Problems with Crankbrothers Highline Dropper Post

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Problems with Crankbrothers Highline Dropper Post
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flag ButtaYoBreadd
Posted: Dec 2, 2017 at 10:43 Quote
Chadimac22 wrote:
I was finally able to get my highline seatpost as well as my buddy's highline seatpost working properly. Below is what I did; hopefully it helps you too.

First, I think the problem stems from the return spring inside the cartridge is too soft. Therefore, any imperfection in the cable, cable housing, cable end ferrules, or the cable routing will not allow the cartridge to snap back into place and lock the post into position. When that happens, the seatpost creeps. So it's imperative that the cable is 100% flawless, free of any bends, kinks, or debris and the entire assembly is as friction free as possible. Once I achieved this, the problems were solved. A couple quick things to try...

1. Ensure that the blue spiral cartridge is properly lubed with the crank bros grease. If not, use the supplied pillow pack and lube the outside of the blue spiral cartridge. If you don't have that specific grease, you must use a low friction, ultra slippery type grease (call crank bros for spec).

2. Install using a brand new cable that is free of kinks, bends, debris, or anything else. DO NOT BEND, ACCIDENTALLY OR NOT, THE CABLE AT ANY TIME. ANY BEND IN THE CABLE WILL CAUSE YOUR SEATPOST TO CREEP BECAUSE THE SPRING IN THE CARTRIDGE IS NOT STIFF ENOUGH TO OVERCOME THE ADDED FRICTION CAUSED BY THE BEND.

3. Ensure that the vertical ridge on the outside of the cartridge is aligned to the 'lock' position on the bottom seatpost and the collar is firmly tightened.

4. Install a new cable housing. Dont' even think about using your old one. Once the cable housing is installed, take a small, round punch or even better, a round jeweler's file, and gently open up each end of the cable housing so that the cable slides smooth and free. If there's any friction or resistance when inserting the cable, repeat this step.

5. If you have a round jeweler's file, apply step 4 to your cable end ferrules. The devil is in the details so make sure the cable slides freely and smoothly through the end ferrules. Smooth the opening out with a jeweler's file or get different ones if necessary.

6. When sliding the seatpost into the frame, ensure that the cable end is firmly inside the base of the seatpost. Then as a unit, gradually push the seatpost down into the frame while gently pulling the slack through the port at the front of the bike (assuming an internally routed frame). Once you start this process, DO NOT LET THE CABLE END BE PULLED OUT OF THE BASE OF THE SEATPOST. If this happens, do not try to force it all back together. Instead, pull the whole thing out, re-seat the cable, and repeat this step. Conversely, DO NOT SHOVE THE SEATPOST INTO THE FRAME AT A RATE GREATER THAN WHAT YOU ARE PULLING THE CABLE THROUGH. If you do this, you will kink the housing and the cable. At that point, you are better off putting in a new cable and you MIGHT be able to salvage the housing.

7. Once you've made it through step 6, the last step is pretty normal... install the cable into the lever, tighten to 1nm and funciton check the seatpost. If you didn't screw anything up, then congratulations; your seatpost will work.

**Again, this seatpost is incredibly suceptible to any sort of friction or binding. If there is any imperfection in the cable, housing, or anything in between, the spring in the seatpost will not be strong enough to overcome the added friction and the seatpost will creep. Don't underestimate just how important a perfect cable and cable housing are. The Crank Bros video on YouTube focuses on cable tension as the main cause of creep. Yea, that's part of it, but the above is far more likely the cause (at least it was for me). Get the install perfect, and you're good to go.

I was ready to throw in the towel and call it quits as I underestimated just how finnicky this design is. Thankfully I was able to troubleshoot two Highline's with success but seriously... it shouldn't be this hard.

Thank you so much for writing this up. Every thing you said was spot on and helped me get mine working right.

