Its simple design puts reliability and durability over 'extra' features
For a company responsible for some of the most popular saddles in the world, you would have thought SDG would have had a plethora of dropper posts in their range by now. But SDG are a company that like to wait and play the long game. Looking at how droppers have revolutionised riding SDG knew they had to have one of their own but they wanted it to be the right one.
Affordable, durable, simple and light of action.
SDG Tellis Need to Know
- 125mm or 150mm drop options, with 100 and 170mm coming soon
- 30.9mm or 31.6mm diameters
- Sealed hydraulic cartridge system, easy user serviceability and replacement
- Infinitely adjustable travel
- Featherlite thumb actuation
- Cold weather tested down to -20C
- Low stack, 2-bolt 7075-T6 aluminium head
- Under-bar left hand lever supplied
- Two year warranty
- £219 including remote
Boasting one of the lightest lever actions on the market.
The best mountain bike dropper seatposts
The new SDG Tellis post has been created to answer four of the main issues with existing droppers; that of durability, simplicity, featherlight actuation and affordability. SDG’s effusive owner, Tyler Anspach is passionate about the new post stating, “Throughout the development, we sent 120 posts to SDG athletes, product testers and key product managers at several large bike brands, from all over the world. The final results have all been positive and that was the ultimate goal. SDG will never put our name on a product we don’t believe in – that’s why we’ve remained committed to saddles and not just throwing our name on products for the sake of making a buck.
After two years of testing, refinement, along with countless hours on a highly-sophisticated test rig and passing all required ISO and EN standards, SDG is confident the new Tellis dropper post is exactly what we’ve wanted all along. It is an affordable, easy to work on and above all else, a reliable dropper seat post.”
First impressions
The Tellis’ remote lever might lack adjustments but has the lightest throw of pretty much any dropper we have tried.
We have been lucky enough to just receive a 150mm drop post to test over the coming weeks but we also managed to get a go on one at Core Bike a few months ago. The lasting impression of the Tellis is just how light the lever action is. Something that will hopefully remain thanks to the sealed cartridge system. The finish is equally impressive with a neat, slim collar housing wiper seals to keep the crud out and a scratch resistant, hard anodised outer to keep it looking fresh.
Low profile head is suitable for any style of saddle rail.
Whilst SDG hasn’t pushed the envelope of innovation by using a basic sealed cartridge to control the movement, what it has done is made the post super reliable and even better than that, super easy to service at home. Replacement cartridges will be available from Silverfish (SDG distributor) and through SDG dealers. Furthering that emphasis on practicality, the cable fits nipple first into the actuator at the bottom of the post making it easy to adjust cable tension on the fly. It even uses ‘Intelligent Keyways’ to prevent the typical side-to-side play that can develop in dropper posts over time.
It also looks like the Tellis will be coming as standard on quite a few bike brands for 2019 thanks to SDG’s simple but effective design.
The Tellis is pretty simple to strip and maintain.
We’ll be bringing you a full ride review of the Tellis to the site within the next couple of weeks.
The SDG Tellis will be available through SDG dealers and UK distributor Silverfish.