First Look: PNW Components' Suspension Dropper Post and Gravel Line - Pond Beaver 2021
PNW Components have solidified themselves as a popular brand in the mountain bike scene, and now they're branching out a bit, offering components for our drop-bar compadres. While Pinkbike is a mountain bike site, we do share the sentiment that PNW did in their press release that, "biking is just another excuse to hang out with our friends" and that said, a lot of mountain bikers do cross over to the curly bars from time to time.
There are four components in the gravel line, a handlebar, stem, dropper post, and suspension dropper post.
The Coast Suspension Dropper is a different take on a dropper post by combining suspension with drop. The post functions as a standard dropper post would, but it adds in 40mm of tunable air suspension delivered via a dual chamber hydraulic cartridge. It's designed to help take care of larger impacts before they wreak havoc on a rider's skeletal system.
The post comes in 100mm of travel for a 27.2mm size and 120mm of travel for 30.9 and 31.6 diameters. It sells for $179 and $199 USD respectively.
The Coast handlebar is designed to be extra wide for better stability, control and more comfort - all helpful for those who like to take their bikes onto more technical terrain. The bar is available in 480mm and 520mm widths with a 105mm drop and 20-degrees of flare. It sells for $69.
The Coast stem was made to match smoothly with the handlebar and is a good option for not only gravel but also XC. It has a stack height of 38mm and is available in 60mm, 70mm, 80mm, 90mm, and 100mm lengths and weighs 111g in the shortest and 136g in the longest. It also sells for $69.
The Rainier 27.2mm dropper features 125mm of travel, quite a lot for a 27.2" post. It also has tool-less travel adjust just as the more aggressive Rainier Gen 3 posts do. The post sells for $199.
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Sorry, everyone else just said "insert reverb joke here," but no one actually wrote one. As you can see, comedy is not my specialty.
Yup, most gravel bikes are not only essentially the exact geometry and tire width as early/mid 90’s MTB’s...but they’re following the same innovation path as 90’s MTB’s, including: Tires growing wider, front suspension, shorter but still long stems, seat tubes getting shorter and top tubes longer, suspension seat posts, droppers (as funky as they were back then), bars growing wider, some are getting slacker, increasingly wild colors, etc. Exactly...next is risers (likely non-drop soon), full suspension, bigger knobbies, etc. Within a year or two, I expect “gravel bikes” to effectively be a 1995 hardtail MTB but with 29” wheels, disc brakes, and better functioning suspension and drivetrain =P
I kinda want someone to create an “updated” mid-90’s hardtail — pretty much a current gravel bike but with 60mm to 75mm front travel, narrow-ish 25” wide flat bars or risers that provide the proper steering force and ground feedback for a 70-degree head angle, 2.1” to 2.25” knobbies, dropper, cushy post/saddle setup, etc. Or alternatively, someone could start a company offering up-cycled 90’s MTB’s with disc brakes. They’d be just as fun as, if not more fun than, gravel bikes, IMO.
I don’t really want a gravel bike because I have some excellent vintage MTB’s as well as different eras of newer and old XC bikes — all of which are probably just as fun as gravel bikes (and my bikes are probably faster). My vintage XC bikes are all era correct and allow me to experience those eras again every time I ride them...it’s always great fun and thoroughly enjoyable, especially when I drop my buddies on their new bikes =)
Here’s my 1999 Tellico on my local trails (which are old-school trails I’ve been riding since 1992!): www.pinkbike.com/video/532712
Different machines for different types of riding.
For me gravel is all about touring and exploring new nature, forests, etc. A gravel bike is fast and you can easily cover 120km+ on it on a day, meaning you can really explore big areas. The bike is still fun to ride on dirt / gravel roads and even when you have to link your off road parts together with some kilometers on paved roads, it will still roll fast and it won't become boring like on an xc bike.
Where as XC bikes are noticeably slower, boring on dirt roads and even more boring when you need to hit some paves parts on your tour. Mtb for me is doing a 20 / 30km ride in a really small part of the forest. You don't do it to explore the nature, you won't cover enough distance on it (especially not on technical trails). You do it because you want to challenge your riding skills on technical terrain.
Where as suspension on a mtb is aimed at being able to tackle more technical terrain and keeping more speed through techy sections.
That said I'm not a fan of telescopic suspension (seatposts) for gravel: it has too much friction and will only absorb the bigger bumps. While the whole point is to absorb the constant general chatter, which is being done more effectively by introducing proper flex into the rigid forks, rear triangles, handlebars, rigid seatposts (such as Cannondale Save) and stems (not talking about suspension stems, I would love to see some more horizontally flattened stems to absorb a bit extra chatter for gravel).
But here in The Netherlands it's flat (for any small hills I need to drive at least 2h) and even there it's all super smooth hardpack dirt. If I come into two 50m / 50 yards long semi-"technical" sections on an 80km / 50 mile ride, it's already a lot. In that case there is no point to drag an XC bike for a whole day, to have the benefit for less than a minute in total. And the difference in speed between a gravel bike and an XC bike is a lot higher on this smooth surface.
So it really depends on many factors which bike is "perfect".
That said, I am happy we have such a wide variety of choice in bikes: Really everyone can find something that matches their riding style and local trails perfectly.
I see this sentiment a lot, and I understand where it's coming from with all the BS marketing, but the reality is that gravel bikes really aren't intended to be proper trail machines. (Even if some people have fun doing that.)
They're just supposed to be a 'better road bike', for the sort of real life, mixed-surface roads and paths that normal people have been riding their road and CX bikes on for decades. There is still a place for that style of riding, and there's no reason manufacturers can't build well-considered bikes for that purpose.
There is a massive market of non-competitive riders who want to do long, speedy rides for fitness and recreation, and want the comfort a gravel bike provides, but have no intention of pushing the bike off-road. Yes, a mountain bike or a hybrid can be used on the road, but you'll hate your riser/flat bars as soon as the road opens up and you're trying to cover ground into a strong headwind.
Just like mountain bikes, there is room for road bikes to evolve, and gravel bikes are the modern iteration of a 'fun' road bike. Unregulated by the UCI, and other forces that have kept road-racing bikes stagnant for decades, manufacturers are now experimenting with all kinda of stuff, and road cycling as a whole is better for it.
It's definitely frustrating seeing beginner cyclists buy gravel bikes under the false promise that the bike can 'ride roads and trails'. The reality is that most beginners will suffer pretty badly trying to ride anything technical on a gravel bike, and that sucks. But that's not the bikes fault, just shitty sales people.
It also confuses things seeing gravel bikes reported about on Pinkbike, (implying they are for trails) but in reality, I think Pinkbike is just expanding their coverage. PNW is mainly a MTB brand, and there are a lot of riders on this site who road cycle, so presumably there is interest. You might have seen the posts where they feature articles from their Cycling Tips sister site as well.
I kinda want someone to create an “updated” mid-90’s hardtail — pretty much a current gravel bike but with 60mm to 75mm front travel, narrow-ish 25” wide flat bars or risers that provide the proper steering force and ground feedback for a 70-degree head angle, 2.1” to 2.25” knobbies, dropper, cushy post/saddle setup, etc. Or alternatively, someone could start a company offering up-cycled 90’s MTB’s with disc brakes. They’d be just as fun as, if not more fun than, gravel bikes, IMO.
Different machines for different use.
In my next Post?