I bought the oneUp V2 about a year ago. Hadn't heard of the PNW until yesterday. The OneUp has been solid. It was definitely worth the $$, Zero issues.
It's also worth noting that the OneUp post has a crazy short stack. When you have this post slammed down in the frame, the distance from the seat rails to the seat collar is shorter than pretty much any other post on the market. I specifically got this post for a bike that has a slightly longer seat tube than I'm used to, but since the dropper is so compact the fit works. Highly reccommend.
This is one of the best review/comparison videos I’ve ever seen. I really like your format of focusing on the advantages of each rather than ‘crowning a winner’.
Thanks a lot for the great review. A lighter lever feel, and faster rebound speed make a world of difference. I think the OneUp is hands down a much better post. I have had it ok my bike for over a year and it's flawless. Coming from a Command Post I love it.
Hi Mike, Thanks for the review, it’s a big help. I have two bikes, both with Fox Transfer factory posts. They are a great post, but, and this is the biggest difference, there is no service centre for them in my country. I service my fox factory shocks and forks no problem, the tools were expensive but worth it. I looked at getting the tools to the job. There are 13 fox tools listed to do a rebuild on the transfer!!!! I went to a site in the UK, the closest to me, the first tool was £100, the 2nd £125, the 3rd £520!!!!! And that’s UK pounds, by the time I convert to euro and add import duty I am well over €1000 for the first three tools! At that point I gave up! I think the engineers in Fox need to take a long hard look in the mirror. When comparing these droppers, there is not a single review that I could find that explains this or even points it out. I understand Fox will say that you should use their service center, but I am an engineer and should have the right to service my own bike if I choose, it’s a big part of my enjoyment of the sport. Even if fox offered a transfer tool kit, say for €500, I would pay that. But the current position is a rip off. I will be getting two serviceable posts. Please mention this in your next post review because Fox recommend a service once a year.
The insertion depth advantage of the OneUP is no joke especially if you are at the tall end of your frame size. I managed to get 180mm into my size small hardtail. 3 years later with annual maintenance, it is flawless. Feels great with a wolftooth remote.
V2 one up crapped out in less than 6 months of use. Dust seal kept popping out and actuator completely failed. One up promptly replaced actuator and it was easy to replace. So far so good and to be honest it feels better now than it did new. Definitely think it was a lemon. Great videos! Best bike mech tips out there.
Rainier Gen 3 is awesome. Just put one on my Rockhopper and it is perfectly stable and fast, smooth operation. I'm 215 lbs and it's solid as heck. Time will tell how it holds up.
Pnw also offers a lifetime warranty on all there droppers, super nice thing to know that they stand by that. I have the new loam which I believe edges out both of these
Mate, you’re. Usually spot on with your reviews etc but your comment about going for the more expensive droppers because there better. Had the One Up v2 for 2 years now used it in all uk weathers and it’s never failed, best post I’ve ever owned. Have owned a number of the more expensive and in your opinion better posts and they’ve all let me and my mates down. Reliability, insertion and maintenance One up and from the looks of it PNW wins every time. I can almost understand why people spend an extra £150 and go for the transfer, matching Kashima belt and braces. I originally bought the 175mm transfer for my large Hightower and it wouldn’t fit, where as the 180mm one up fitted perfectly). Why would you buy the reverb???? No honestly, why do people buy reverbs???
Heck yea man we agree with you! I'm pretty sure that every employee here at the shop runs the OneUp post on their personal bikes. It's been our favorite for a while now! -Tor
Great review, very well presented and all pros/cons for each post clearly shown/stated. Droppers have definitely come a long way in the last few years, much more affordable now for a decent post compared to 4 years ago. Love my 9Point8 FallLine, had it 4 years now and no issues what so ever, still feels as new with only doing minor service to re-grease the collar, but,. it cost me $425 back in 2016. I got this post because it was the only real option out there with the ability to run a setback head and that still seems to be the case today, no others making setback heads for those of us who aren't into the silly steep STAs on bike's these days.
thanks for making this video! watched it about half a year ago when deciding what post for my gf's bike. went with the 120mm OneUp due to not having much insertion depth on the giant frame
I seriously don't get it. I have a cheap one on my 2 year old hard tail that came with the bike, I have a nicer one on my new bike. Literally no difference, they go up and they go down. I don't understand this debate on buying an expensive dropper post. The only one I can imagine would be an electronic one that can be manually adjusted using the lever on the handle bar instead of using your weight.
I agree. The only things I care about are reliability, serviceability, and how quickly it returns. Other than that, I don't care about what sound it makes or how lightweight it is.
