What's Up at 9point8 - Crankworx Whistler 2017
Before Jack Pittens set out to design a dropper seat post that wasn't gasping for breath after a month of use, he designed robots. His most recent project was to engineer a robot that could tunnel into the cores of active Canadian nuclear reactors to carve out slices of metal and return them to scientists for inspection. Pittens would not allude to how lucrative the project was, but he did mention that a shut-down costs the power plants a million dollars a day.
When asked about why he entered the moderately profitable world of mountain bikes with a new dropper post design, Pittens did not blink. "We wanted to develop a technology that we could own." Dropper seatposts couldn't have been a better choice. They require precise tolerances. They have a number of tiny moving parts, and they employ cross-over technologies, like hydraulics, gas springs and cables. Pittens loves that stuff, and he is also a pretty good trail rider, so he had to be aware at the time, that the products of his would-be competitors ranged from functional to adequate. Enter 9point8.
Simplicity is the rule at 9point8. The insides of the Fall Line dropper post bear witness to that.
Rather than copying the air-sprung, oil-filled tube with a valve on one end that RockShox popularized, 9point8 used hydraulics in a different way. Their Fall Line dropper is controlled by a cylindrical hydraulic brake. The spring loaded brake squeezes a cylinder against the inside of the post which holds the dropper in position until the remote cable disengages the brake. The Fall Line's air spring is created by simply pressurizing the entire post. Admittedly, there are probably as many parts in a Fall Line as there are inside a Reverb, but 9point8's design eliminates the Reverb's (and its cousin's) "suspension post" air transfer issues, it's proven to be wonderfully reliable, and it can be disassembled and serviced by ordinary people. Oh, and one more thing.
The reason that 9point8 is in the PB spotlight today, is that the Fall Line post may be the only dropper made that can be adjusted with internal top-out spacers to fine tune its stroke. Why is that important? Many riders who's leg lengths fall mid-way between the two most popular dropper post lengths, or happen to own a bike with a seat tube design that prevents them from inserting their dropper posts far enough to get their proper saddle height, are forced to downsize to a significantly shorter stroke post. By accident or design, 9point8 solved that problem.
9point8's top-out spacer can reduce the Fall Line post's stroke by five millimeters (shown), to any value up to full lockout if you were crazy enough to want that.
Jack Pittens wants the longest stroke dropper post he can run (his Zerode Taniwha has a 200 mm post). 9point8 offers spacer kits that allow owners to tune the stroke of their droppers in five, ten and 20 millimeter increments. That means you can select the longest stroke post that will approximate your frame and leg length, and then fine tune it to your ideal ride height, while achieving the maximum possible drop. With the trend towards steep seat tube angles firmly established, the adjustable stroke is a timely feature that other dropper makers should seriously consider for their next-gen posts.
Another option for short riders is this 100mm stroke post that can be cut to length.
Up to half of the inserted section can be cut to fit small frames with bent or obstructed seat tubes.
Jack Pittends' Zerode Taniwha.
The Product Engineer's Perfect Bike
Jack Pitten's Zerode Taniwha mirrors the design and execution of his dropper posts. It's beautiful, functional, and it crosses the boundaries of technologies in and outside the confines of the mountain bike industry. After our conversation at Crankworx, I couldn't imagine him riding anything else.
Cane Creek Helm fork.
SQ-Lab 611 Active saddle.
Fox Float X2 shock
Time pedals with 12mm wider axles.
Chromag stem, Race Face carbon bars.
Nox 29mm inner-width carbon rims with 2.6-inch Maxxis Minion rubber.
Pinion 12-speed gearbox.
Magura MT Trail brakes and Pinion's rotary shifter.
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125 Comments
I'm happy to see you running a chain with the Pinion and not a belt drive. Wish Nicolai would supply their bikes with a chain.
I also reversed my shift cables to feel more moto. The stock pussy / win gear selection direction was counterintuative to me.
@lordchewington @TheOriginalTwoTone Effigear. They have SRAM/Shimano trigger compatibility. Some guy is racing the Effigear for WC DH this season. It ends up being a high pivot single pivot.
This reviewer seemed to think that there was a freewheel in the gearbox. Chain wouldn't move just like on a trials front freewheel or mid drive ebike setup. Waiting for two sets of pawls to engage is said to suck even when one is a Chris King. This is the first I'd heard of it so maybe he is mistaken. He did compete an enduro on one though.
the replacement was ok for a while other than the slight leakage from the air spring. eventually got very rough and the stanchion gouges appeared the same day.
I was in between 150mm and 175mm. I ended up going 150 with the insertion up about 10mm rather than the 175 slammed with spacer(s) since the stack height is slightly taller on the 175-200 posts.
Not cheap but Canadian so all good.