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Gravity Dropper Turbo LP

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#61 ·
EnglishT said:
Presumably his legs aren't long enough to have a post sticking far enough out to use 3+ inches?

If he's long in the body and short in the leg, he might wind up with a larger size bike (to get the right ETT) and the longer seat-tube would mean he can't run as much exposed seatpost.
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Yes, that's it. 3 1/5 would be perfect but they don't exist. I just ordered a ks lev with 4" travel.

I do tons of reading and research before buying major components, so I'm confident I made a good choice. I still swear by gd reliability and cs, but one thing I had trouble with was hunting for that fixed middle position, usually at the worst time, disrupting my flow and focus. I was just waiting for one of these posts to stand the test of time through mutiple sources, this one looks promising. The fixed cable was a must have also.
 
#62 ·
masterofnone said:
Yes, that's it. 3 1/5 would be perfect but they don't exist. I just ordered a ks lev with 4" travel.

I do tons of reading and research before buying major components, so I'm confident I made a good choice. I still swear by gd reliability and cs, but one thing I had trouble with was hunting for that fixed middle position, usually at the worst time, disrupting my flow and focus. I was just waiting for one of these posts to stand the test of time through mutiple sources, this one looks promising. The fixed cable was a must have also.
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Thought it probably would be.

Interesting that you found it difficult to hit the middle position, I always found the 1" down position very easy to find.
 
#64 ·
Having gone from the original Turbo to the LP, I find that it is much easier to find the middle position on the LP, and use it much more often now.

One thing I have issues with is the seat clamp bolts snapping. I torque them to about 5nm and I've had two snap randomly after DH sessions. I've never had this issue with any other seatpost. Maybe 5nm is too much? Does anybody know what the specs are?

Other than the bolts, I've never had a failure.
 
#66 ·
chukulut said:
can anyone out there with a 4" drop turbo LP post measure the distance between the middle of the rail and the bottom of the wire extrusion part as shown in the picture? appreciate the help!!

View attachment 848263
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Depends on the seattube angle...

You're effectively drawing the adjacent of a triangle (which will change depending on the seat tube angle) - the hypotenuse can be measured (straight line between the points you mentioned) and that adjacent (the length you want) can be worked out with simple trigonometry...

The angle at the bottom of that triangle (within this image) is 90 minus your quoted seattube angle... so you'd need the measured length of that piece from the bottom of the wire extrusion to the seatpost rail and your seattube angle.

Adjacent (the value you're after) = cos(90-seattubeangle)*measured length.

(If you're happier with exact figures... I don't have that particular post to make the measurement you'd need though - I have the classic).
 
#68 ·
jn35646 said:
Oh yeah. I measured a direct line from cable attachment to the center of the saddle rail. Not nearly as exact.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
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So the measurement you took was straight down the middle of the post (from bottom of cable attachment to middle of saddle rail) rather than the vertical line drawn on that picture?

(If so, that vertical line on the picture would be 155.9mm on a bike with a 73 degree seat angle; 153.1mm on a bike with a 71 degree seat angle).
 
#70 ·
thanks jn35646 for the measurement!!
and thanks for the trigonometry lesson EnglistT :p
I should have drawn the line parallel to the seatpost, thats the
length I was after. looks like I'd have problem fitting the 4" drop post on me bike
 
#71 ·
Old thread but I have a GD Turbo for about 2 monhts now. On a recent ride it became really hard to get the lever to to activate the spring in either up or down position, whether weighting or unweighting. The seat position felt odd, it turned out the seat tilted upwards. I leveled the seat and then everything started working right immediately. With the seat tilted upwards maybe the weighting force was not in the right direction, it was much harder to get it to return then to depress.

Overall, I love the post, but the biggest aggravation is the lever, finding a good position and it seems inconsistent at times. Hopefully the seat tilting was just me not having it tight enough and not going to be an ongoing issue with the seat clamp.
 
#72 ·
It's hard to get even tension between the seat clamp bolts on slacker seat tube angles. The 'half-moon' component of the clamp will interfere with the aft bolt on these geometries. This is an known issue by the manufacturer. They told me that you can grind down the area that makes contact with the bolt, and that they are working on a revision to address this. Perhaps this is your issue?
 
Discussion starter · #74 ·
cjsb said:
Old thread but I have a GD Turbo for about 2 monhts now. On a recent ride it became really hard to get the lever to to activate the spring in either up or down position, whether weighting or unweighting. The seat position felt odd, it turned out the seat tilted upwards. I leveled the seat and then everything started working right immediately. With the seat tilted upwards maybe the weighting force was not in the right direction, it was much harder to get it to return then to depress.

Overall, I love the post, but the biggest aggravation is the lever, finding a good position and it seems inconsistent at times. Hopefully the seat tilting was just me not having it tight enough and not going to be an ongoing issue with the seat clamp.
Click to expand...
I have had mine for going on 2 years now and have had no issues with it at all like you are saying.