Like you said, the cable must be FLAWLESS. One mistake I made was messing with the cable tension at the lever too much and the cable got screwed up from tightening and loosening causing the post to creep up.
flag JasonGoss
Posted: Dec 14, 2017 at 17:53 Quote
Well hell, I got another HT build going and looking at droppers. Scratch this one off of the list!
flag eicca
Posted: Dec 14, 2017 at 20:11 Quote
I’m happy to report that hanging the bike upside down in the cold for a few months had no negative effects on my Highline...
flag Davecrush622
Posted: Feb 17, 2018 at 1:51 Quote
TheAeroPath wrote:
Hey guys!

I just had a Crankbrothers Highline dropper post installed on my 2016 Specialized Camber. The techs did a pretty lazy job and I ended up having some issues with it after my first couple rides on it. I have since then, replaced the cable, and made some adjustments to try to fix the problems, yet some problems are still occurring.

I cannot get the seat post dropper to drop all of the way, for the life of me! It is extremely frustrating as I would like it to drop completely for when I am doing jump/flow trails. I'd say the lowest it goes is 100mm, but it is a 125mm dropper. I figure this may be as I have the post in on the lowest notch on the post (notch #15), and it may be putting pressure on the spiral driver and not allowing it to depress fully.

I am also having some issues with the seat to stay in position while fully extended. It seems to have a delay from when I release the remote, causing the seat to not fully extend when I sit down on it for climbs, etc. This may be due to the fact that the shop cut the cable housing far too long and it may be causing resistance on the cable or something like that.

Another issue I have been having, is when I drop the seat post I must do so quickly by hand, otherwise the seat creeps back up. I cannot just sit on the seat and release the remote, cause when I stand up it raises about 40 - 50mm. This is extremely annoying, especially during downhill section when I want it as low as it can go.

Could all of this be due to too much cable tension? When I installed the new cable, I cut it so that there was about 1mm play in the remote with the barrel fully tightened. But when I loosen the cable tension, it give too much play, and seemingly gives the post even more problems.

I think it may just be a defective dropper post, but I wanted to confirm with you guys before doing anything too drastic. Since I've had the dropper it has NEVER been able to drop the full 125mm, which i dont think is too much to ask from $400+ 125mm dropper post.

Thank you guys for any help!!


Yo mate don’t know if you have fixed this or not yet. I went through the exact same problem for months, replace cable, inner and out, lubed the remote, the inner post, all moving parts, messed with the drum on the remote, everything. Finally the last two things I did seemed to fix it!!

So I removed the cable completely and removed the Blue key portion inner and spring. I SLIGHTLY and gently, stretched the spring and put a small amount of their grease on the runners of the blue key portion.

Right this is what blew my mind. So apparently in the factory people weren’t paying attention or had an off day whatever. (Not a dig, I love the post, but accidents do happen) when applying the stickers with the arrows to line up the ridges on the mechanism at the bottom of the post, they must have applied them slightly off, as with a bit of fiddling and researching I managed to suss it. So I pushed the grey mechanism that holds the cable into the bottom of the post ensuring the key portions match up and lined the ridges on the grey portion up with the arrow stickers I then turned it fully anti clockwise and turned it back about 10mm and just played with it.

Now when I drop the post it doesn’t move, at all. You couldn’t slide a bit of paper between the seat and the collar of the post. It stays firmly in position consistently every time, after riding, washing, servicing, whatever. It’s now the post I wanted it to be and it’s fantastic. I’m no longer just “dealing with it” or just “making do”.

Hope this helps people out! It worked for me, you might have a different problem, but I fixed my mates doing the exact same thing so hopefully this is the solution to a common issue we are all having!

Good luck ????????
flag waribu
Posted: Mar 20, 2018 at 12:16 Quote
Well I'll add onto this thread too I suppose, rather than start a whole new one because it seems I'm not alone.

