Crankbrothers is looking to make dropping your saddle simple. If you want a dropper post on your bike, there’s a new Highline for you. Whether your gravel bike needs a tiny bit of drop, the XC bike needs something mid-range, or your enduro bike deserves all the travel, the new Highline droppers have it covered in four different seatpost diameters, six different travel lengths & two price-points. Just pick and choose whichever is perfect for you…
2020 Crankbrothers Highline dropper seatpost family
Crankbrothers has greatly expanded their dropper post line-up with two spec levels and tons of sizes & travel lengths to make it easy to fit one of their posts to your internally routed bike.
Along with more size options, the new posts uses a lower insertion height & low collar stack, smoother actuation & faster return to get the most out of your off-road riding experience.
Tech details
The 7075-T6 alloy Highline droppers share much of the same tech, with the premium 7s getting a higher level of finishing detail, more precision & a couple fewer grams over the more affordable 3s. They all feature, Trelleborg seals, Igus LL-‘glide bearings’ (smooth sliding composite bushings) and Igus keys in machined keyways for smooth actuation & minimal rotation (side-to-side play at the saddle.) They feature an inline, quick connect cable mechanism at the bottom of the post for easy to set up internal routing and come with premium Jagwire cable & housing.
One place where they differ, the Highline 7 droppers use an Internal Floating Piston (IFP) separate air & oil cartridge to pop the saddler back up smoothly every time. The cheaper Highline 3 droppers use a simpler mixed gas & oil emulsion cartridge, which in theory means it will never suffer from air creeping into the oil since it is already supposed to be there in the first place. Both levels of droppers also get 2-bolt heads, with the Highline 7 getting a quick disconnect head to make it easier to swap saddles.
Pricing, options & availability
Depending on model, the Highlines come in 27.2, 30.9, 31.6 & 34.9mm post diameters. Six travel length options are also available from 60mm up to 170mm. In the end there are 26 options available.
The more affordable Highline 3 has claimed weights of 400g (27.2x60mm), 460g (27.2x80mm), 485g (30.9x100mm), 505g (27.2x125mm), 565g (30.9x150mm) & 586g (30.9x170mm), including the post and the cable/wire (housing adds another ~25-60g).
The more premium Highline 7 has claimed weights of 475g (30.9x100mm), 515g (30.9x125mm), 551g (30.9x150mm) & 583g (30.9x170mm) making them about 5-15g lighter than the threes.
The Highline 3 droppers all retail for the same $199 and come with a two-year warranty. The Highline 7 droppers sell for $299, and also include a four-year warranty. Most all of the droppers are available now direct from crankbrothers (except for all of the 27.2 posts which will come in December 2019, it seems), and the carry-over $60 Highline remote lever is available separately.
