Seat post recommendation

[rothair]

Slowly getting around to upgrading various parts of my bike.

I am in the market for a decent seat post that will absorb some of the road vibration and make my ride a wee bit more comfortable. Little clusless when it comes to them so any help gratefully accepted. Willing to spend up to £60 for the right piece of kit...

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

People who think different seatpost materials can take out road vibration are deluding themselves - seatposts are too stiff and generally too short to ever make any perceptible difference, except psychological (i.e. placebo effect).

Assuming you have a bike with no suspension, to take out road vibration, you could consider:
1) wider/bigger tyres, running with lower pressure
2) a saddle that is more comfortable, generally meaning it fits your seatbone structure better rather than softer
3) putting more weight on your pedals, rather than your saddle, when you are hitting bumps on the road

You can consider a suspension seatpost, but cheap ones are nothing more than a piece of elastomer and good ones are expensive, both can mess up your pedal reach.

 

[festival]

As already said, there are lots of other factors that can be looked at to address the comfort issue.
Your position on the bike from reach,height, width and shape of bars, saddle position, cleat postion etc etc.
Buy a nice carbon seat post by all means but sounds like you have some other issues

 

[Kieron]

has anybody tried a suspension seat post? are they worth it? there is one in halfords for £20 which is sprung not elasticated.... worth a try?

 

[Rob3rt]

No no no!

 

[Kieron]

Hi Rob.... can you elaborate? is it the suspension or the halfords bit which is a bad idea?

 

[ushills]

has anybody tried a suspension seat post? are they worth it? there is one in halfords for £20 which is sprung not elasticated.... worth a try?

I have USE XCR seatpost on my MTB and it is good, however, it will probably mess up your pedal action if used on a road bike.

Go for wider, softer tyres!

 

[Scilly Suffolk]

See #2 above.

 

[Rob3rt]

Hi Rob.... can you elaborate? is it the suspension or the halfords bit which is a bad idea?

You are building a road bike frame up. In my bubble, suspension seat posts and road bikes are non-compatible!

Personally speaking, I have never found road buzz to be a problem and you should avoid potholes and large bumps where possible, so suspension is not required.

But RecordAce addressed some points re how to reduce road buzz without the need for wierd seatposts.

 

[dellzeqq]

'taking out road vibration' is a bit of a red herring. You hit a bump, the bike (and the saddle) goes up. You hit a hole, the bike (and the saddle) goes down. You go over a 'knobbly' surface the bike (and the saddle) goes up and down.

What's interesting is what happens after that. Aluminium resonates or 'judders'. Carbon doesn't - or, at least, not nearly as much. So a carbon bike, or a bike with bits of carbon, will be less wearing on the wrists and bottom.

Tyre pressure and width is a bit more complicated than 'soft is comfortable'. Your body will take less of a bashing if your tyres are soft - but, then again, the bike will be more wobbly, and you will expend more energy propelling it along. That might be harder on your wrists and hips in the long run. I ride all day on 120psi. More to the point, so does Susie, who is a size 10, 52 years old (now I have to kill you all) and not a particularly strong cyclist

As ever, though, the difficulty is in the question. If your bottom hurts....why does it hurt? Because it's getting bounced around, or because the distribution of your weight is wrong? If more of your weight was going through the pedals, would your bottom hurt? If you're of average weight you shouldn't really be putting so much weight on your bottom that it hurts. If you're of above average weight then life's more difficult.

 

[Rob3rt]

There will always be some buzz/vibration as well, especially if you are riding a racing bike, people need to realise the point at which the solution is to stop spending money and to (wo)man up.

 

[Piemaster]

has anybody tried a suspension seat post? are they worth it? there is one in halfords for £20 which is sprung not elasticated.... worth a try?

No!
Have experience of a cheap sprung seatpost from a Carrera Subway. It wobbled around and felt very unpleasant, like the saddle was loose.
The commuter has a thudbuster ST (which incidentally seems remarkably more expensive than what I paid for mine). Does dampen out the road buzz, Aberdeenshire council seem to like a large size aggregate in their tarmac.
But I wouldn't really think it would be any better than a sprung Brookes

 

[Kieron]

Ok! thanks for all the input. gone for a simple light weight one and will spend money on the seat instead.....

how the hell do you find "the right seat" is it better to shop in store rather than online? i.e. actually sit on them!

 

[dellzeqq]

Ok! thanks for all the input. gone for a simple light weight one and will spend money on the seat instead.....

how the hell do you find "the right seat" is it better to shop in store rather than online? i.e. actually sit on them!

ha! Abandon hope! Or, if you get a recommendation, see if you can borrow it. There used to be a saddle library on CC...

 

[PpPete]

Only way to be sure is try them for LONG rides. Sitting on them in the shop is no good.
Fortunately there is an excellent market in lightly used saddles on ebay.
FWIW I tried (and resold) several "highly recommended" saddles before coming to the conclusion that only a certain British manufacturer of very old fashioned saddles made products that suited the contours of my nether regions. I only hesitate to use the BROOKS word in deference to the previous poster's feelings on the subject.