DVO Garnet is cable operated, internally routed and has the corporate green livery which dovetails nicely with the company’s forks.

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It’s available with 125 or 150mm drop and the two main seat post sizes.

The key difference between this and other cable operated posts, like the KS Lev Integra or Bike Yoke Revive, is the Garnet is air sprung with a coil assist. This dual spring system allows the post to still work even if there’s a loss of air pressure. It sounds like sensible idea but we’ve probably tested every dropper made since they first appeared 15-20 years ago and we can count on one hand the amount of times we’ve had a dropper lose air pressure. That said it’s the feature is there if you need it.

The downside to using a coil spring is it adds weight and as a result the Garnet is one of the heavier posts out there. It also lacks proper under-bar 1X remote, coming instead with a push down paddle style lever. This design works if you run a front shifter but it sticks out too much and you have to move your hand off the bar to operate it. However, there’s nothing stopping you upgrading because there are plenty of compatible remotes out there, although none are green.

Function wise the Garnet is not the snappiest, it’s not the smoothest but it does get the job done. The problem we have with it though is the upper shaft doesn’t fully sink into the lower one, there’s about 20mm sticking out the top. The Garnet is long in length too and, on our test bike, there was another 20-30mm of lower shaft sticking out of the frame. For our average height testers, the saddle as way too high in the up position and not low in the down position – effectively you’re riding a really tall post without the drop.

The Garnet is a well-crafted post and the extra coil assist is a unique and sensible feature but to get it to sparkle DVO needs to update the remote and also reduce the ride height.