First Look: BikeYoke Revive Three Dropper Post
The BikeYoke Revive has built a sterling reputation for longevity, serviceability, and smooth operation. The 213mm max drop may not be the longest on the market, but BikeYoke is banking on their other value adds drawing people who might otherwise be hunting the most millimeters per dollar.
The updates to their flagship dropper - the Revive - aren't groundbreaking, but they make the post more user friendly and should allow it to fit more bikes.
And it comes in chrome.
The updates to their flagship dropper - the Revive - aren't groundbreaking, but they make the post more user friendly and should allow it to fit more bikes.
And it comes in chrome.
Revive Three Details
• 4 travel options: 125 / 160 / 185 / 213mm
• New saddle clamps, 5mm lower stack height
• 10mm shorter, 360° rotatable footnut
• 30.9, 31.6, and 34.9mm insertions available
• Travel reduction in 5mm increments (4x5mm spacer included)
• 3D-forged, one-piece upper tube
• Redesigned actuation linkage
• Price: €350-420, $350-420 USD
• bikeyoke.com
• 4 travel options: 125 / 160 / 185 / 213mm
• New saddle clamps, 5mm lower stack height
• 10mm shorter, 360° rotatable footnut
• 30.9, 31.6, and 34.9mm insertions available
• Travel reduction in 5mm increments (4x5mm spacer included)
• 3D-forged, one-piece upper tube
• Redesigned actuation linkage
• Price: €350-420, $350-420 USD
• bikeyoke.com
There are still a few elements that set the Revive apart from the competition, catering specifically to those who like to tinker and wrench on their own equipment. The lower tubes can be resized from 30.9mm to 31.6mm to fit different bikes, the post is quickly user serviceable and rebuildable without any special tools, every single part is available as a service item, and lastly all updates will be retrofittable to prior model posts.
There are other revive-like solutions on the market, but I believe this was the first.
Should the post develop any sag, all you have to do is turn the actuator with a 4mm, and depress the post.
You can also install this little lever, should you so please.
The silver lower tube option was a response to popular demand after a one-off was shown at Eurobike last year, but this release won't be a full-fledged color option. About 250 of the chrome posts will be available through dealers and via the web store, but hopefully a larger run can come through if demand is high.
I dig.
Pairs well with a brand-name dropper lever. The Triggy Alpha runs on a bearing and can rotate 360° to hit the desired fit.
Comes in long and short.
You'll note that the total drop length on the Revive Three is the same as the prior version, topping out at 213mm. For those wanting more, all we've been told is: "we can tell you that there’s something cooking."
I've been riding one of the new V3 posts for a while, and will have a full review with comparisons to some of the other long-travel droppers on the market in short order.
Until then, you can find out more at BikeYoke's website or in this tech video.
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In comparison I’ve had several one ups, and they all seem to get really sticky after 3-4 months of use. The revive after 4 years wasn’t as sticky as a one up is after 3 months!
Here's our fist actrual feature video from 2018, two years after the original launch:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=naE5kLIVJ5Y
When designing the REVIVE, the goal was always to design and make the most sustainable dropper on the market. That is more than 8 years ago and the REVIVE has still not undergone any major changes, because it simply works. Now we made it shorter and put some travel adjust options in there.
That's what I said in my video that is linked below:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT3zyC_nKaw
We're a bit jealous that it feels like other companies are coming up with a new dropper design every other year, while the REVIVE stands. And stands. And stands. While others have come and gone.
But then, we're not that kind of comany anyways. We prefer to let the products do the talking.
Can the new style actuator be purchased and installed by the end user, or do you need to send the post to bikeyoke?
The parts are already in the webshop. Also the saddle clamps are compatible with older generations.
You can convert a 'REVIVE 2.0 to 3.0 in less than 2 minutes.
Awesome! The only thing that was holding me back from getting a 213 was I wasn't sure the old actuator would clear.
Received it in spring 2017 and run it to this day with one full service in between.
This is by far the most reliable bike part I've ever owned. I broke everything else on a bike including frames, but not this one.
The Revive feels more smooth and precision built to most IME.
A certain amount of air pressure pressure is need for proper locking out, but even little pressure will be able to move the post.
So, air pressure can fix symptoms but rarely the actualy root of the issue.
A REVIVE not wanting to return is also rarely caused by something inside the hydraulic cartridge and only if something is wrong inside the cartridge you'd need a fuill rebuild.
A lower tube, however, service is what ANY post regularly deserves and that is done in tless than 5 minutes in the case of a REVIVE and does not require any release of air or oil and chances that this would've helped in your case are more than great. Most of the time it's just a little clean and lube of the lower tube to get back up to speed. That said, it could've also been something more serious, but I know my products very well and it's most of the time just a lower tube service the post wants.