PNW for the win! "Cheaper" is never a good word - it has negative connotations. Less expensive is better. I have a Loam PNW - it's bomb proof buttery smooth goodness.
9:50 You failed to mention that for V2, OneUp sells a set of thicker bronze keys, so when the dropper is old and loose, everything wore in nicely, a user can purchase this set and adjust/swap to one of the thicker keys(2 or 3 sets included in complete set= 2x3 or 3x3), making the dropper tight again, reducing axial and side to side movement of the stanchion.
I've been running the Ranier 3 dropper for about 2 months now with a loam lever on my trance and it is flawless. I needed the micro adjust to have it slammed in the frame with a 150mm dropper minus 10mm on the quick adjust.
Got the Rainier for the micro adjustment. Ended up being able to run it fully slammed in my new frame. No ragrets. The collar detail looks great with my black frame, along with the new black loam lever.
PNW Components is better because they are 45 mins away from me. Not to mention I love their customer service and I was one of their original customers many years ago :D
I would suggest to had 1 element, sub-zero use. PNW has a spring instead of air pressure, which will work better since temperature doesn't affect spring rate.
Great video, Mike! Delightful and informative as always. But... ,Here's my personal philosophy: go as expensive as you can on a very crucial and much needed part on your bike, because when dropper stops working, the rest of the ride will guarantee to suck! I've fox transfer on my both bikes and one of them had over 2 years of zero maintenance and zero issues! Besides..., Let's face it..., How often does a rider spend on droppers per bike? If you get the best and be done with it, then it's the one dropper you've , if you start with something shitty , like rockshox reverb for example, then you'll end up buying 2 or maybe 3 droppers until you put the best dropper on your bike. This was my personal experience.
Ok not gonna lie... at glance, I thought I mistakenly started watching a Linus Tech Tips. The somewhat cheapo dropper that came with my Canyon Spectral seems to do a great job. It's my first dropper I've ever had, and I love it.
Best dropper post is definitely the brand x dropper post - feels better than quite a few droppers, with a faster return - and is very reliable, unlike reverbs...
I actually grew about 105mm since I started riding... I'm 26 so that was unexpected, now I had to change my 125mm ridge dropper for the new 150mm adjustable Loam to get more clearance 😂
the one up posts are flying off the shelf in the shop I work. Crazy popular atm. Godd reliable posts and easy servicing. What do you think about KS post?
I just got the rainier gen 3 with the loam lever, it did include cable housing and everything needed. And I had a 10% off coupon so I got the dropper and lever for like $223 shipped(they use FedEx which I love over the other services in the states). I would have got the OneUp had I known it performed better but the Rainier is still no slouch.
I'd add. The pnw posts don't go down at all if you have a slack seat angle. U have to push stretchy straight down .. if that makes sense. Like u can't push it down by sitting on the nose of the saddle. It gets stuck.
The thing I’ve learned with my command post is to let the seat rise in conjunction with your butt rising. That way there’s no smack. Keep the seat in contact with you as you return to a fully seated position.
My OneUp V2 210 on my Yeti SB130 went bad in 5 months. Waiting for my replacement from OneUp. Not happy with the reliability. It worked well, while it lasted.
A better comparison would have been the PNW Loam instead of Rainer. It's the $199 mark and has adjustable air pressure. Other than that, the features are pretty much the same, so messing with air pressure for rider preference would be a good add to the review.
Trying to find a V2 180mm in stock as we speak. Low stack height means my short legs(5'11 but only 31" inseam= 88.5 cm seat height) will fit perfect at full insertion according to my public school education measurements.
Any plans to compare either/both of these against the new PNW Loam dropper post? The Oneup definitely seems to win this comparison (it's better in every way except travel adjustablility and post price, although the PNW Loam lever costs more than the Oneup lever), however the new Loam Dropper seems to improve on the Rainer in enough ways to compete better with the Oneup.
Well done video! My problem is my stock Fix Transfer didn't go in deep enough and total extension is too much. I just need about an inch and half compelling code as well as then that amount off the fully extended. Right now I sort of just let it extend and push it back down a little bit.
Got a Rainier Also have a 210mm. I think in the 34.9mm version of the 200mm Rainier is actually lighter than the 210mm of the OneUp. I also wanted to lower cost and get that bit of style. I have a 31.8mm of the OneUp 210mm so I can compare a little. The biggest thing was stock. OneUp seems to have trouble keeping stock. Hope my decision is good, the 10mm extension and the less insertion depth don't bite me when I try it on the new bike. I also wish I got the light version Wolftooth remote now that I know the Rainier takes more effort. I have a Raceface on my oneup and noticed even that sometimes gives me cramps.
