HurricaneJeff

The "Elevator".....the very first modern dropper post that Hurricane Components made back in late 90's, early 2000's was called the "Elevator Shaft", just saying...

WTF? how'd you come up with that? you'd need to add 30 to the 7 to get it right.

@bigtim: good one!

When I designed my first dropper back in 1999, we used a simple spring with no dampening whatsoever. The return, as you can imagine could return rather quickly, but with 3" of drop, it never was an issue. We used indents to adjust the height, so it was not infinitely adjustable. We had a simple key and slot to keep the saddle pointed in one direction. This was all done inside a RockShox suspension seat post that we modified. It used a pull knob to activate the post. In later designs, we used a wedge system and was infinitely adjustable, used a mechanical spring but still had 3" of travel, which at that time seem plenty. It also used a pull knob, but we were working on a handlebar remote at the time I sold my company back in 2002. My company at the time Hurricane Components, was arguably the first one to make a modern dropper post, we called it the "Elevator Shaft" I have a long history of dropping my saddle starting in the late 80's, using a Hite-Rite and the Elevator Shaft was derived from that idea. Actually there is a long story of how this all became to be.

I knew Dan well. He passed away too soon. Dan was kinda rough around the edges but once you got to know him, you understood his genius behind what he did.

Why do people complain about headset routing so much? My Spark RC, as well as other bikes I own and never have a problem with it. How many times do you service your brakes lines or, if any other cables in a year? If you are running electronic shifting and dropper, you only have one brake line going through the headset. Yes, that one time per year(maybe) it's a little bit more of a hassle.

So the ebike companies and riders want unlimited access to trails, yet they want unlimited access to power to the bikes, WTF?

Nino should take the Dangerholm Spark RC gravel bike, unfortunately it's not his size though. I've been a huge proponent for FS gravel. The Trek Checkout certainly is a bike that I've been talking about since Trek released their SuperCaliber. Scott, Specialized, Orbea and many others have XC FS designs that could be adopted to a dedicated gravel bike. I believe 60-80mms f/r will eventually come.

32" wheels are coming and there is a place for them, although I'm not the demographic(I think) being just short of 6' tall. I think the bike industry is in a bad place right now and then the industry wants to add another wheel size, which will add sku's to bike shops and distributors inventory. This isn't 1993, where everyone was coming out with wild and crazy parts and the industry were eating them up. I hope for the best, but I see 32" hurting the industry, not helping it.

The headline 'I've Never Used My Brakes So Much on the Climbs' - is one the biggest reasons I hate ebikes...