One Problem is: Our posts typically work for a long time, so you'd wonder why fix something that's perfectly working? Our posts work without service well. Until they don't. And then it's often too late for a re-grease or a lower tube service, and then more parts need to be replaced as things have already started corroding
You don't bring your car to inspection, when the motor isn't turning anymore.
Sad to hear you had this epxerience with one of our posts. It's certainly very unlikely to happen duie to a manufacturing defect, but of course we also have the occasional lemon in our production.
"Even if this sucks for the single customer, in general it can't be that bad. If our products were just mediocre, I could simply not do this anymore."
You can not avoid the occasional lemon in a produciton of 5 digit numbers of hydraulic dropper posts. But you need to keep those lemons isolated n umbers. And I beleive, we're fairly good at this.
I can design, take care of customers, take care of press releases, take care of comment sections, just because our products are healthy and I am not held up by stuff that is causing me headaches. And because I have a team that I can 100% rely on in them.
But wish they could be shop serviced for under $100. A suspension service charging $150 to service something that costs $350 is stupid to me. Yeah I could do it myself but would love to see more reasonable dropper service fees.
I ordered exactely the same set and I can fully confirm your expierience. No service at all, absolute no hassle or any kind of trouble. Runs smooth and without any play like the first day!
Great job Sacky!
Can you make a video and send us a link to it to service@bikeyoke.com.
I'd like to have a look at it, as there must be something wrong if you have to complain about return speed.
There's really no comparison from a quality/tolerances/smoothness perspective. The Bikeyoke feels like a truly premium part, the one-up feels.. serviceable.
It's a huge gap. If one-up have truly closed such a wide gap, that's impressive, but I am dubious.
At any rate as noted above now that the new actuator exists a 213 will fit me in my current frame, so it will replace the one up. No need to get a one-up v3 in the hopes they've closed the gap, when I know the Bikeyoke will be superb.
Servicing it is so easy, that I do it myself every 100 hours.
I didn't mean serviceable as in easier to work on. Sorry for the confusion. Ironically I have to lube the one up constantly, the Bikeyoke has needed nothing for years.
Maybe I need to ride one to experience what a $350 dropper can do but I highly doubt it’ll change my life.
- If you are in weather and trail conditions that are very hard on seals and suspension product (Rain, mud, duper dusty, etcra) you will notice a more pronounced difference in maintenance and product lifespan.
-If you ride in really cold weather the bike yoke really shines. I ride through the winter and I am able to use my bike yoke in far below freezing temps. The fact that I can add air to the dropper to compensate for temperature-related loss of pressure is huge, and a reason why I took the one-up off my new bike and put a 4 YO revive on it for the winter.
-If you are a heavier rider you put a lot more strain on the seatpost and tend to develop problems faster with the cheaper ones.
- Also terrain is a bigger factor than miles. If you have long climbs up dedicated climbing trails followed by long continuous descents you activate your dropper so much less than on undulating terrain with a myriad of shorter climbs and descents
For me because of the above reasons, the higher quality of the Bike Yoke really shines through and makes it worth it. If I was less fat, didn't ride in the freezing cold through the winter, or in a place where it rains a lot, and didn't ride very technical terrian that was undulating rather than gravity focused I would likely prefer the One-Up.
Black color is easiest to keep consistent and that why it is so widely used.
If PNW and OneUp can do amazing post sale service, 400 USD dropper should also have it
Without disrespect, but we are a dropper manufacturer.
We are a small team of 15 people in total and we not only design these droppers, but we also actually build these droppers. Every single BikeYoke dropper post is assembled by our own team. In our very own facilities. With our very own machines and tools.
It is then tested for function by our very own team. Every. Single. Post.
I believe it stands to reason to understand that this is much more involving than not manufacturing your own goods, but having them contract-manufactured by someone else.
I am not saying one is better than the other. But it is a question of philosophy.
And with that philosophy comes a great difference in cost. This is only one of the reasons why our products have their price tag. We are the ones assembling them.
And yes, of course you can expect premium care if something goes wrong. Not because we build it into the price tag, but because we know that we were the ones who fried up somewhere and no one else is to blame.
Because we personally stand behind the qualitiy of every single one of our dropper posts.
So, apologies for the long excursion, but it is important for me to make people understand a few things that differentiate us from others.
I often use PB comment section under products reviews as a decision maker to purchase this or that thing.
As for the price I am no expert, but assume by the flag of your profile it's a "made in Germany" tax with your sweet employment legislation decent salaries and more than pathetic 2 weeks vacation time
If I was on a market for 400 USD dropper, I would def buy BikeYoke, and not a Bontrager Elite or Fox\RF Transfer lol ( both if which I had warrantied almost new out of the box, hustle free I must note, but still... not worth the price tag).
Keep up the good work, but please don't use "small company" marketing, it's annoying. OneUp and PNW are also small companies and all what you said can be applied to them. I didn't compare you to made in China generic brand or something.
