Thomson Elite Dropper

Thomson Elite and Masterpiece fixed seatposts have been benchmark items for years, with many riders fitting them for their durability, low weight, ease of saddle angle adjustment and their long-lasting, quality finishes. But with dropper posts rapidly gaining popularity, Thomson’s and every other manufacturers’ fixed seatposts are becoming less desirable on trail and all-mountain bikes.

It’s taken a while but the aviation and cycling parts company from Macon, Georgia USA has finally released their own take on the dropper post. By coming along late, they’ve been able to learn from the success and failure of existing designs, in the hope of creating a dropper post that lives up to the high expectations created by their existing products.

The Elite Dropper has 125mm of infinitely adjustable travel, controlled by an easily placed remote lever. It can also be ordered with an under-seat lever. We tested it with the handlebar remote and the cable mounts to the movable head of the post. While plenty of posts use this layout, it’s not as tidy as posts that fix the cable to the lower, non-movable part of the post.

The internals consist of a nitrogen-filled spring that returns the seatpost to full extension, a grooved location shaft to keep your seat pointing straight ahead and an oil cartridge to damp the movement. The lower part of the seatpost is etched with the names of companies that Thomson partnered with to produce the Elite Dropper; industrial giant Trelleborg supplies the O-rings and seals, Norglide provides bushes and the whole thing is filled with Motul fully synthetic oil.

Some dropper seatposts allow for return speed adjustment by tuning air spring pressure, but the Elite Dropper does not—the mechanism is completely sealed and not at all user-adjustable. All you need to do is keep it clean, with soapy water if needed.

All up, the Elite Dropper weighs in at 598g including lever and cable, bringing it in line with most of its competitors. It clearly has the finish of a Thomson product; there’s the signature shiny black anodising on the knurled lower post, jewel-like machining on the remote lever and it’s topped off with the same forged twin-bolt head as their fixed height posts. Like all Thomson parts there’s nothing glitzy about it, but it has a decidedly high quality look and feel.

Set up was very simple once overcoming one slightly annoying issue; the supplied remote cable is on the short side and may only work on smaller frame sizes with narrower handlebar widths. With a longer cable on hand, it’s just a matter of tightening the pinch bolt and crimping the supplied ferrule to the cable end.

Silent & Solid

Out on the trail the most remarkable thing about the Elite Dropper is the very unremarkable way in which it goes about its business. It simply does what you want it to; there were no creaks, knocks or unexpected movement. At full length, slammed down and anywhere in between, it feels just like a regular seatpost. Some dropper seatposts do things that uninitiated riders worry about; they might move up from the dropped position when lifting the bike up by the saddle, or momentarily behave strangely after resting their bike upside-down—not the Thomson.

The actuation lever was simple and easy to use, if not the most comfortable out there. While the return speed of the Elite Dropper cannot be adjusted, it’s easily modulated with the lever and intuitive to use. I found that I was always confident that I knew what position the seatpost was in, even though it lacks a top-out ‘clunk’ to let you know it has returned to full extension.

While the test period was too short to truly gauge its long-term reliability, the Elite Dropper suffered no loss of performance during the review—not a drop of oil wept from the seals, it didn’t develop any play and there were no strange noises. From its solid feel and quality appearance, it is easy to believe that it would be trouble free during its two-year warranty period and beyond.

The cable routing can lead to issues but it really depends on rider preferences and the design of the frame that it’s bolted to. Some riders won’t like the prospect of a mud-covered and potentially abrasive cable rubbing up against the frame when the saddle height is adjusted. The cable routing didn’t bother me at first, but after some riding I noticed that the cable was jamming in between my frame and the upper suspension link when the saddle was dropped—I was unable to solve this problem on my particular bike. Fixed or ‘stealth’ cable mounting is the go if you’re likely to encounter problems such as this. The final catch with the Thomson post is the price; at $590 it carries a fair premium over its dropper seatpost rivals.

The price and cable routing mean that it’s not the ideal post for everyone but they’ve certainly come to the market with a strong product. It’s easy to set-up, intuitive to use and really built to last—something that many manufacturers continue to struggle with after many years in the game. It can only improve from here and Thomson is working on a version with stealth cabling as well as an entirely cable-free Bluetooth-controlled dropper post. Can’t wait to see what they come up with!

SCV Imports (02) 4353 2633 / www.scvimports.com.au