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Old 04-30-13, 06:59 AM
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E_is_Chill
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Originally Posted by Wilfred Laurier
my experience, with one exception, is that steel seatposts are made to be cheap, not strong.

THe one exception I have seen is a cromoly Tioga seatpost I bought in the early 90s - 400 or 450 mm that outlasted the bike i bought it for.

Also, my weight varies from ~260 - ~280 and I have had luck with basic aluminum seatposts. I have bent a few seatposts on my mountain bike that has ~300mm of seatpost sticking out, but ironically these have been 'brand name' seatposts, not the distributor-branded chinese seatposts that work well in my city and commuting bikes. These posts are also available in just about every diameter, unlike the more expensive posts like Thompson (the gold standard) which are usually only availalbe in a few common sizes (and 26.6mm is generally not one of them)

Also, you might want to consider having someone experienced in bike fit check out your setup on the bike. If you need to have 10" of seatpost exposed on an old road bike then the bike is likely significantly too small for you, and this makes a much bigger difference to your ability to ride and to enjoy the ride.

Edit:

My mistake: Thompson seatposts are available in 26.6mm diameter X 330mm (approx. 14") Kind of a lot of money to drop on an odd size seatpost for an old Schwinn unless you are sure you will be keeping the bike for a while.
I just need the seat raised just half an inch, and I'm way past the limit on the seatpost. The seat post is actually 6 inches, according to the max line on the seatpost I'm only supposed to be using 4 inches, but instead it's 5 inches out. I just need a more of the seatpost to be in the seat tube.
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