Hot Lap Lightweight Dropper Post (31.6mm, No Lever)

Don’t waste your time. It’s cheap for a reason. Stopped working after two rides.

Glad I didn't spend nearly $400 on one of those other XC droppers.The Hot Lap is a functional dropper post of good quality. I'm six feet tall, and the 50mm of drop is ideal for XC and gravel, giving me just enough drop for rolling rythm sections and aggressive cornering without destroying my pedalling efficiency. The new aluminum lever has light actuation, no play, and an excellent range of adjustability ( in, out, up and down). Very nice lever and I see no need to upgrade like I thought I'd have to. The lever is good to go.The Hot Lap's 50mm of travel is smooth both up and down, and it extends up as fast as other droppers I've owned and rented. No complaints. I applied some leftover post grease from the last KS dropper I'll ever buy again, and it improved the return speed a little.I downgraded from 5 stars to 4 after about 1/8 inch of rotational and lateral play developed. This is after several rides and a couple hundred miles of rolling single track. It is rock solid up and down. I don't notice the play while riding, and I don't consider it a deal breaker at this post's very low price point. I can live with it.I had a 5" KS dropper on my enduro bike and liked it a lot, but I wasn't completely sold on the idea for my xc bike. That post developed some lateral play as well, and it needed a complete rebuild every year. The maintenance hassles and poor reliability of that post turned me off to the concept of a putting a dropper on my XC bike. However, on my first ride with the Hot Lap I PR'd three segments, nabbing two KOMs and a #2 of 3,000 riders on a twisty section of a heavily sessioned race course. I'm sold on the performance upgrade for xc. I like that having only 50mm of range means I don't waste precious time and energy trying to find the right ride height. I run it either fully up or fully down; no searching for a floating sweet spot somewhere in between. The short travel makes it very efficient to use on the fly.I'm hopeful that it will be low maintenance, and the two year warranty gives me peace of mind.The Hot Lap is reasonably light and I don't notice the extra 0.3 lbs over my old alloy post. Though this dropper is mostly blacked out with minimal bling, it looks sharp on my $3k hardtail.