Review: BikeYoke 213mm Revive Max 2.0 Dropper Post

The Max increases not only the outer tube to the largest industry standard, but more importantly, the stanchion from 25mm on the standard Revive 2.0 post that Dan Robert's reviewed last summer, to 28mm. There are four travel lengths in the Max lineup; 125, 160, 185, and finally the 213 option that goes for €440 through BikeYoke's direct sales website.


Construction and Features

Not all dropper posts are made equal. 34.9mm seat tubes were built to increase stiffness through the frame, therefore larger seat post components should go hand in hand with that. Many of the posts that are equipped on frames with 34.9mm seat tubes use the same stanchion as their 31.6 or 30.9mm counterparts. Some bikes use a 31.6mm post and a shim to bring it up to the 34.9mm frame spec. This is simply a cop-out for reusing parts and totally erases the point of building the frame with the larger tube diameter. BikeYoke specifically chose a precise 28mm diameter stanchion on the Revive Max for a balance of weight and stiffness. Any thinner and they found that the post began bending too much, another cause of stiction.

Stefan Sacki, owner of BikeYoke, went on to explain why they landed on the specific stanchion size. "We could have also made 29mm and 26mm, but then, again, the wall thickness of the lower tube gets too thin and this means the post will be more sensitive to clamping force. You need to find a good compromise between maximizing the upper tube diameter but at the same time make sure the lower tube does not get too thin. It needs to resist the clamping force of your seat collar, otherwise your lower tube gets squeezed and deformed. Sometimes you can see this when posts are not clamped properly; either they slip inside the seat tube or they feel very sticky. That's why we went for 28mm and 25mm."

Like the regular Revive post, the hydraulic architecture does not rely on an Internal Floating Piston (IFP) for actuation. Instead, the open design only uses only two dynamic seals and can be bled in a matter of seconds by holding open the valve with a 4mm hex wrench, pushing the post from full height to the lowest position, and finally closing the valve before taking weight off of the saddle. Hence, the product name, Revive. The post should not be actuated when upside down or air will surely enter the system.

BikeYoke claims that the short list of seals leads to incredibly smooth action throughout the travel and includes a lever with a 4mm hex extension. Other well-executed touches are the laser etched instructions on the lower tube, such as the minimum insertion depth and a cable length cutting guide that came in handy for the install.

Dan went on to cover in full detail the operation of the Revive in his review and I wouldn't dare try to out-do his efforts to explain the system. At a glance, the Revive Max uses a ton of CNC-milled pieces, like the one piece stanchion and head, outer tube, actuator and housing stop, plus all of the pieces for the Triggy levers.


Specs and Pricing

Regarding the Revive Max 213, like the name states, the total travel drop is 213mm, but the greatest asset is how this post takes advantage of the 28mm stanchion diameter and is only available for 34.9mm seat tubes. If you're looking for the same drop, but your frame has a 30.9 or 31.6mm seat tube diameter, check out the Revive 2.0. The total insertion depth is 295mm with the housing stop and actuator taking up another 32mm. A minimum of 130mm of post is required to stay inside the seat tube before you risk damaging the post or your frame.

As for the pricing and weight, the Revive Max posts starts at €360 for the 160mm travel post and climbs to €440 for the longest 213mm dropper on test here. That makes the Max only €10 more than the standard Revive, but the weight climbs by roughly 50g for the increased stanchion diameter to 690 g, including the clamps and hardware. Titanium bolts are also available for just under €25 to save a handful of grams and use a T25 head.

BikeYoke does provide a cable, housing and ferrules, which is a nice touch. The price doesn't include the lever because there are four choices: the original Triggy, Alpha regular or short, and the old school over the bar remote that will leave room for "Twin-Lock" lever configurations. They also produce other dropper posts, such as the shorter, lightweight XC-race Devine series, plus controls and contact points like stems, grips, saddles, and other trick finishing bits.


Setup

BikeYoke provided clear and easy to follow instructions with the Revive Max 213 and the installation was fairly straightforward. Clamps and levers are sold separately to open up customizable options for the rider, depending on their brake setup and preferred lever positioning. The Triggy Alpha and Short levers can articulate to be positioned at your desired angle and clocking. They also include their own clamp and will work with SRAM MatchMakers or I-Spec interfaces. I preferred the short lever because it left enough space for my thumb, since I position the brake clamp band closer to the grip lock collar than most other riders.

