Hello Vital MTB Visitor,
We’re conducting a survey and would appreciate your input. Your answers will help Vital and the MTB industry better understand what riders like you want. Survey results will be used to recognize top brands. Make your voice heard!
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Thanks in advance,
The Vital MTB Crew
Oh I've never found bike park runs to be something I couldn't live without water until the bottom of. You don't have to drink every 15 minutes. I am guilty of taking a camo bag cooler down first run and stashing in an area where the beer is available half way down. 😁
That said trail bikes should absolutely should have bottle bosses 100%. 170mm bikes are trail bikes even if they are burly ones. Not sure why people push the 170-180mm stuff as uplift only. They are not dh bikes, will never be, and are not intended to be.
Now that so many companies are making things that aren't bottles with mounts for bottle bosses, i.e. tools, tubes, pumps, bags, etc, all bikes, including ,DH bikes should have bosses somewhere, even if there isn't actually room for a full water bottle. Lots of bikes have a second set on the underside of the top tube these days even though usually you can't put a bottle there (bonus for XL frames when sometimes you can).
Anybody whose broken something in the top third of the Garbo zone without spares knows the pain...
So the battery at the seat rail clamp is too bulky, around the middle of the post is ugly, and hidden at the bottom is inconvenient.
I'm sure someone would pay good money for another idea of where else to put it.
^This. There is nowhere else to put it. Functionally mid-post makes the most sense (probably why Fox and RS landed there) and internally is the best aesthetically.
A nearby body cavity, with a wireless energy transfer?
Externally routed to a battery pack that mounts to the bottle cage bosses. That way you can have the joy of routing wires like a traditional dropper.
A wirelessly actuated linear servo placed near the BB shell. Think Di2 battery form factor. A beefy 21700 cell that lasts half a riding season and a charge port accessible through the in-frame storage box. Backup option is a charge plug coming out of the frame port. Compatible with all wired dropper posts. I might be working on something similar 😉
Guesses as to what the little gizmo on the collar is?
Weed storage.
Weed storage for ANTS...
A Life Alert button? Might be handy now that I'm getting old.
Totally looks like a rubber cover for a charge port. They could have machined a channel in the lower tube to run wires down to the actuator.
That's my thought too, wondering what that means for the upgrade add-on you mentioned above? I haven't heard about that but if it's a thing then maybe there are 2 versions; add-on w/ a bottom charging port and new one w/ collar port?
Doubt it would be 2 versions. It would probably be a new lower tube assembly that supports all the electronics. They already sell the lower tube as a spare part for 45€
For me I think this is a great idea. It is just a 4mm to get the seatpost out, connect to a usbc or something you have anyway... And it would make sure the post never sticks or get gunky.
I am waiting for the bikeyoke one because I have 3 bikes that I use that uses a dropper, and I share them with my wife who is shorter than me. Getting one post with a favorite seat each. Even if it was just me I would rather have one and move it around than 3.
My first guess would be a button for the valve "reset", replacing the hex key.
If not... would those two little holes be a charging port ? (but it's a "meh" guess as it's a bit weird not to use usb-c for that)
Edit: I read the previous answers after writing this -dumb me did not think of a simple rubber cap (*slaps face)
I'm wondering why we still need to externally charge batteries for something that need this little energy to work.
We are sitting on systems that are constantly creating energy -vibrating, braking, pedaling, pumping. Why can't we gather a fraction of this energy to rationnaly charge the electronic components?
I can remember kinetics systems to recharge watches, and that was at least 20 years ago...
If it is chargeable without having to remove the seatpost, I don't care where the battery goes.
I'm not sure there's enough room for a USB-C port...
To me that looks like a magnetic charge point where the 2 larger circles are magnets and the charge pins go into the two small holes. There’s a similar port on one of my power meters.
Magnetic charger makes sense to me, found this 2023 article on NSMB where they teased the dropper. It originally had a USB-C port at the bottom which required removing the post to charge it, I'd imagine they were looking to find a better charging solution.
mfw i have to charge my seatpost
With Bikeyoke being a european company I don't think they are going to take the risk and work to create their own charging standard. It is mandatory for most small rechargable electronics, phones , tablets to use the USB-C standard to be allowed to sell in the EU market. It is a bit vague and less outlined when we talk about components, specialty devices etc... but probs not worth the gamble.
its possible they have a USB C port on the bottom as depicted in the early prototype, but also a secondary less common type magnetic port on the side of the collar in the other picture. it would certainly add complexity, but also convenience while ensuring they are compliant with regulations.
It's quite possible that it would use a magnetic connection to charge. The Reform saddles use this style of connection to power the heating element in the saddles during the molding process
Wondering if gen 4 would see any updates
So real. Looks so bad, and it seems RS hasn't fixed the length problem based on how far his seatpost is sticking out. So far the best solutions are 1. The bike yoke concept, 2. Magura vyron, 3. Cables. I'd be happy to consider any wireless solutions Oneup comes up with.
The length of exposed post isn't really indicative of anything on pros bikes compared to us mortals, I wouldn't read into it. We seem to enjoy having a slammed post and as much drop as possible but look at dudes like Minnaar who despite being decidedly XL+ seems perfectly happy running dropper posts in the range of 150mm or so. Keene himself seems to have no great desire to get that seat slammed either, looking at various bike checks from the last decade. The Robot can probably weigh in on this one but I'll just say it doesn't tell us anything about the Reverb.
I just saw an invitation to SRAM school on the 25th of Feb. My guess is cable transmission.