Pesky Stuck Seat Post

[ChrisEyles]

Nice one! I must admit I would probably have given up on this, so I am suitably impressed you've cracked it.

 

[bikeman66]

You must seriously love this bike RyanW..............but to be honest, I'm gonna be feeling your pain soon, when I try (again) to move the rear seat supports of my original Raleigh Chopper out of the frame. They were stuck good and proper when I last tried about five years ago, so who knows what they'll be like now!

 

[Gatters]

My Frank Herety suffered a frozen seatpost, someone stuck a chisel through the seat tube trying to get it out, they put it out with the bins for collection but I found it before the binmen...sometimes you just have to cough up and go with it, glad I did anyway

Well done Ryan and don't forget to show us the resprayed finished article

 

[RyanW]

You must seriously love this bike RyanW..............but to be honest, I'm gonna be feeling your pain soon, when I try (again) to move the rear seat supports of my original Raleigh Chopper out of the frame. They were stuck good and proper when I last tried about five years ago, so who knows what they'll be like now!

I just hate seeing things go to waste. Total cost to get it out was less then a tenner. (£8 for the caustic, £1 for some tape and £1 for a tube of sealant).

Besides, keeps me out of trouble

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Hi Ryan.
Because when the clamp bolt was originally tightened the post was inserted too far it will have shrunk the frame
to a smaller diameter or/and pulled it out of round. The material will not have sprung open when the bolt was undone.

If the gap that was pulled together is wide enough you can hold a nut in the gap, then screw a bolt/set screw in the threaded side
till it goes through the nut and into the unthreaded side of the frame. Holding the head of the bolt/set screw with one spanner
undo the nut along the thread.This will open up the gap and enlarge the i.d. of the frame.

If the gap is too small for a nut then a metal wedge, maybe a large screwdriver blade, can be tapped into the gap to open
it up.

Which ever method is used to open up the frame the seat post will just lift out since the Plus Gas, WD40 has already been applied.

HTH
Paul G
(Engineerly)

A seatpost doesn't get stuck in this fashion. It gets stuck because it swells thanks to the development of aluminium oxide all along the length of the seatpost. The aluminium oxide molecule is considerably larger than aluminium molecules. Thus lubricants don't work. Besides, they can't even get in there.