Small complications that arose on setup were caused more in part by the bike on hand, a Norco Range, rather than the post itself. The seat tube on the Range is on the short side for a size large bike at 410mm, measured from the bottom bracket to the seat collar. That's great for standover, but not for trying to stuff a post with 213mm of drop into a seat tube that is interrupted by a shock and still achieve a 700mm saddle height. The size large Range is spec'd with a 210 post that has the same insertion depth length, but the actuator on the Revive Max protrudes a hair more. Luckily, the Max has a slick feature that allows you to rotate the off-center housing guide.

Many of the posts that I've worked on in recent years have purposefully relocated the grub screw that pinches the cable in place from the actuator at the bottom of the seat post to a more convenient location on the lever. That's not the case with the Revive Max. Despite the well laid out install directions, the housing must be cut perfectly to length because changing the housing length will require a new cable once the grub screw frays up the end. Due to the narrow window of saddle height I had to work with, this became a small nuisance and will be something that other home mechanics will have to come to terms with too. A neater approach would be to fix the dead end of the cable to the actuator and clamp the cable in a groove on the lever.

BikeYoke advises storing the bike right-side up and to leaving the post compressed about 15mm to prevent a hydro-lock where the remote can become still with temperature change.



Riding

This was my first experience with a BikeYoke dropper post and immediately, the silky smooth system left me impressed. At first, I thought it might be that fresh "out of the box" action, but would that feeling disappear through a winter's worth of riding?

The Revive Max saw endless wet weather, filled with North Shore grit and plenty of bike washes. Upon close and frequent inspections, the stanchion remained streak free, which isn't a huge surprise because the recommended service interval for a lower tube service begins at twelve months or one hundred hours of riding. We're only half way through that period, but the Revive Max has showed no signs of quitting with only the bare minimum in terms of service, a simple seal wipe after each ride.

You might not be surprised to hear that the post is also uber stiff for my weight, but don't forget, it's towering at 213mm above the main seal. That's something I have noticed on other droppers that could lead to premature failure, or at the very least, increased wear and sticky performance. The Revive Max is bar none the smoothest post I've tried and still remains so after six months of torturous conditions. With all of those good things said, there is some fore and aft play, which is a compromise to avoid bushing stiction. It's most apparent at full extension, but I never noticed any rattle or noises while descending.

At the handlebar, the Triggy Alpha Short kept the post in operation throughout the test with just one set of cable and housing. Basic mechanics will tell you that a longer lever will be even smoother, but I required the extra room of the short version around the grip to keep the lever from rubbing my thumb. Like a SRAM thumb shifter, the lever can be rotated to please all ergonomics. The paddle section of the lever is riddled with drilled holes, possibly to save some weight, but more importantly giving excellent grip with wet gloves. Even the cable actuated lever action remained light and could be engaged enough to slowly raise the post and stop before reaching the top of the travel when desired.

I did find myself burping the open system every second ride or even more frequently if the bike sat for prolonged periods. I wouldn't exactly call it annoying because it didn't happen over the course of a ride, plus it can literally be reset in seconds, but it did become a routine before setting off, much like checking tire pressure. The nature of the post is built around this feature to avoid full tear down servicing, which I can appreciate and is a minor quibble that you sign up for with BikeYoke's design.


How Does It Compare?

BikeYoke is one of the few brands to offer a 34.9mm dropper post, especially with the massive 213mm of travel. Neither Fox or RockShox offers dropper posts in 34.9mm, so shims are needed to accommodate those posts in 34.9mm frames, and they top out at 200mm of travel. That newer C1 version of the Reverb does have Vent Valve technology to purge air from the system, but you will have to remove the seat before beginning that procedure.

Common cost effective practice for some brands is to reuse parts across different travel posts. For example, the OneUp Components Dropper does overshadow the drop of other non-proprietary posts on the market with their 240mm V2 option, however, the same stanchion diameters are used across their model range. They do increase the bushing overlap for their whopping 240mm dropper in the 34.9 size, though, to compensate for the increased leverage.

In terms of price, the Revive Max isn't the cheapest option. The OneUp dropper starts at €199, which is less than half of the price compared to the Max at €440. Does that old phrase, "buy nice or buy twice" actually apply here? I haven't had a problem with any brand of dropper post in a long time, but there is a noticeable difference in the stiffness of the Revive Max over all other posts.

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Pinkbike's Take