Like the company’s current range of forks and rear shocks, the Fox DOSS seatpost features CTD, which stands for Climb (fully extended), Trail (middle position — 40mm drop) and Descend (lowest position). Accessing the three settings is via a twin-lever remote — press the silver lever and the DOSS drops to the Trail position, hit the black lever and it goes fully down. Sounds simple but the lever action is incredibly stiff, so accessing the secondary position can be an effort. It’s also about the same size as a shifter pod, which is OK if you run a 1×10 drivetrain because you can hide it upside-down on the left, but if not, it’s a big unit to have on top of your bars.

For ease of set-up, the Fox DOSS has a simple two-bolt saddle clamp with big arrows on the top so you know which way round to run the post, but the bolts are not angled so they’re tricky to access even with a workshop multi-tool. The release mechanism also seems exposed mounted on the side, but so far we haven’t had any issues with mud clogging or cable degradation and the DOSS has proved reliable and devoid of play.

Most riders new to droppers like the idea of posts with preset positions like this one — it engages quickly and you don’t have to find the right height yourself, but in most cases we find they’re either too low or not low enough. The initial Trail position on the DOSS is perfect for flatter singletrack, but it’s too low for technical climbs and too high for ripping. Then again, the lowest drop is too low for anything less committed than chest-on-the-saddle downhills. To be fair, some people like the saddle to be totally out of the way except when they’re climbing, but with an infinitely adjustable post like the Reverb, you can have your cake and eat it.

MBR rating: 7

Hit the silver lever for a 40mm drop, black for fully down

Clear arrows make seat clamp orientation simple

Bolts on saddle clamp are tricky to access even with a multi-tool

This test appeared as part of a dropper post group test in April 2013’s issue of MBR. The complete line-up in the test was the Crank Brothers Kronolog, Fox DOSS, Kind Shock LEV, RockShox Reverb, Specialized Command Post BlackLite and X-Fusion Hilo SL.