Great comparison. You mentioned at the end for a light weight rider they should pick the one up, does that mean it’s not good for a heavier male weighing 220 pounds?
My OneUp V2 stopped working after a year and a half of almost no use due to de pandemic. The post got up alright but it would go down as soon as I sat on it. It didn´t loose any air, it just wouldn´t get looked. Bought mine in ChainReaction so i thought, ok, no problem, I just send it back... They first told me the post only have one year guaranty, wich was a lie, it has two, then after waiting yet another week they say NOW they needed to see it before the send it to the manufacturer... long story short, I had no time to loose jumping through hoops so I had it fixed at my expense. Turns out it had a tiny 5mm, 20cent o-ring broken inside. there must be some kind of a desing flaw on the valve inside the piston that causes it to bite the o-ring or something, it has already happend twice on my bike. Apparently the factory knows about this issue. Can´t upload the link but look for this keywords before you even think about buying this lemmon: instructables Servicing the non servicable OneUp Dropper I spected more for almost 200 euros.
Hey Al, I'm sorry you had this experience. Throughout the history of the OneUp V2 Dropper, we've maybe warrantied .1% of them. They're incredible, especially for the price, and this is not a common occurrence we've seen. All MTB parts get bashed heavily online it seems these days, but the OneUp Dropper is really one of the only parts that everyone seems to universally love. If you're having trouble with the dealer getting this fixed over warranty, I would recommend reaching out to OneUp directly to try and sort of the issue. Explain what is going on, and I'm sure they'll be happy to help as their customer service is some of the best and easiest to deal with in the industry. I always like to say "if it's made by humans, there's a chance something will go wrong at some point", and unfortunately it sounds like you got a bad apple from the bunch. Luckily, OneUp happily takes care of any bad apples that fell from the tree 😀
I have a OneUp v2 post. Having trouble with it moving in the seat tube and then binding when tightening the bolt just enough to stop it twisting in the frame. Lots of friction paste applied BTW. I am awaiting a new collar with more depth and 2 bolts, if this doesn't solve the problem I will have to glue it in or something. Maybe it's so light because the metal on the lower part of the post is very thin? Never had this trouble with other droppers.
As someone who only has 210 mm of insertion length available, and someone who wants their dropper and seat post collar touching….. I’m forced to use the shortest insertion droppers possible. I’m 5’5” with a 28” inseam, and I prefer my bottom of collar to saddle height at about 185mm full up. I want about 140mm of travel, but only 210mm insertion which is IMPOSSIBLE for some reason. Even the one up (advertised as the shortest on the market) 150mm inserts 237mm, the 120mm inserts 207, but then I won’t be able to get to my highest riding height, while also being able to touch the seat post and dropper collars together.
I would probably ride the one up but I’m already on the line elite dropper from Bontrager which is insane but crazy pricey. Looking back I’d go something closer to the one up honestly
I have a 210 oneup and I like most things about it...except it does not like muddy conditions and needs a full clean after every ride. Often doesn't make it through an entire sloppy ride without slowing and losing the top inch. (I've had a few reverbs and a fox and never had those issues.. had others though)
Super comparaison I swap my reverb for a 150 one up on a canyon strive I would ant a little 180 but not anought seat tube length 😭 I don't try it yet since the covid 19 but it feel already great on my repair bike stand😅
I'm new to all of this stuff, so I am going to ask a dumb question: What length / travel do you get and HOW do you determine that length? Do you measure your current seat height from the top of the down tube to the bottom of the seat mount/bracket?
That’s exactly what you do, and let’s say your measurement is 190mm to the seat rails-like mine- then subtract 50mm and then go a size DOWN, so I use a 125mm. If I used a 150mm it would be too tall, a 125mm I just bring up 15mm in the clamp.
Thank you for the comparison. My biggest concern is durability. Which of these two will likely give me a more dependable ride year in, year out? thanks
Hello dude!!! I love your videos and I'm wondering if you can do a 2021 Fox 34 review. I'm getting the new Santa Cruz 5010 and it's the fork that goes with it I believe. Thanks!!!
I’m riding both the Gen 3 and v2.1 OneUp. The OneUp is by far the superior dropper. The Rainer almost feels like it binds when attempting to drop. Far too much force is required to get the seat out of the way. And when you want it out of the way at the last minute and often, it’s functionality is frustrating. And it’s slow coming back up. The OneUp v2 is fast, reliable and smooth. I would actually chose the v2 over the Yolk.