Magura Vyron Wireless Dropper Post - First Ride

Magura officially released its wirelessly controlled Vyron eLECT dropper post at its annual tech camp in Sedona, Arizona, which furnished the opportunity to put it to task in terrain where a dropper post is a near necessity. Most readers should be familiar with the Vyron, as Magura provided the mountain bike paparazzi with a soft-release last year while the German component maker was dotting the I's and crossing the T's before committing it to mass production.

If you missed the first-look report, the Vyron is a conventional dropper post in the sense that it is air sprung, and hydraulically controlled in much the same manner as the RockShox Reverb or KS LEV operate. Like the Reverb, its air-spring can be charged with a shock pump, which allows the user to fine tune the post's extension speed - and its internals are serviceable. The Vyron has a 150-millimeter stroke and is offered in the two most popular diameters: 30.9 and 31.6 millimeters. That is where the similarities end.




About the Vyron

Magura chose to actuate the Vyron post using ANT+ wireless transmission software for two reasons: it eliminated the need for cables, levers, hoses and housing; and a wireless remote could be easily adapted to control other functions like suspension lockout or damping, and (although they never mentioned this) possibly a POV camera.

Fringe benefits: An electronic-remote actuated dropper would be a boon to bike retailers because they could sell or install a dropper post without negotiating (or eating) the expense of threading hoses or housing through the frame tubes, or dealing with bleeding a hydraulic system. A customer can buy a Vyron, install it with a hex key, and be riding in three minutes. Imagine also, the time saved on the assembly lines in Asia if workers could skip the tasks of routing dropper controls.



Low energy consumption: Great lengths were taken to reduce the size and energy consumption of the seatpost’s electronic hardware, and it is hard to imagine how Magura fit a hydraulic valve, a motor, a rechargeable battery, and a radio receiver into the small extension that protrudes from behind the seatpost’s head, but they did. The pencil-thin NiMH battery is good for 400 cycles and can be recharged via a micro USB cable.

Magura says 400 cycles works out to about two months of trail riding, so none of us ran out of battery power in Sedona. Key to the Vyron’s energy efficiency is the tiny motor, which operates a fine-threaded needle valve that opens and closes the post’s hydraulic circuit. The motor has to turn the needle one or two revolutions to fully open or close the valve and that creates a slight lag time between when the handlebar remote’s button is depressed, and the dropper is either released or fixed in position.



Quick-change Remote: Anyone old enough to have owned a Game Boy will chuckle at the Vyron’s remote control panel. The plastic switch has a soft-touch panel with a round central button that controls the post, flanked by two smaller arrow-shaped buttons which are reserved for add-on functions in the future (presumably, an eLECT Magura fork and shock). The remote is powered by a small, non-rechargeable button battery, and is fixed to the handlebar by an elastic O-ring.

Bail-out options: German engineers tend to fixate on worst-case scenarios. Keeping with this tradition, the Vyron can be actuated using a button on the seatpost head to extend, retract, or set the post at a given height, should your remote battery expire (or be lost altogether). As a further safeguard, when the main battery reaches exhaustion, the software switches off its wireless function and saves a small amount of battery reserve to enable the rider to set the post manually to a desired “bail-out” height, where it will remain for the rest of the day’s ride.


Performance

Mounted to an Intense Tracer 275c, which is one of my favorite trail bikes, and headed out for a day of riding on the familiar trails around Sedona, the Vyron dropper was destined to get a fair assessment of its mechanical and operational aspects. Admittedly, reporting upon its longevity would require a number of months, so I’ll focus on the former for now.


Learning Curve: Once underway, it took some time to anticipate the slightly delayed reaction created by the Vyron's motorized control valve. Magura officials warned me that it would take a little getting used to, and it did. Initially, the half-second reaction time seemed like a year, because I was used to snapping my dropper post down at the last possible instant before arriving at the precipice of a steep or chunky descent. Imagine my surprise when I depressed the eLECT button, gave the saddle a firm butt whack too early and the Vyron refused to budge - just as my front tire began to roll off a substantial ledge.

I was mentally prepared for the initial delay to lower the saddle - I just failed to get my timing right every once and a while. What I was not prepared for, was the need to hold the saddle down in order to ensure that the motorized valve had closed completely. Forget this tidbit, and the Vyron pops back up to full height, and then locks. The result is the same: a no-drop dropper post at the most inopportune moment. After four hours or so on the bike, however, my brain had compartmentalized all the necessary reactions and I was able to operate the post seamlessly up and down Sedona's slick-rock and rolling trail network.

Technical Issues: Mechanically, the Vyron scored high marks. As mentioned, it was whisper quiet, and it never missed a beat. Its action was smooth, the remote control console's actuation button was never a problem to find (whether I was gloved or not) and it always extended and retracted at the same rate - which no-doubt, played a positive role in getting used to the timing aspect of its operation. I did have to retrieve the remote control after it parted company in a crash, which made me question the O-ring mounting. So, if you bin your bike, remember to check for it before you get to the bottom of the hill.


First Impressions:

I put enough time on Magura's Vyron eLECT dropper post to assess its mechanical performance and its potential attributes, but I won't speculate on its long-term reliability. The only aspect of its performance that I did not completely come to terms with was establishing a mid-stroke saddle position, which required hovering over the saddle at my preferred height, waiting for the eLECT valve to close while the bike was bouncing down the trail. More time on the bike may have mitigated that process, but that was the recurring Vyron moment that had me wishing for the instant locking action of a mechanically-actuated dropper post. Riders who never use an intermediate saddle position, however, will never experience that issue, which brings me back to the positive attributes of Magura's wireless dropper. Magura's $500 asking price is offset by the fact that you only need one dropper post for all of your bikes, so long as they share the same seat tube diameter. The control console is fixed with an elastic O-ring, so it can be quickly transferred to another handlebar, and a hex key is all you need to switch out the seatpost. Divide $500 by how many bikes you own and that represents a substantial discount. Pedally DH race? Pop the Vyron on your downhill bike and be the boss. Taking your cross-country race bike out for a trail ride? Slide the Vyron dropper into that carbon hardtail and hit the hard lines on the downs. Travelling to another country? Bring your Vyron dropper and pop it into your rental. Magura's wireless eLECT dropper post provides much more than a cleaner looking mountain bike, and while the Vyron would not be my first choice for my all-mountain style of riding, it offers useful options that a mechanical post simply cannot match - attributes which should earn a lot of fans for Magura. - RC

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