Are the BikeYoke Dropper posts the one you were waiting for?
Since a couple of years every new mountainbike out on the market is equipped with a dropper post. Some of them are well engineered, infinitive adjustable and relativly lightweight, others feature no name designs, are heavy and tend to break fairly easy.
Today we are looking at the products from Bike Yoke, a german company known for good quality and intelligent features. Can they keep up with the hype and which one should you get?
Awesome MTB tested the Bike Yoke Revive 185mm and Devine 185mm to find out which one is the right one for you.
Features:
Bike Yoke Revive 185mm
- Travel: 185mm
- Weight: 590g
- Price: 419€
- Fully user-servicable
- Spare parts are available for end-consumers
- Revive-Valve for easy reset
Bike Yoke Devine 185mm
- Travel: 185mm (adjustable by 5mm steps)
- Weight: 560g
- Price: 379€
- Fully user-servicable
- Spare parts are available for end-consumers
- auto-reset function
Quality:
Quality looks fairly similar on both posts, that means top notch! The Revive features some more CNC machined parts and thus looks more premium. The Devine on the other hand features the same clamping mechanism, screws and overall design. Both posts get full points in terms of quality and design.
The lower portion of the dropper posts feature a full 360 degree rotating mechanism. BikeYoke claims this will help you to insert even longer dropper posts in frame designs with a dent or linkage bearing in the way. Installing the Revive into a YT Jeffsy with a fairly short seat tube I found it useful to rotate the lower portion for a deeper fit into the frame.
Dimensions:
Numbers alone do not help the majority of riders so I will try to give you a comparison. We compare the overall length without the lower cable clamp.
- Bike Yoke Devine 185mm overall length: 484,8mm
- Rockshox Reverb 175mm overall length: 467mm
- Fox Transfer 175mm overall length: 505,7mm
As you can see the Bike Yoke will offer you the most hub in a fairly short package. That way there is a proper chance that you will be able to install a BikeYoke 185mm into a frame ridden with a 150mm or 160mm dropper post before. Enduro MTB wrote an article about whether a longer dropper seat tube will fit your frame. Check it out here: “Mounting a longer dropper post – will it fit my frame?”
Installation:
The installation process is fairly easy for a medium trained bike mechanic. Even though many of you will feel super confident about the installation process I would always recommend having a look at the instructions first. It’s like cut once measure twice.
Let us walk you through the steps real quick.
Inside the packaging you will find the dropper post, the BikeYoke lever and all the necessary cables, housings and endcaps.
First of all you remove the old lever, dropper post or seatpost and the saddle. Afterwards you can install the new dropper post lever, insert the shifting cable and run it through the frame. On the seat post itself there is an instruction how to cut the inner cable to the right length. For the exact length of the outer housing please have a look at the instructions. (Not too difficult 🙂 )
After cutting the inner cable to size you install the cable clamp and are finally able to insert the cable clamp into the post.
Install the dropper into the frame, screw on the saddle, cable tie the cable at your cockpit. Done!
BikeYoke Lever:
The BikeYoke lever is well made, feels solid and can be used for all different kinds of dropper posts. BikeYoke designed it so that you can choose whether you want to use it with a dropper posts that clamps the shifting wire at the end of the post or the lever. This lever can do it both. Compatibility is always a nice feature.
You won’t need a lot of force to activate both posts. In our testings the BikeYoke Revive needed a bit less pressure to activate the drop. That might be one benefit of the more expensive internal design.
Compared to Rockshox Reverb 1x Remote I wouldn’t call the lever better or worse. It will get the job done right. In Comparison to a different remote like the previous Reverb Remote the BikeYoke lever shines.
Resetting the dropper post:
To understand the benefits over other posts, you have to know about the problems of many current designs first:
"Many of the popular current seatpost designs are based on a hydraulic lockout-system, that relies on a perfectly sealing IFP (Internal Floating Piston), separating oil from air to prevent the seatpost from getting suspension feeling. There are a lot of difficulties to overcome, when using an IFP, because an IFP has to maintain 100% sealing function. If air can go to the oil side, your post will start becoming springy. This happens to a lot of posts in the market already and is the main issue, why posts need to be serviced."
BikeYoke designed both posts with different technologies to keep the posts firm. The Revive features a technology called “Revive-Valve”, with a small CNC lever or a 4mm Allen key you can quickly release air out of the chamber. You only have to turn the 4mm key or lever and push the post down by hand. This will automatically reset the hydraulic circuit to “new”.
The newer Divine on the other hand feature a design called “Auto-Reset-Funtion”. Every full drop automatically bleeds the hydraulic circut for suspension-free lock-out. Thats even easier than on the Revive.
Devine: Reducible maximum travel:
The Devine offers the feature to reduce the maximum travel. “If you need a slightly shorter post or just prefer a little less travel, the maximum extension can be reduced in 5mm increments, using the included clip-on extension/travel spacer.”
Most of the time riders would love to use full travel but frame geometry with short seat tubes can lead to a dropper post not going fully into the frame. That can lead to the post being slightly too long to pedal comfortably. On my YT Jeffsy the 185mm post was about 10mm too long. Normally the only way to solve this would have been to get a 160mm post instead. Not on the Devine. You can simply travel the dropper post down. In my case down by 2 Spacers, 2*5mm so instead of having 185mm my post runs now with 175mm. That’s the absolute maximum you can squeeze into my bike. Nice!
The process of reducing travel can be done if you have some experience working on your bike. One important thing to point out is to always double check to release all of the air out of the air chamber.
Out on the trail:
Revive:
“After mounting the Revive, the next step was testing it. First things first when I sat on the bike, I noticed that it sagged about 5mm into its travel. But after using the reset valve, which takes about 30 seconds with the included tool, it was completely firm. Riding it on the trail was in best meaning inconspicuous. It does the job which it is intended to. Giving pressure on the very well designed lever, which is pretty adjustable in terms of ergonomics, and the post comes up very smooth. You do not even necessarily have to get off the saddle, but just relieve a little weight, which makes it easier to control the hight the Revive is moving up to. Especially in counter climbs I liked the direct response when pressing the grippy lever. When the trail is pointing down again it is also easy to compress the post and get it out of the way, without the need to put lots of weight on the saddle.
Even after some more time during winter conditions with loads of mud and water, it still works relatively smooth. No servicing or adjusting was needed to keep it working.” – Marc from Awesome MTB
Devine:
“Before riding the Devine I had a Rockshox Reverb installed on my bike. The post worked most of the time, but was extremely annoying from time to time. When it was cold the post was slow, when it was warm it was super fast, you better serviced it once a season otherwise It could lead to serious trouble.
Everything I ever wanted was a dropper post to be that good that you don’t even think of it on the trail. Thats what happened with the BikeYoke Devine. I went out on the trail to get some riding impressions just to come back home and notice I haven’t even thought of the post while riding. And that’s what a post should do. It should just work. Up Down Cold Warm Mud Snow it doesn’t matter. The Devine kept working flawlessly since installation. Thumps up for BikeYokes dropper post lineup!” – Leon from Awesome MTB
Which one should I get?
Revive
- Slightly smoother
- CNC machined head
- More expensive internal design
Devine
- Auto Reset Valve
- Better quality/price ratio
- Slightly lighter
- Travel adjustable
To find out more about the BikeYoke Revive and BikeYoke Devine check out BikeYokes Homepage.
If you have any further questions feel free to comment below.