Fox Transfer Performance dropper seatpost review

Super reliable dropper post that's easy to set up and use

Our rating

4.5

299.00

Mick Kirkman

Published: October 29, 2016 at 9:00 am

Our review
Easy to set up, lovely to use, well priced for Fox and it’s proven super-reliable so far Buy if, You're looking for an easy to set up dropper post that's reliable and well priced

Pros:

Easy set-up; super-smooth, controllable operation; competitive price

Cons:

No 27.2mm diameter or 170mm stroke options

The Transfer is a totally new post with much more refined performance and rider control than Fox’s previous DOSS dropper. Fox gets off to a great start by selling the post and remote separately so you can choose either the horizontal-sweep lever tested here, which replaces the left-hand shifter when used with a 1x set-up, or the ambidextrous vertical-sweep option if you’re still running a front mech.

Once you’ve got the outer cable threaded through your frame (or not, if you choose the externally routed, seat-collar release version), set-up is relatively simple.

There’s no noticeable head movement on our test post even after several months of deliberately hard and often filthy use, and the lever is still smooth and rattle-free too

You start by threading the inner cable through a free-rotating barrel that removes potential shearing and chafing loads. That then hooks into the actuator arm on the bottom of the post, making it easy to undo if you need to remove the dropper from the frame for transport or to use it in another bike. The inner then threads through the remote, where it’s clamped in a narrow-bore tunnel that stops it fraying when you tighten the grub screw.

After that, just trim the free end, stick on a nipple and tuck it neatly into the notch in the remote lever, taking up any slack with the barrel adjuster. Then clamp the saddle into the twin-bolt, multi-tool-friendly head, and from our experience that’s likely to be the end of it.

Super smooth feel

The large-volume, low-pressure hydraulic cartridge means both the lever and stroke feel super-smooth even if you’re not totally centered on the saddle, so you can modulate the ‘infinite’ stop point and return speed with hydraulic levels of modulation. The fully-open return speed is on the fast side, but not nut-crushingly so, and full extension is communicated with a clear clunk.

There’s no noticeable head movement on our test post even after several months of deliberately hard and often filthy use, and the lever is still smooth and rattle-free too. That already puts it ahead of most dropper posts and, despite the all-new internals, suggests it could prove just as reliable as its predecessor.

The Transfer is mid-pack in weight at 610g. It comes in 100, 125 and 150mm stroke options, 30.9 and 31.6mm diameters, and a paint-friendly static-line external version for the same price too, so it’ll fit most bikes. The same options are also available on the Factory post, which has a gold Kashima-coated shaft to match Fox’s Factory series forks and shocks.

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