Review: Pro Tharsis 200 Dropper Post
The announcement of a new dropper post used to be a fairly big deal, back when you could count the number of reliable models on one hand. Nowadays, there's no shortage of decent options on the market at fairly reasonable prices, which makes it harder to make a splash, especially if there isn't any electronic gadgetry in the equation.
Pro's Tharsis 200 dropper post relies on the tried-and-true cable actuated design, but it does have a silvery stanchion color that helps it stand out among the sea of black or Kashima-colored options. It also has titanium seat fixing bolts for another dash of fanciness. Inside, it relies on a sealed aluminum cartridge for either 200 or 160mm of drop depending on the model.
Pro's Tharsis 200 dropper post relies on the tried-and-true cable actuated design, but it does have a silvery stanchion color that helps it stand out among the sea of black or Kashima-colored options. It also has titanium seat fixing bolts for another dash of fanciness. Inside, it relies on a sealed aluminum cartridge for either 200 or 160mm of drop depending on the model.
Pro Tharsis Dropper Details
• Aluminum cartridge
• Titanium bolts
• Travel amounts: 100, 160, 200mm (tested)
• 30.9 or 31.6mm diameters
• Weight: 587 grams (200mm drop, 31.6mm)
• 2-year cartridge warranty, lifetime on rest of post
• MSRP: $339.99 USD
• More info: pro-bikegear.com
• Aluminum cartridge
• Titanium bolts
• Travel amounts: 100, 160, 200mm (tested)
• 30.9 or 31.6mm diameters
• Weight: 587 grams (200mm drop, 31.6mm)
• 2-year cartridge warranty, lifetime on rest of post
• MSRP: $339.99 USD
• More info: pro-bikegear.com
The Tharis post's dimensions are competitive, measuring 297mm from the underside of the collar to the bottom of the post. That's the same maximum insertion as OneUp's 210mm post, although Wolf Tooth's Resolve post does come in at an even shorter max 289mm length.
The Tharsis retails for a penny under $340 USD without a remote, and is covered by a two-year warranty for the cartridge and a lifetime warranty on the rest of the post.
The Tharsis' seat clamp uses titanium bolts.
The collar height is a short 18 millimeters.
INSTALLATION
The Tharsis 200 was a cinch to set up – the fixed portion of the cable connects to the bottom of the post, and the other end runs to any compatible remote. I went with a Fox remote, since I'm a fan of its ergonomics and fairly small size. There are indicator lines at the back of the post, although I wouldn't mind if there was a number or letter at each line to make it even easier to remember the ideal height.
One feature the Tharsis doesn't have is any way of adjusting the amount of travel; the stroke is fixed at 200mm. That worked great for me and my long(ish) legs, but riders looking to maximize the amount of drop they can run for a given frame size may want to consider an option that can be shimmed down – OneUp, BikeYoke, Trans-X, and WolfTooth all offer posts with that ability, among others.
Disassembling the post is as easy as removing one bolt from underneath the seat clamp and then unthreading the actuator at the bottom of the post to remove the cartridge.
PERFORMANCE
The Tharsis arrived last fall, just in time for the wettest, muddiest, and darkest rides of the year. Throughout all of those mucky rides the return speed was consistent, and the action remained smooth. That consistency is what impressed me the most - all too often droppers start to get a little hiccup in their stroke and stop returning to full travel after a Pacific Northwest winter.
Overall, the action of the post feels very regular, in a good way – it worked exactly like a modern dropper post should, with a little 'thwunk' at the top of the stroke to indicate that it's fully extended. The force required to lower it for the descent feels right too; I never had to do any double seat bounces to get it out of the way.
Wear marks have developed on the front right side of the stanchion.
ISSUES
I did run into one issue with the post – wear marks in the form of long vertical lines started to develop in the snazzy silver-grey anodizing. Pulling the post apart for a basic service would likely be an easy way to prevent this – the simple procedure only takes 20 minutes or so – but it's worth noting that several dropper posts from other brands were exposed to similar conditions for longer periods of times without developing any stanchion discoloration. In addition, another Pro Tharsis 200 post that a colleague has also developed a similar mark on the stanchion after an even shorter time period.
