Adjustable seatpost (split)

[kallefs]

discussion split from http://www.veganfitness.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10000

Ok, here goes

Eric - all day riding 34 lb machine

How is that seat-post working for you and which model is it? I am thinking of getting one of those.

[downhillingdemon]

Ok, here goes

Eric - all day riding 34 lb machine

How is that seat-post working for you and which model is it? I am thinking of getting one of those.

Pretty awesome to be totally honest. The gravity dropper is by far the best IMHO as it is mechanical so maintenance is easy - pop the post out, give it a clean and a grease and it works like new again. Not the 'prettiest' option, but definitely the most practical.

All the speedball users I know have had endless trouble with them and have had to send them back everytime they are borked for fixing.

This one has developed a bit of 'play' in the post, but it has been brutalised for over a year, and the 'play' is still much less than you get with a speedball.

The one on this bike is a 3" gravity dropper. The one on the hardtail is 4" drop - if you have enough post to drop 4" I would recommend it, it really does get the saddle totally out of the way for steep descents and drops etc. I love having the lever on the bars too, although you can get them with the lever under the seat - some people prefer this as it one less cable to route.

I wouldn't be able to ride without it now! I have no idea how I used to descend with my saddle up. Or go through the hassle of putting the seat down at the top of every hill. Even cornering on the flat is easier with the saddle right out of the way as it is easier to shift weight around.

It's great, I'd 100% recommend them

[seitan]

really pisses me off having to drop and raise my saddle on my xc bike.
ive just recently scored the seat post with a hacksaw blade so i know here to put it back up to. bgw was not happy about this.

[fredrikw]

really pisses me off having to drop and raise my saddle on my xc bike.

you shouldn't need to do this on a xc bike, just learn how to ride technical descents with the saddle at a proper height

ive just recently scored the seat post with a hacksaw blade so i know here to put it back up to. bgw was not happy about this.

he he, what's wrong with one circle(?) of electrical tape? that's what I have on my seat post to get the exact setting if I remove it, it has been through mud, rain and fierce cleaning and it's still there.

[seitan]

really pisses me off having to drop and raise my saddle on my xc bike.

you shouldn't need to do this on a xc bike, just learn how to ride technical descents with the saddle at a proper height

our technical descents are usally downhill type descents with drop offs, high saddle is a no no!!

ive just recently scored the seat post with a hacksaw blade so i know here to put it back up to. bgw was not happy about this.

he he, what's wrong with one circle(?) of electrical tape? that's what I have on my seat post to get the exact setting if I remove it, it has been through mud, rain and fierce cleaning and it's still there.

mine is scored for dropping the saddle. if i used tape it would just come off right away.

[fredrikw]

our technical descents are usally downhill type descents with drop offs, high saddle is a no no!!

oh, drops... that's a bit beyond what most people mean when they say xc, and way too hardcore for me (regardless of saddle height)

mine is scored for dropping the saddle. if i used tape it would just come off right away.

oops, thought the other way around, tape is useless as you say...

[downhillingdemon]

TBH even on rollable descents I wouldn't want the saddle in the way. It is, of course, possible to 'learn' how to descend with the saddle up, but my descending has definitely improved since I learnt to ride with it out of the way.

This is a pic of a bit of the descent following the picture which started the discussion. I wouldn't fancy this, even though it is rollable, with a saddle hitting me in the chest...



And as seitan says, once you start flying off non-rollable drops and jumps on the way down a high saddle is more than just an inconvenience.

[fredrikw]

Yeah, if you're only going downhill there's no point in having the saddle at normal height. But usually XC means not only descends, but also ascends, where having a too low saddle would be a great nuisance and very biomechanically suboptimal.

Even though we're all on some kind of MTBs, our sports are very different, I do mostly MTB Marathons and a couple of XC races as well, you don't see anyone fiddling with saddle height in those.

[downhillingdemon]

Is there any chance you could split this off from the piccy thread?

It's an interesting discussion, but it seems like it would be nice to keep the piccy thread for, well, bike pics

In terms of XC I still would say the dropper seatposts are worthwhile. For example, undulating trail centres are often short uphills followed by short downhills. Quite often the downhills have some lovely little drops to hop off, but with the saddle in the way this can make it less enjoyable. Having a dropper seat post means you don't need to have a biomechanically suboptimal ascent as, ping, saddle is in the right place! So you get the best of both worlds for a very small weight penalty.

I can kind of understand for high level XC racing where weight-minimalism seems to be pretty vital.

[fredrikw]

Good idea, new thread it is

Well first of all, these "undulating trail centers" you're talking about doesn't exist where I live, it's all natural trails in natural forests, and on natural trails drops aren't as common (at least not in this country). Also, you tend to avoid drops when you ride a lightweight XC racer

But the weight penalty was quite severe I'd say, at least if you're a weight weenie as myself. After some googling the Gravity dropper seems to weigh in at a shocking 450g, compared to my scandium KCNC seatpost at 175g that's a huge difference

I still think we're really talking about two different worlds here, even if we occasionally ride the same trails. Me with lycra, you with FF helmet and protective gear

[bob_summers]

i considered buying a seat dropper but then realised it would only save time if everyone in the group had one too; i'd still have to wait for them! plus i'll usually stop to fiddle with the tyre pressures if the decent is really tricky.

i'm trying to minimise the seat dropping anyway, when i started mtb'ing the benefit was psychological more than anything.

[fredrikw]

plus i'll usually stop to fiddle with the tyre pressures if the decent is really tricky.

Why do you do this? I mean why don't you have the same low pressure all the time? On a MTB with wide nobby tires the power loss from having a lower tire pressure when riding on tarmac is probably mostly psychological (there you go, next hangup to get rid of ), and when you are on uneven terrain (gravel for example) the rolling resistance is actually lower with a lower tire pressure than with a higher.

[Johnstuff]

I think I'll get one of those dropper seatposts, seems so much neater than having to stop.

Some of the decents I've done on my Trek XC bike are pretty scary.

Time to get myself a more 'hardcore' hardtail (erm...when I can afford one) .


Thinking of the differences between disciplines, I think it would be interesting if there was a sort of 'freeride racing' type disipline that would combine DH/XC/trials.

[bob_summers]

Why do you do this?

force of habit i suppose. most routes i do start with a long tarmac climb, so i generally put 2,8bar (40psi) in at home, then let about half a bar out (or more, i guess) on the trail. maybe it's pointless - it's not like i stop to pump them up again for the next climb.

i still haven't really settled on a pressure, and the tyres i have (larssen tt 2.0, very XC and came with the bike). I like them as low as 1.5bar, and don't pinch-flat, but that's way below the minimum on the sidewall.

[fredrikw]

You don't need to pay much attention to the sidewall print, go as low as possible without getting a flat tire, ruin the rim or having the tire getting too wobbly or hard to control when cornering.

Many of you seem to stop regularly on your rides, am I the only one here that thinks stopping ruins the flow of a bike ride?