X Fusion Hi Lo Dropper

[Tubbsy]

So my hardtail has been neglected of late, and this week I decided to freshen up the drivetrain and add a dropper. I've become so accustomed to riding with one that I think the lack on the hardtail was putting me off riding it.

There wasn't much in stock in 27.2 when I was shopping, and not wanting to spend the $600 CRC wanted for a Thomson, I ordered the X-fusion instead. None of the local online shops had anything for me in 27.2

Build quality is nice, lever is clever, everything I need in the box.

Here's where the frustration starts. I installed the post without any trouble, all seemed to be working so housing and cables cut and cable tied into position.

Then I fitted the seat.

The post now wouldn't stay in position, up or down. Remove saddle, fiddle with cable tension, seems to work, refit saddle, not working. I go through this process repeatedly, and it's an irritating process trying to feed the bolts into those rotating cylindrical nut things. Somehow when the saddle is fitted, the actuator is being pressed hard enough to make the post think that it needs to move. With the saddle on it's incredibly difficult to see how this is happening.

I concede defeat, and email X-Fusion in the US, hoping I've missed something obvious. I wake up to this:

"Hi Tubbsy,

No, unfortunately there was a generational conflict with the lower saddle clamp. You can try reversing it, that usually solves the issue. If that doesn’t you can send it in and we can machine it to have a wider groove underneath to accommodate the activator bar.

Thank you"

Not that impressed with this to be honest. They have a known manufacturing defect out there, with a half arsed fix and no mention of it on their website.

Has anybody else fitted one of these and had this issue?

 

[blacksp20]

I ran a HILO 30.9 for several years without issue. When you are putting it all together the pieces (upper and lower clamps etc) should have an X marking on them. Always put the X’s toward the rear of your bike. Also make sure the cable routing is neat and out of the way of the clamps.
Put some pictures up of the top area and I’ll have a look.
If you think it’s faulty contact Duncan at DIYMTB as they are the Australian x-fusion distributor. He is very good with after sale service.

 

[Tubbsy]

Hey, thanks for the input.
All the x’s were definitely aligned, but oddly the recommendation from x-fusion (see email above) is to reverse it.

I feel bad about hitting up Duncan as this was a CRC purchase, so I’ll approach them first.

Just seems odd to me that they have a manufacturing defect floating around out there and don’t just have a replacement part to ship out.

Maybe it’s a tiny faulty batch and I’m unlucky.

 

[blacksp20]

Yeah could be. Have you tried putting it together without the saddle and tightening it down a bit to see what is touching?

 

[Tubbsy]

Good point, I haven’t tightened the clamp without saddle.

I’ll try that before I start complaining further.

I just found x-fusion’s response a bit odd. Not unreasonable, but inconvenient.

That is a risk of buying online from o/s

 

[Tubbsy]

Yeah could be. Have you tried putting it together without the saddle and tightening it down a bit to see what is touching?

OK, so I tried this today and I think I have the answer.

When I put it together as above and tighten it up, again the post functions correctly. Put the saddle on, problem returns.

The reason is that, without the saddle, I'm not rotating the clamp into the position it needs to be for the saddle to be flat. And when the clamp is rotated to that point, once you start tightening the lever is compressed.

I'm guessing that depending on the seat tube angle, some people will experience the issue and some won't.

 

[blacksp20]

That’s really odd. I just had a look at mine and I think I could run a 90 degree seat tube angle and still not have any issues. The hole in the lower clamp is massive and has a ton of room for the release lever to function correctly.

My post is a 30.9 so I’m wondering if it’s an issue with the 27.2 as the head area needs to be more compact to fit on the smaller diameter post.

I’ve attached pics of my lower clamp. If you’d like some measurements of the cut out to compare let me know.

 

[Tubbsy]

Hey @blacksp20 thanks for going to the trouble of doing that.

I called Duncan on your recommendation, and he's been very helpful in offering to ship out a different version of the clamp, or to machine mine for me. I think I'll order one from Duncan, and hack away at mine in the meantime.

Here's my clamp for reference.

Looking at the last image and comparing to yours, the radius of the cutout looks different and could be what's causing this.

 

[blacksp20]

Good idea speaking to Duncan.

The parts look very similar albeit much smaller on the 27.2. Guess there isn’t as much room for error with the compact design.

If Duncan is sending out a replacement, I’d have a go with the file and see if you can get it working.

 

[Tubbsy]

So I set to work on the clamp with the Dremel today:

First cut:

Installed and the problem persisted,


Second cut:

And success. It now just clears the actuator. It's actually the bolt that holds the cable in place that makes contact.

It's possible that the bolt position is marginally different on the 27.2 version of the post causing this issue.


So now we're installed and good to go:

This is the X-Fusion lever:

Quite clever because it can be moved in any direction, which allows flexibility of installation. As I have a remote lever for the fork, I put it in the shifter position:

Shakedown on the weekend, hopefully.

 

[blacksp20]

Good work on the mod. Hope it’s working well.

I like the factory lever but I found that my thumb slipped off it occasionally if I was in a hurry to drop the saddle down. Nothing beats a modded shifter. I recommend it if you’ve got one laying around and the bar space to fit it.