Hope Dropper Seat Clamp – Review
Hope are well known for their beautifully engineered components, we check out this elegant solution to a first world problem.
If you have a trail bike, chances are you run a dropper post. If you don’t, chances are you are sick of people telling you how good they are, or else disappearing every time you have to pop off and adjust your seat height. That or you have a miserable time getting your saddle rammed into your special areas. Either way, you should get one! Once you have one, you have a choice – fancy stealth routing up the inside of your seat-tube, or the more maintainable but potential snakes’ wedding of an external solution.
Helping in the fight against snagged or kinked hoses is this dropper specific seat clamp from Barnoldswick’s finest. Based around the classic Hope seat clamp it features some precise machining and a high quality bolt. The subtle lip on the top of the clamp means it seats perfectly on your frame, the fit being snug without being tight. The centre of the clamp is machines out which serves two purposes, it trims the weight, but also allows you to move the hose-guide and swap it from one side to the other.
The hose guide itself is two parts, an arc that attaches to the clamp, and a captive piece that the cable runs through. This inner section can move easily as the post moves and having a slot cut in it means you don’t have to detach the hose to fit the clamp.
As a seat clamp it works perfectly, holding the seat post in place without causing any particular pressure points or wear on the frame or post so far. As a cable guide it works similarly well, and we’ve had no issues with snagged hoses or it working loose. As with all Hope products the finish is excellent with some nice laser etching and the usual range of colours.
The Dropper Seat Clamp is available in 34.9mm and 36.4mm sizes so should fit well with most frames that will take “normal” sized droppers, our 34.9mm one tipped the scales at 35g. At just a fraction under £25 they are at the top end of the seat clamp market, but offer a unique and very tidy way of looking after your dropper.
