One of cycling’s greatest enemies is the stuff we love to hate. MUD. It can take a brand new chain and trash it in one super nasty race, grind brake pads down till sparks are flying, crush all but the best riders into submission, and just about ruin anything with moving parts. Aside from the frame, suspension forks and dropper posts are the some of the most expensive accessories on our rigs.
Because of the rear tire’s tendency to sling anything it grabs and send it flying up and forward, the dropper post and suspension fork are in the path of a constant mud shower and despite having even the best seals, those little particles slip past the barrier and slowly “wet sand” anything that moves against it.
What’s the answer? Mark from Bentley Components came up with as a solution with his Dirt Flap for our droppers and Rock Guardz first NON-Carbon Evo2stealth Mudguardz front fender to keep our stanchions clean at a tidy price…
The Dirt Flap, Born and bred in Yorkshire, is the world’s first dropper seat post guard. The Dirt Flap is CNC machined from engineering grade materials in small batches, and designed to last. It clamps to most standard seat rails and at the bottom of the stationary portion of the dropper post. It’s made so when you drop the post, it collapses without interfering. We’ll be getting our hands on some of these to put through the paces so look for a review in the future.
The Premium Dirt Flap on the left comes with stainless hardware and a universal post clamp he designed where as the Standard Dirt Flap uses plastic hardware and a Velcro strap.
If you are too cool for school, Bentley Components even have “Pimp my Dirt Flap” kits for you to show up your friends at the trail head. The Standard Dirt Flap with plastic mounting hardware retails for £14 ($22 USD approx) and £24 ($34 USD approx) for the Premium version with stainless.