According to Pro they haven't seen this issue in the two years that the post has been on the market. They also said it wouldn't be a warranty issue, which I can see as being frustrating news for someone who purchased a post that says it has a lifetime warranty.
The Pro Tharsis' insertion length compared to the WolfTooth Resolve 200 and OneUp 210 dropper post.
Pros
+ Smooth, consistent action
+ Easy to service
+ Unique looks
Cons
- Stanchion anodization developed wear marks
Pinkbike's Take
 | The Pro Tharsis 200's performance was great, excluding the premature anodization wear. It has competitive dimensions, smoothly moves up and down, and it's very easy to service. The price isn't out of the ordinary for a high end post, but it is getting harder and harder to justify tall asking prices when there are posts available that function almost exactly the same for over $100 less. However, none of those options have the same stanchion color as the Tharsis (or titanium bolts for that matter); for some riders, it'll be worth paying more to stand out from the crowd. |
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup
Shoot us an email - support@oneupcomponents.com
@iduckett: Our oversized pin kit is designed to remove additional play that might develop over time, or to tune play for a specific bike.
Most setups do not require the additional spacing of the oversized pins, but we can definitely provide them under warranty for your post, if you're feeling rotation while riding! Just reach out to the address above.
Alternatively, you could have a really looser wiper .... but then the stanchion would get tore up and the internals would get clogged up
us.wplbike.com/collections/lubricate/products/forkboost-4oz
So in a sealed system with a cartridge, it would probably not function the same, no?
SRAM: AXS develops play, approves warranty claim same day submitted by LBS and sends new post.
Shimano: F**k you
Why anyone would buy this is beyond me.
Sram will ask how many turns it took to put the derailleur on and if you answer wrong the claim is denied.
Shimano has been very good to work with and go out of their way to make things happen.
Bikeyoke generally does not have many warranties.
This has been my experience over the last 6 years.
On MTBs, they make it look like a cheap Halfords/decathalon/Walmart bike - for no physical reason, purely aesthetics and fashion.
Sadly this might suffer the same fate.
This dropper is "silver" but point stands, silver/chrome forks tend, in general, to be cheaper ones.
- grey, as in the present case, is a anodisation treatment. It’s cheap, good hardness but it wears easily with time.
- black is usually a Physical Vapor Deposition coating. It is high performance (high hardness, very good friction coefficient), relatively easy to get a smooth finish
- kashima coating is a mixture of TiN/TiAlN obtain from PVD. It is also a high performance coating usually found in tools.
So, long short story, the color and the performances are somehow linked.
Remember the ZZYX forks - they were silver, kinda cool at the time, but total garbage.
Still, paying over $200 for a wintek cartridge in an aluminum tube seems excessive.
I just looked at the BY site, and they are now offering shim kits for the Revive. Must be new-ish? That’s cool, but I’m not going to replace perfectly good posts at this point. Bummer though—if this had been available when I built the bikes, I’d have been able to do a 180 and a 203 respectively.
I’ll bite: how many total bikes do you have?
BikeYoke on the XC rig, transfers on the other two.
All generation REVIVE 30.9/31.6/34.9 can be shimmed.
We do still need to properly communicate REVIVE's travel-adjustability but since we are in the middle of completely re-launchingour website, we'll do that later.
I’d try unscrewing the top seal and using some dropper lube/grease, mine was always super smooth, you might have some grit in there
If you reach out to us at support@oneupcomponents.com
we can work through some troubleshooting and keep you rolling smoothly.
I feel like OneUps are good for the price, which, I’m intentionally damning them with faint praise. They’re fine, I totally understand people choosing to buy them over spending like 1.5–2x as much for something that serves the same function. Same time tho, the Transfer and the Revive are unquestionably much more refined in their operation and their fit and finish. Probably the new WolfTooth unit too though I haven’t had my hands on one IRL. To me the bigger outlay is worth it. Transfers aren’t user-serviceable which is a major strike against them, but service intervals are long and the operation is great. The Revive is the gold standard by virtually any metric.
Get tu ze dropa !