BONTRAGER LINE ELITE

£344.99

SPECIFICATION Weight: 586g, remote 50g • Drop: 100, 130, 150, 170 and 200mm • Sizes: 31.6mm, 34.9mm • Contact: trekbikes.com

With its plain finish, the Bontrager Line Elite apes the Giant Contact Switch and Brand-x Ascend droppers, but it actually has some better features, is lighter and comes in a ton more lengths, which is good news because it is twice the price of these two.

What you get for your money is a cable-operated, internallyrouted post in five different drops and two diameters. It is worth mentioning that only the 34.9mm is available in the longer 200mm length and that there is no 30.9mm option, which is a pretty common size.

Operating the post is an underbar remote, which has a two-bolt fitting, so if you’re running SRAM or Shimano brakes you can ditch a clamp and save a bit of weight. The remote has a split clamp, allowing you to squeeze it in next to the brake lever without having to remove the controls. The inner cable is anchored at the remote end, which really speeds up installation, and you can also finish this off with an end cap, something you can’t do if it’s routed the other way. The remote has twin axis adjustment and is also pretty long, so there’s scope to get it exactly where you want, but it also has a lot of lever throw, which might not be ideal if you have short fingers.

There’s very little play in this post and it also has a light action due to Bontrager’s new Max Flow technology, although it doesn’t feel quite as smooth as the Bike Yoke. But you can adjust the travel by 10 or 30mm using some push-in shims. They’re easy to fit and future-proof the product.

Due to a combination of the head and 25mm collar, the post does run a little bit tall, and it’s a bit pricey, but it has a really light action and excellent

range of lengths.