Dropper posts: (Almost) everything you need to know

Jack Pittens is the co-founder 9point8, an Ontario-based bicycle component brand known for its dropper posts and other innovative products. How did 9point8 get its start? What is your background? For dropper posts, is there an advantage to using a sealed cartridge vs. one that's tunable, or another design? How do you make a dropper post lightweight? Do today's buyers even care about the weight of a dropper post? Why do you assemble 9point8 dropper posts in house vs. outsourcing production to Asia? How often should riders service their dropper posts? What does service involve? Do you think adding electronics to dropper posts is a good idea? What are the pros and cons? Why do two similar dropper post diameters — 30.9mm and 31.6mm exist? And why are 27.2mm diameter dropper posts so hard to find? Why are seatpost head designs so complicated? How did the 9point8 INVRS pedal design come about? What else is 9point8 working on? Get more info at 9point8.ca. An automated transcript is provided at Singletracks.com. This episode is sponsored by Trailbot. Trailbot is the smarter way for trail managers to communicate updates without relying on social media. Don’t let The Algorithm bury your posts—easily share conditions and closures to your web site, social media and the app all at once. Best of all, it’s free. Trailbot is used by over 260 trail systems in 17 states and growing fast. Over 50,000 riders have installed the free iOS and Android apps to get official updates with optional push notifications, without having to see what their weird relative posted on social media. Learn more at trailbot.com.