Is there some hyperbole, maybe, in Sacki’s description of the small team at Bikeyoke? Maybe yes. But to compare them to PNW is just wrong. PNW sells a fine product, but they are barely customized catalog droppers, with good marketing & customer service. I would be shocked to learn that PNW engineers or assembles their product, two things that Bikeyoke very clearly does.
Thank you, we'll try to keep doing what we're doing.
Maybe I misunderstod then. I simply responded to your wording:
"Cost of replacement has already been paid by you"
This implies that we're charging the customer upfront to be able to cover our cost of potential future warranty claims or issues.
That is simply not the case or at least not in the case how it is worded. Every company needs to factor in service cost when doing pricing. But it certainly does not affect BikeYoke pricing affect the way you suggest.
I explained why our droppers cost the way they cost. And by the overwhelming feedback in this article it looks like many customers seem to think that our posts are doing something better than others.
And regarding to "small company marketing":
It does not matter how small or how big the company is.
I would like to point out that I have not brought up any names of the companies you are mentioning, but I would like to put some things right, because it is very important to me and to what we are doing and no: You can not apply all what I said to the companies you mentioned, because we build our own droppers ourselves.
Some very expoensive toolings we have to make completely new for the longer drop options and we want to make sure we can use them for both magic remote and traditional cable actuated variants.
We're also running another USP (Update Service Program) where customers can send in their previous generation REVIVE for service and as a bonus we update their post to 3.0 for free.
More on USP here:
bikeyoke.com/en/service-support/usp-3.0
bikeyoke.com/en/service-support/usp-3.0
bikeyoke.com/en/service-support/usp-3.0
If it's still not working, just go to the website and find it on the main page (the big banner can hardly be missed) or scroll to the footer, where it says "USP 3.0"
bikeyoke.com/en/service-support/usp-3.0
For some reason the this site removes it from the link when you post it.
Bikeyoke is the definition of buy once.
And I use my droppers A LOT, like 3-4x more than I would have ever used a front mech on that same lever position. I have to wonder what exactly is everyone doing to get saggy droppers that need more sag fixing than seal/bushing fixing? Just riding on the cleanest trails ever and doing nothing but dropping seats?
Imagine a seatclamp that is infintely stiff and which, even when applying 100Nm of torque would not "change its shape":
Would it clamp your seattube?
To be completely honest: If your seattube is properly sized on the ID (and that is the single most important thing), any seatclamp of any make should work just fine. Typically, posts are not off of nominal by more than 0.1mm in diameter. Seattubes on the other hand... I've seen things... 30.9 seattubes reamed to more than 31.4. Needless to say this is no bueno.
went notchy and saggy 8 months later
done multiple rebuilds myself following bike yokes direct advice with no success
was advised to send to tf tuned by bike yoke who said they'd look after me
I done this and it ended up costing me 200quid and its still crap again
600quid in and an useable post that's notchy and sags still so it sat in the parts bin
I could of had 4 brand x posts!
You can post it here, no problem.
Can you also send us a message to service@bikeyoke.com, too?
We will try to have you sorted.
also have one of second generation. also 0 problems.
I dont think there is a longer Revive coming. theres a completely new post coming, maybe wireless. which means, buy oneup.
Actually, this was all mentioned in the press release, but unfortunately not mentioned here in the article.
Apart from that: I am one of the people putting up with shorter ones. And not because of lack of option, but because I choose to. I have obiously tried longer ones and I am currently on REVIVE >213 on one of my bikes but it is simply too much for me. When dropping you need to get really low into a deep squat and it takes a lot more effort to get back up once you squat over a certain point. On the other hand, it does not provide any more more benefits to me. I use my saddle a lot for steeering and controlling the bike under me. With the saddle too far down, I am loosing a lot of feedback and control over the bike.
I am not the only one. I guess it depends a lot on riding skills, too, as well as type of riding.
So please would you leave it to each individual, wheter he keeps putting up with shorter ones or not?
They might do it for a reason. Thank you!
Just to give an idea: On my Norco Aurum HSP (DH bike), I CAN NOT even ride my saddle lower than 60cm from BB, otherwise the saddle will start hitting the tire somewhere near full travel. And I am just very fine with that. There are pro riders who choose to ride their saddle higher than they could.
My two OneUp posts (3 if I include my wife's bike) felt like I was raising and lowering my post in a sandbox. They needed air added to them way too often, and the build quality was noticeably lacking compared to BY. The best comparision was a moment in time when I ran a BY on one bike and a OneUp on my N+1 - actually, there wasn't a comparison because the OneUp felt that bad.
My SDG wore the coating off the stanchion during one race so I warrantied it and sold it.
I am WAITING! ;-P
Exempli gratia: 31.8mm ????