Giant Contact switch dropper seat post

[Charliefox]

Had a great ride in the Cairngorms yesterday and avoided the showers! But my saddle started to wiggle about, ended up at an 11 degree angle in each direction from foreward. Took the dropper seat post out today and took it apart. As expected from other forum posts, the 2 plastic strips which hold the saddle straight were scuffed on one side allowing them to start climbing out of the grooves they normal fit in. Well, it should not be difficult to buy a couple of new ones thinks I. Wrong! Giant UK do not supply a service kit that includes them. A German supplier does...Euro 11.90. But their postage to the UK is an amazing E29.90. Another Brexit bonus no doubt. I got a couple of other ideas....turn them over so the remaining 'sharper' side is in the groove..might have to glue the duff side to the inner tube. Or someone else wrapped his in alu foil and got a good result. For how long though? These strips, looking like the plain ends of cable ties, should be easy to copy in a soft metal, like aluminium. Brass might be too hard.
Provided they wear quicker than the seat post tubes there should be OK. The whole lot is covered with fork butter grease anyway. Should be an interesting bodge by all accounts!

 

[Charliefox]

Had a great ride in the Cairngorms yesterday and avoided the showers! But my saddle started to wiggle about, ended up at an 11 degree angle in each direction from foreward. Took the dropper seat post out today and took it apart. As expected from other forum posts, the 2 plastic strips which hold the saddle straight were scuffed on one side allowing them to start climbing out of the grooves they normal fit in. Well, it should not be difficult to buy a couple of new ones thinks I. Wrong! Giant UK do not supply a service kit that includes them. A German supplier does...Euro 11.90. But their postage to the UK is an amazing E29.90. Another Brexit bonus no doubt. I got a couple of other ideas....turn them over so the remaining 'sharper' side is in the groove..might have to glue the duff side to the inner tube. Or someone else wrapped his in alu foil and got a good result. For how long though? These strips, looking like the plain ends of cable ties, should be easy to copy in a soft metal, like aluminium. Brass might be too hard.
Provided they wear quicker than the seat post tubes there should be OK. The whole lot is covered with fork butter grease anyway. Should be an interesting bodge by all accounts!

To Continue, I bought a 2mm white pvc strip from screwfix for £3.29 which turned out to be too thick. I was hoping the extra 0.5mm thickness from the originals would not make that much difference. No matter, it will come in useful elsewhere. Then I found I could get a sample of black Styrene 50mm*50mm, 1.5mm thick from engineering_supplies on Ebay. A stomach churning £1.39 including P&P! 2 strips have been cut off it and the dropper post is now operating butter smooth with no discernable lateral play. A bit fiddly to cut with a stanley knife, so I stuck the sheet to the cutting board with double sided tape to stop it moving about. It may be a weak point of Giant droppers but the piston assembly is easily changed if necessary and cheap at under £50 unlike some other makes.
Oh, I do love a bargain repair!