CRANKBROTHERS HIGHLINE 7

£279.99

SPECIFICATION Weight: 615g, remote 36g • Drop: 100, 125, 150 and 170mm • Sizes: 30.9mm, 31.6mm • Contact: extrauk.co.uk

The price you see here is just for the post (with inner and outer cables), so you’ll need to stump up an extra £54.99 for an underbar Highline remote. That isn’t unusual, as plenty of companies offer the remote separately because it allows you to mix and match.

The Highline remote has a similar ball-and-socket style fitment to the X-fusion Manic, and you can adjust the lever position to multiple angles. Set up is easy too, with the cable looped into the base of the post and then anchored at the lever.

There is quite a bit of throw in the lever, but it releases easily and you can even add some Traction Pads to the blade to improve the grip, and obviously coordinate with your frame.

The architecture of this post is good – it has a twin bolt head with a unique split clamp, which allows you to install the saddle without having to remove both of the anchor bolts. Tuning saddle tilt is easy, although it’s not a lightweight or particularly lowprofile head. The Highline 7 does have a shallow 19mm collar, but it’s a long post and we couldn’t get it all in our test frame, making it too high for our leg length.

Internally the Highline 7 uses the same sealed cartridge as the Giant Contact Switch. It has the same twin Delrin keyways to help keep the post aligned, but play did develop in this dropper pretty quickly. The action is no different to the Giant Contact Switch either – it’s accurate rather than smooth.

Two great things about this post – the multi-adjustable remote and the split clamp head, but the Highline 7 is not a lightweight post and it’s also one of the longest for the available drop on test. Our big issue though, is cost – it’s effectively a reskinned Giant Contact Switch. If you want Crankbrothers branding, you could maybe justify the premium, but you’re paying twice as much for marginal gains in set-up and one extra drop and one

extra diameter.