I have a right hand lever and run it upside down on the left side of the bar and it works like a charm. Maybe give that a try.
 
#75 ·
half_man_half_scab said:
It's hard to get even tension between the seat clamp bolts on slacker seat tube angles. The 'half-moon' component of the clamp will interfere with the aft bolt on these geometries. This is an known issue by the manufacturer. They told me that you can grind down the area that makes contact with the bolt, and that they are working on a revision to address this. Perhaps this is your issue?
Click to expand...
Maybe that is it, the half-moon piece seems to be the issue, can't rotate up ennough and still have threads into the clamp under the saddle, or it is very tight. I have a medium Yelli screamy, effective Sa 73, actual 70.4, don't kniw whether that is considered slack? i run about 9" of exposed post for proper pedaling.
 
Discussion starter · #76 ·
cjsb said:
Maybe that is it, the half-moon piece seems to be the issue, can't rotate up ennough and still have threads into the clamp under the saddle, or it is very tight. I have a medium Yelli screamy, effective Sa 73, actual 70.4, don't kniw whether that is considered slack? i run about 9" of exposed post for proper pedaling.
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I am also on a medium Yelli and am not having the same issue as you. I don't have gobs of the front bolt coming through the nut, but all the threads are engaged and just coming through the other side. Worse case scenario, can't you source a longer bolt?
 
#77 ·
My GD operated better after I fixed the upward tilt of the nose of my saddle. But after 2-3 rides the sticking returned. Very hard to activate down or up, I'd say 50/50 works on the first try.

So I took it apart following steps from tech Tuesday. It was very easy to take apart, big plus. There was not much grease on the inner post. What was left had broken down (assuming they used lithium grease shipped). There was zero grease on the shim flat surface, a little on the rails and zero on the inner tube. So i re-greased and reassembled. I was surprised how little grease was there given I have been using it twice per week for about 2 months.

Out on the street it goes up and down really smooth but now will not lock in the down position. I tightened the top cap per GD tips but that didn't help. The other option is to loosen the bottom cap.

When I took it apart the bottom cap was maybe 1" away from the bottom of the post. Tech Tuesday says tighten it back all the way until it stops, but this puts it way back in there, maybe 3" or more?

Anyone have experience with how far in to screw the bottom cap? It's probably just trial and error, PITA taking it out of the tube and testing...everything else was incredibly easy.
 
#78 ·
cjsb said:
My GD operated better after I fixed the upward tilt of the nose of my saddle. But after 2-3 rides the sticking returned. Very hard to activate down or up, I'd say 50/50 works on the first try.

So I took it apart following steps from tech Tuesday. It was very easy to take apart, big plus. There was not much grease on the inner post. What was left had broken down (assuming they used lithium grease shipped). There was zero grease on the shim flat surface, a little on the rails and zero on the inner tube. So i re-greased and reassembled. I was surprised how little grease was there given I have been using it twice per week for about 2 months.

Out on the street it goes up and down really smooth but now will not lock in the down position. I tightened the top cap per GD tips but that didn't help. The other option is to loosen the bottom cap.

When I took it apart the bottom cap was maybe 1" away from the bottom of the post. Tech Tuesday says tighten it back all the way until it stops, but this puts it way back in there, maybe 3" or more?

Anyone have experience with how far in to screw the bottom cap? It's probably just trial and error, PITA taking it out of the tube and testing...everything else was incredibly easy.
Click to expand...
Hey Dude, I don't know if your situation is that same as mine, but after I took my post apart and put it back together I couldn't get it to stick consistently all the way down.
What I found was that - I think it's part 62, Bushing, in diagram linked below - has very small fins or raised areas that fit into the slots in the outer post same as the inner-post shims do. Once I got that bushing lined up properly it seated down nicely in the outside tube, and I could screw the top cap almost all the way down to the bottom of the threads it goes on. Now my post stays down no problem.

GravityDropper Turbo Parts | GravityDropper - Adjustable Height Seatpost
 
#79 ·
Thanks, that is a good tip to know for future reference. I did repeated attempts of loosening the bottom cap until finally with about an inch before the bttom of th seat tube, the seat would stay in the down position.

I eliminated the top cap as the issue as I tightened the top cap so much that the seat would not go down, so i loosened the top cap and then focused on the bottom cap until it found the right spot. I am not sure why the bottom cap is far from being in the tightest position for it to work, but hey it works, and this looks like the same position it was in when I removed it, so let's call it returned to "factory settings".

It's a very simple post but don't understand the tightness issues with these two caps.
 
#80 ·
I think tightening part #68, the 'bottom cap', is only going to increase preload on the spring, the initial force required to get it moving. Mine is flush with the bottom of the post to minimize preload.

If it's not staying down I would check to make sure cabe tension is not too high.
 
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