'Layback' seat-posts, any experiences?

[mattobrien]

I actually have a spare 3T carbon seatpost. I was bought new but the layback / offset was too much to achieve what I needed. Sadly I only found this out when test fitting it.

It has a 35mm setback, which is about as far as they go. I was trying to broadly morrow the geometry between two bikes, so ended up with a seatpost on bike two with zero setback. Bike one has 25mm.

Have been meaning to 'move on' the spare seatpost for a while but have done nothing about it. If it is of interest pm me or let me know and I can supply further info.

 

[simon.r]

The Titec Hellbent had a lot of layback, but I don't think they're still made:

 

[compo]

I have no experience of lay back posts but I do have similar problems to the OP. I always found myself sitting back too far on my Brooks saddle so my bottom was actually sitting on the rear edge of the saddle. The solution for me was a VK saddle position adjuster which takes the saddle backwards another 4 cms. I have done several hundred miles with it now and it has transformed my comfort on the bike. Not cheap but worth every penny.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/160978165331?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNXT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

I am resurrecting this to give a long term use report!
if using one of these adaptors with a laid back seatpost be careful, especially if you are a heavyweight like me. This is the remains of my seat post when it snapped the other day while out on a ride. The LBS thought it was the extra leverage on the seatpost that eventually led to it's demise. He fitted a new seatpost that isn't jointed, but angled to give some lay back and I am getting used to riding with the seat not so far back.

 

[Fab Foodie]

I am resurrecting this to give a long term use report!
if using one of these adaptors with a laid back seatpost be careful, especially if you are a heavyweight like me. This is the remains of my seat post when it snapped the other day while out on a ride. The LBS thought it was the extra leverage on the seatpost that eventually led to it's demise. He fitted a new seatpost that isn't jointed, but angled to give some lay back and I am getting used to riding with the seat not so far back.

Since I started this thread I had a custom made bike built to overcome this problem .... And they built it wrong .... So are rebuilding it!
But in the meantime, Velo Orange does what looks to be the best laid back seat post around. Not cheap but a chap in our club rates it really highly as solving the same issue for him.

http://www.freshtripe.co.uk/Freshtripe/Seats & Seatposts.html

There one with 30mm and the lovely Nitto Chromy one at 40mm which my friend is using. Not cheap but a beautiful solution,

 

[cyberknight]

All my bikes have lay back posts too,I have been told I look to far back but oddly even though I don't hold with Kops as a standard I'm pretty much bang on.
Now I have a theory which is probably rollocks'im short so have a low saddle height but to get enough setback I push the saddle back more than taller folk to counteract the setback caused by the angle of the post and height if that makes sense?

 

[Gravity Aided]

Long torso and arms for height? Fellow at work and I have a competition to see how vastly different seat distance can be for 2 fellows, same height, driving the same bus. I'm long legged and short torso, and he the opposite. Could be a six inch difference in seat adjustment. I could see how that would translate to bicycling. Throwing arm length into the equation, and the variabilities there, could really vary the equation. In earlier life, when taking art classes during school, we were taught measurements and proportion of the human body, given the idea that all people were supposed to be somewhat of the same ideal proportions. But it just aint so, Joe. So yes, @cyberknight , it makes perfect sense to me.

 

[MichaelW2]

Saddle layback is part of the fitting equation, combined with seatpost angle and post extension.
In the olden days, posts came in one layback only, so custom builders had to tweak seat-tube angles to suit. Now they come in zero, a bit, a lot, and even lay-forward, so you can make almost any frame fit almost any rider.

If you look at the triangle: lower-leg, upper-leg, seat-tube/post combo, the independent variables (unchangeable) are lower-leg and upper-leg. You can't alter your leg length. Note the ratio between lower-leg and upper-leg and how this affects the saddle layback.
I have a long lower leg, and short femur, so my saddle position is very far forward, with the aid of zero layback/inline seat-post.

The saddle position, on first approximation, is related to legs, not arms or torso. You use a stem to set reach for long upper-body.
You can move the saddle position for balance according to your desired back angle, so you form a counterweight further back as you get more horizontal.