In January, DT Swiss launched their carbon D232 ONE dropper seatpost, aimed at the XC racer. Now, they have an alloy model that keeps all the same features, except with an aluminum post rather than carbon fiber. It adds a few grams, but comes in a lot cheaper.
The original carbon D 232 ONE weighed in at 369g. This new alloy D 232 weighs 416g, adding 47g. But, it’s €164 ($180) less. To be clear, even the ONE uses an alloy slider, but the saddle clamp area and post base are carbon fiber, and it uses titanium hardware. Here, its all alloy with steel seatpost clamp bolts.
Both use the L1 Stageless remote thumb lever, which comes in at 16.9g. Just add cable and housing.
The upside down dropper slides the upper shaft over the alloy tube, letting them offer a narrow 27.2 seatpost option. There’s also a 30.9 post, and an optional shim to fit them into a 31.6 ID seat tube.
The internals are the same for all of them, and it’s all mechanical and can be serviced without tools (and without taking it out of your bike). The post uses a simple coil spring to push the post back up. Balls catch inside indents to lock the post into it’s dropped position, or raised position.
It’s all or nothing, which means no intermediate positions mid-way down. But with just 60mm of travel, if you need to use it at all, chances are you’re easily smashing it all the way down.
We covered the complete internal tech in our story on the carbon D 232 ONE post, along with some first ride impressions.
Total post length is 400mm, and minimum extension is 210mm…meaning, you’d need up to 190mm of straight seat tube if you’re slamming it and still have 210mm plus your saddle’s height (so, figure, about 260mm) from the top of the collar to top of your saddle for this to fit.
