sure the cable tension is tight enough. Other than that, she's happy.

Just for fun, I also tried riding her bike to see how the CB dropper post felt. My other experience with dropper posts was with the KS eTen & KS Super Natural, both external setup. Like I mentioned earlier, I do like the KS lever for a 2x setup better, but I think it's just a matter of being familiar with it. I can't complain about the performance of the dropper, it performs similarly as the KS Super Natural. The speed of the seat returning to original height is neither too slow or too fast in my opinion, and it has a loud enough sound to indicate it's fully up. The build quality and performance is definitely better than the eTen. I was originally planning to get the KS Lev Integra for my wife, but Crank Brothers warranty and the good review made me want to try this dropper post. This dropper seems to be easily serviceable too, which is a great plus. Only time will tell if the dropper will perform the same over time.