At least 120mm drop, light, external cable routing and in good condition. For the Spearfish.

Very tempted to buy the ludicrously good value brand X, but it's just a bit heavier than I would like.

Have a look at a KS eten been using one on my full suss for the last 2 yrs , the cartridge went in may , sent it back and had it repaired and delivered within a week , other than that it's been faultless ,think it was about 120 when I bought it

I have a KS drop zone (31.6) I think. It might not be what you're after as the drop lever is under the saddle. But it has 125mm drop and is in great condition. Just doesn't fit my the bikes I have now.

Thanks for the advice; I do like the simplicity and weight saving of the drop zone, but prefer the ability to operate it 'hands-on'. I have a Reverb that's about 5 years old and rarely used now as it has been an unreliable PITA forever!

My 2 pence is...

1. I agree with the Reverb being a PITA and I dont even get why people still buy em in whatever iteration. Had one previously on a bike that came in for drivetrain overhaul and when I tried to operate it afterwards on the test ride: it was a biiig PITA and turned out customer was happy with its rubbish functionality. Then again my mate let me ride his Mondraker with a Reverb yeaterday at Gisburn... what a load of tosh and it took me 3 or 4 monutes each time to get it to compress (well maybe 10 seconds but still) and I couldn't believe that he didnt wanna keep riding mine with the Brand X vaguely exciting post (fair enough: it was a Boardman!!!)...

2. Dude, get the Brand X if you can... I just drilled into the Boardman Team(thank god for boardmans being cheap) and dropped ( ) in a brand X and it's just lovely as lovely can be. Smooth as butter and 3 year warranty at the price of 20 large Costas...

Sorry if it sounds like a rant

redefined_cycles wrote:I just drilled into the Boardman Team(thank god for boardmans being cheap) and dropped ( ) in a brand X

Hadn't thought of that - a bit worried that might introduce a weak-spot into the alloy frame?

I've just bought the external routing brand x - first impressions are that it is pretty good, but no long term experience yet! I've got a KS Lev dx (my favourite) a reverb (not great) and have had a specialized control post (pretty good but only two positions), and used to run a gravity dropper - I'd say the BX is the second best after the Lev.

Just pulled the trigger on the BX. Can hardly go wrong at that price; was almost swayed by the lovely looking Thompson Elite, on sale at Winstanley's, but it was still 3 times what I paid for the BX!

Do some googling/research before pulling the trigger (of the drill)... After a bit of reading around and maybe even asking the Spearfish folks, you should get an idea of where to drill for least structural impact/weakness.

I made 2 x 8mm hole (or was it 6!) then connected them with a couple of dremel cuts. Before drilling I found out where Boardman had made the hole in newer models of my frame.

One last thing, the Sonder I recently bought has a single round hole at front of seattube (as opposed to a stretcjed one like I made on the Boardman)....

Hope it helps sir...