PNW Components Rainier Gen 3 Dropper Post And Loam Lever Review
We subjected a PNW Rainier Gen 3 Dropper Post and PNW Loam Lever to a 13 year-old lad who does his best to put his bike through the wringer over the course of a season. This trio of participants rode hard from Virgin to Bend to Port Angeles. Not one of them gave up. Click the jolly red buttons below to get a live price. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Ahhhh… the dropper post. Over the last few years, this accessory has become mandatory for mountain bikers. With the press of a lever, you raise your saddle to get optimal leg extension on the pedals and then a couple of seconds later – another quick actuation, and the saddle is out of the way for the descending. Doing this over-and-over along a ride adds up. Doing it over the course of a season for avid riders and the count is easily in the tens of thousands if not billions.
Right off the bat, we have to let you know that PNW has differentiated itself from other brands by integrating a tool-less travel adjust system. Over the range of 30mm in 5mm increments, you can reduce the travel of the Rainier Gen 3 post. This is cool because as you know, kids grow. Yes – of course you can raise the post out of the seat tube to adjust the height until the minimum allowance of the post is in the seat tube. But if you get the post for your kid early enough, you get over an extra inch over the course of a growth spurt. Very cool.
How The Rainier Gen 3 Tool-less Dropper Adjustment Works
Like your office chair with a similar feature, you just want the dang things to work. Sure, we don’t subject our chairs to dozens of up-and-down cycles over the course of a rigorous shift at the desk, but you get the point. Maintaining a dropper is to be expected, so we were sure to use the dropper for several months before letting you know what we thought about it.
How To Install Your PNW Components Rainier Gen 3 Dropper
The Rainier Gen 3 Dropper
With a number of diameters and travel lengths to choose from, it’s simple to find the right model – say one with a 30.9 mm diameter and 150 mm travel. The post consists of a sealed air cartridge designed to hold up to plenty of use. It has internal cable routing, as well as a shortened overall length, meaning that you won’t have to worry about it being too long for the seat tube of your bike.
Installing the Rainier Gen 3 was simple. We liked the fact that the head of the derailleur cable gets attached to the base of the post instead of the lever. This makes it a lot easier to measure, cut and just crimp a cable tip.
The Loam Lever
The Loam Dropper Lever is both stylish and functional. It comes in your choice of colors, as long as they’re gray, red, black on black, or even a cool black with seafoam teal accents. It has an ergonomic handle that features an injection-molded pad. It adjusts in two different ways, ensuring that you can comfortably move your seat to the correct height. The lever weighs a mere 32 ounces without the clamp and is compatible with several popular droppers other than the PNW Components Rainier Gen 3. Get bonus style points by adding matchy-matchy PNW Loam Grips to the ensemble.
You Will Like This Dropper Post And Lever
The PNW Rainier Gen 3 Dropper and Loam Dropper Lever have held up very well for our kid across six months of heavy use in the desert heat and PNW moisture. We have had no issues with the post sagging, slowing down when traveling, getting stuck in place. It just works. The Loam Lever is still buttery-smooth and has even survived a couple of above-average crashes. We have not had to do any maintenance or adjustments and we are looking forward to seeing how the combo continues to perform. If you’re done with bleeding a dropper or having reliability/maintenance issues with other brands, the offerings from PNW Components are definitely worth a look.