I bought a used highline off of cl a bit ago that worked so flawlessly on a bike with a 31.6mm diameter, and thought it was the best dropper ever. So when I got my new (used) 2015 Tallboy LTC and it has the 30.9mm post diameter it was a no brainer to replace the failed reverb with a new highline. Got the 160mm version, installed all currently etc., had the creep syndrome both up and down, and thought that the problem must be that the cable routing was binding some at the base because I had it installed as deep as possible. Well no matter what position it as in it would not ray put.

Since i got it from Amazon I made a return and exchange for a 125mm and installed it only to find I was experiencing EXACTLY the same problem. Operator error??? I did everything right, I'm quite mechanically capable.

Called CB, they said, among other things, that sometimes certain bike's cable routing requires a stiffer return spring in the actuator mechanism, and that they can ship me one, just fill out a warranty thing online and send it in. I'll do that soon I guess, but I started by just stretching the spring by about a 1/4". It did help matters, but there is still creep up and down Frown Hopefully a mixture of the stiff spring, some of the suggestions above, and some magic voodoo spells will clear this up. When I installed the used one on the other bike I used new jagwire, and the slickest cable I could get from my LBS, it was a grey coated cable, and the one that CB ships with the post, I notice, is not this same level of coating. I'm not hip to the cable coating fanciness lingo, but I have a hunch that part of my success with that used post is in the super slick cable I used.

Has anyone found more resolution beyond what is described here? Has anyone tried the stiffer spring they suggest? My routing is very easy on the cable, I made sure of it, and as a test in one case I all but eliminated any bends, to no avail.

Thanks y'all.
flag Chadimac22
O+
Posted: Mar 20, 2018 at 13:33 Quote
The need for a stiffer spring is exactly why the routing and cable must be perfect and even when it is, as we've both found out, creep can still be a problem. There's just not enough cable tension from the cam mechanism to provide a positive return and lock after it's been activated.

Glad they're offering a fix finally. My guess is this should help a lot. I'll be doing the warranty spring shortly.
flag waribu
Posted: Mar 20, 2018 at 16:00 Quote
So a little follow up: just got a call and an email back from them after submitting the warranty request (great customer service big +!)

As soon as I get the spring and get it installed I'll report back...

The email below:

"Nick Mackey (crankbrothers)

Hi Nick,

Just left you a voicemail message regarding the available spring kits. Please get us the information off the seat posts that aren't working and we can send you the kits. We will need the serial number and date code located at the bottom of the post, and also the diameter and length post you are using.

As for the cable and housing, we use Jagwire Elite Ultra Slick cable's and SL housing in the Highline, but most of the time those are special order cables. Any high end cable should work just fine though, you issue is pertaining to the spring in the case. Every post is 100% tested as well but over time, the spring can get weaker and the spring in your post could have been compressed for over a year now. We made the stiff spring kit for bikes with severe routing that even the nicest cable and housing can't fix. In your case, the spring will still work and it seems like you just have some soft springs there.

Once we get the info from you, we will overnight you the spring kits.

Thanks,
Nick"
flag Chadimac22
O+
Posted: Mar 23, 2018 at 2:51 Quote
waribu wrote:
So a little follow up: just got a call and an email back from them after submitting the warranty request (great customer service big +!)

As soon as I get the spring and get it installed I'll report back...

The email below:

"Nick Mackey (crankbrothers)

Hi Nick,

Just left you a voicemail message regarding the available spring kits. Please get us the information off the seat posts that aren't working and we can send you the kits. We will need the serial number and date code located at the bottom of the post, and also the diameter and length post you are using.

As for the cable and housing, we use Jagwire Elite Ultra Slick cable's and SL housing in the Highline, but most of the time those are special order cables. Any high end cable should work just fine though, you issue is pertaining to the spring in the case. Every post is 100% tested as well but over time, the spring can get weaker and the spring in your post could have been compressed for over a year now. We made the stiff spring kit for bikes with severe routing that even the nicest cable and housing can't fix. In your case, the spring will still work and it seems like you just have some soft springs there.

Once we get the info from you, we will overnight you the spring kits.

