BMC showed us a prototype of the dropper post their athletes are racing on in the World Cup. It’s based on BMC’s dropper which is already integrated directly into the frame but has in addition a function that allows athletes to save a considerable amount of movement during the race and therefore energy: the seatpost, on command, drops by itself without the need for weight of the rider.
This is possible thanks to a pneumatic chamber inserted inside the frame with a valve that allows the air to be expelled and this depression allows the seat post to lower itself by just pressing the control on the bar.
Currently, the only new feature of this system, still in the prototype phase, is that the pneumatic chamber must be inflated regularly to allow automatic lowering to work.
BMC technicians stated that an air pressurization, easily achieved via a traditional pump, offers complete coverage for a World Cup race.
The “automatic” seat post is compatible with all BMC’s integrated telescopic seat posts, although obviously for the moment this is a prototype developed and created exclusively for their athletes … but who knows, maybe it’s a solution that can soon start spreading to normal users as well…
