Dropper posts are everywhere these days, thank god, but they all come with their own quirks and or irritating setup issues. So when the good guys at Spoke sent me out the new Fox Transfer offering and I excitedly pulled it from its packaging, I couldn’t help but wonder what faff might be involved in installing it.
Well, none is the honest answer, it was the easiest dropper post install I’ve ever done. Simply hook the ball end of the inner cable to the actuator on the bottom of the post itself, thread it through the outer towards the lever, clamp the cable at the lever end and cut off the excess. That’s it!
The post comes in two options, the Factory with a Kashima coating, and the Performance (our test sample) with a black anodised finish. Whilst the Kashima looks sexy as ever, there’s no real performance gains other than maybe a slightly smoother action which will be hard to gauge on something like a dropper post.
Ours came with the southpaw type lever for 1x setups, fitting neatly under the bar on the left and the narrow clamp allows ease of integration with brake levers and grips. Something that is immediately noticeable, and something I’ve never paid attention to on other droppers, is just how much modulation is available on the lever. Put simply, it means the return speed of the infinitely adjustable 150mm of travel is very easily modulated, not something I’ll care about most of the time, but a nice feature when required.
The up and down motion of the post itself is uber-smooth and is met at both ends with a pleasingly mechanical, bonk! The Transfer feels and sounds like a real quality item, something you can rely on when you really need it (and let’s face it, everyone really needs dropper post).
It comes in all varieties of fitment, as expected, 30.9 and 31.6 post diameter and 100, 125 and 150mm (our example) travel options. It can also be supplied in stealth routed mode, like ours, or external should it be required. At circa 520g, it’s right in line with its other competition.
The Transfer was hammered during its first two months on my test rig; up and down more times than a, well, you know! I’m a sucker for a dropper post, the epitome of its intended customer, I use it all the time, slightly down, slightly up, all the way down, all the way up and everywhere in between. Despite its higher than average vertical mileage and sincere lack of cleaning, it feels as good as it did when I took it out the box.
If you’re in the market for a saddle up and down’er, look no further than the Fox Transfer. Quite simply, its just like any other dropper post, only better!
Where to buy – Blue Shark
Words – Adam Wight