Thanks,
Nick"

I love how they blame their weak springs on long term spring compression, "severe" bike cable routing, and special order cables. I have installed two of these posts into two different bikes and have had the exact same problem, straight out of the box. Wish they'd just own the fact that their springs are too weak. But at least they're doing something about it... Guess that counts for something.
flag waribu
Posted: Apr 17, 2018 at 15:15 Quote
Alright well: 2 weeks and about 4 rides and the stiffer spring did certainly help matters. But, not enough. Mainly it creeps from the lowered position slowly back up, and I am really not wanting to constantly check if the thing's all the way down once I'm flying down singletrack. Nick at crank brothers said they have thousands of these things out there and only rarely do they need to use a stiffer spring, but I've had this issue on 2 brand new posts! I was all about these highlines, but now I'm not so sure...
flag JorisW
Posted: May 23, 2018 at 8:20 Quote
Just to give people who are having this problem more info:
I had the same problem with creeping for quite some time. Crankbrothers' service was fast but the first time they rebuild the post with a new cartridge under warranty. It did not fix the problem. I figured out myself that the problem could be that the spring is too soft but CB didn't have a fix at that time. I just dialed the post to a slower speed so there was minimal creep. My plan was to fix the issue myself with a stiffer spring.
Luckily I read in this thread that CB had a fix in the form of a new stiffer spring. They hooked me up with a new spring very fast and since then the dropper has worked flawlessly and with the speed it's supposed have.
Just make sure that the cable actuation is without any drag like mentioned before.

It took a while but now I'm very happy with it because it's a very smooth post and I think it will be quite reliable.
I think more brands will choose the cartridge design in the future because of this.

Cheers
flag CoachETown
O+
Posted: Sep 3, 2018 at 11:40 Quote
Check the remote!
I spent a few hours checking forums and all the possible solutions to the post creep problem on this dropper. Finally I got it sorted after replacing cables, disassembling, reassembling, etc.
All that probably helped but in the end it was simpler. The remote was getting ever so slight friction by rubbing against my brake clamp. I finally noticed it when I had the remote off and in my hand with everything else assembled and it worked perfect.
Anyway maybe that helps someone, Another thing to check I guess. Really the spring should be much more forceful because that would have kept this from happening in the first place.
flag DumbBot
O+
Posted: Nov 2, 2018 at 13:59 Quote
Well here we are again..and again. Post purchased April 2017, I've had a replacement cartridge on Oct2017, failed again and got the spring upgrade July'18 and now its gone saggy again. I've done it all, replace cables, tweak actuator positions, tweak cable tension...i'm done.

I've had it with this pile of shite, its robbed me of so much riding time, going to attempt to get my money back from Bike discount.de which will no doubt be like pulling my own teeth out.
flag dirt-klaud
O+
Posted: Nov 6, 2018 at 12:49 Quote
Had no problems on my Orbea Loki, unless I pulled on the cable housing which tweaked the routing, which caused the cable to drag and make the post sag or creep. Transferred it to my Transition Scout and my LBS couldn't get it to not sag from the get-go, so they contacted CB and they sent a stiffer spring. Solved it on initial install, so now onto real world testing.

Seems like it's just not a robust design in terms of sensitivity to drag. Likely too much friction in the actual valve release mechanism and/or cable housing they provide, which means it takes more cable tension to release, and more spring force to return, but the more you increase both, the harder the lever is to push based on its leverage ratio. So they could just keep increasing spring force and cable tension, or increase the lever ratio which would require more travel at the lever. I'll see what happens with that new spring. It's noticeably stiffer.

Anyone using a totally different actuation cable and lever (i.e. less drag or different leverage ratio) having better luck?
flag ninjatarian
Posted: May 31, 2019 at 13:11 Quote
Any updates on this? I just installed a new version - same problem.

So much for CB new commitment to quality.
flag cmcrawfo
Posted: May 31, 2019 at 14:31 Quote
ninjatarian wrote:
So much for CB new commitment to quality.

They make great multi tools. Wink

 


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