Like many riders, the Wolf Tooth Components team has recently rediscovered the joys of unencumbered riding, lowering our center of gravity and increasing our freedom of movement by moving gear from our backs to our bikes. While the classic seat pack is a great place to store little-used essentials out of the elements, their mounting systems can interfere with and often damage modern dropper seatposts.
In order to allow saddle bag mounting on dropper posts, the Wolf Tooth Valais 25 mounts to the seatpost upper, providing a secure mounting point while protecting the stanchion from wear and the wiper seal from damage. Injection molded from an engineering-grade thermoplastic, the Valais 25 can also serve as a temporary crutch in the event of a backcountry dropper failure. The dual-lip design securely holds packs with straps up to 25mm wide and at full compression the deep skirt contacts the seal collar first, protecting delicate seals from damage.
- Shifts cargo to the bike: Small- and mid-sized saddle packs are ideal places to securely store tubes, mini tools, and CO2 cartridges, ensuring that they’re always on hand when needed while freeing up top tube and handlebar bags for more regularly-accessed items.
- Protects seatpost: Inexpensive insurance, the Valais 25 protects dropper post stanchions from the wear that occurs at the intersection of saddle bag, seatpost, and wheel-flung grit.
- Emergency Crutch: While dropper posts continue to improve, locking mechanism failure does still happen- often far from the trailhead. The Valais 25 can be used to keep posts extended, allowing the rider to comfortably pedal out of the backcountry.
- Raceday Travel Limiter: When seven inches is more than terrain calls for, the Valais 25 can be used to limit dropper travel to suit.
- Sturdy Delrin Construction: The Valais 25 is injection molded from strong, resilient, and non-marring DuPont Delrin thermoplastic, allowing for easy snap-on installation and full strength all the way down to -20°F/-29°C.
- Made in the USA: Wherever the capabilities exist, Wolf Tooth is committed to domestic manufacturing. The Valais 25 is injection molded in New Mexico and assembled in Minnesota.
The Big Questions:
- Will the Valais limit my travel? Yes- though because most seatposts stop short of clamp-to-wiper contact the reduction is usually less than 25mm. And keep in mind that a saddle bag itself will also limit travel (while wearing the post and contacting the seals).
- How does it install? Simply clean the seatpost, remove the screw, snap the Valais over the post, and replace the screw. The process takes less time than this paragraph took to write- and no seatpost disassembly is required.
Or you can just use a topeak saddle bag that mounts on the seat rails without a strap around the post. That way you can still make use of your dropper's fulll length. Used one for ages, and works perfectly.