Giant Contact Switch Seatpost

I have an XL sized bike with a very long seat tube. This limits the size of dropper post that can be used with it. The key dimensions that affect this are the height of the collar, post head height, and travel combined. The dimensions I needed were slightly under almost every available option at the time. I picked up this Giant Contact Switch seatpost a few years ago to experiment with the height and fit. It has 75mm travel, the older style head and 2x remote. It was less travel than I wanted, but exactly the right size within a few millimeters so I gave a shot.

I bought this post used and noticed that the cartridge was weak right away. Sometimes, it didn't hold it's position and sometimes it wouldn't move when you activated it. I didn't see any parts available online so I visited the closest bicycle shop that sells Giant bikes. They had the cartridge I needed in stock on the shelf. The price was $60. I didn't have much into this post so again I gave it a shot.

Replacing the cartridge requires removing four small allen bolts, unscrewing the post collar and pulling the stanchion out of the main body. There are two small pieces of nylon that ride along the keyways. I was careful to not lose those. The cartridge is identical to what you see inside all of the cartridge style dropper posts. It is a small gas strut that resembles the air spring that keeps your hood or hatchback open on your automobile. Unlike your auto strut, depressing a button on the end allows the cartridge to move, but when the button is not pressed, the cartridge locks in any position. It will lock all the way up, down, or any point in between.

I cleaned the parts with a fresh rag and solvent then greased everything inside with Slick Honey. If this was a newer post, I would have leaned towards a thicker viscosity grease like you might use in bearings, but I wanted this to slide as easily as possible without any stiction. The tiny nylon pieces went back into the keyways and I put it back together. The newly refreshed post worked smooth as butter again! $60 for a fresh cartridge and about one hour of time figuring it all out was a good investment.

The "switch" part of the post is that it can be setup either stealth or external cable. I set it up with an external cable attached to their factory 2x remote. There is a barrel adjuster built into the cable right above the remote. This adjustment is crucial to getting it to work great. After you get the correct length housing and cable threaded together, the end of the cable at the remote must be clamped and cut flush. It is difficult to re-use the cable so you want to be slow and methodic to find the right length. There should be a tiny amount of slack which you can fine tune to the sweet spot with the barrel adjuster. Once you have it dialed in, the engagement feels light and positive.

I have used this dropper post for two years now and really don't have any performance complaints. I perform a five minute clean it up every month or two and re-grease the stanchion which helps it keep working great. There is a small amount of play at the nose of the saddle that I would estimate at about 3-4 millimeters. I want to complain more about it, but honestly never feel it while riding. This seat post has improved my older bike and it has worked well in all conditions. Four stars!