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Someone at Trek is a freaking idiot!

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Someone at Trek is a freaking idiot!

Old 03-11-11, 08:37 AM
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Someone at Trek is a freaking idiot!

Anyone dealt with the idiot seat clamping design on the 2011 Trek Seat caps? What an idiotic piece of crap! There's no way you are making any adjustments on the road with this setup and it's near impossible to get set up even at home. I'd love to meet the "engineer" that designed it and the idiot that allowed it to go into marketing. They obviously don't actually ride their products.

Anyway, trying to make what would be a "two second" angle adjustment on any other seat post and am getting quite frustrated with this piece of biking crap and needed to vent. Been debating whether to keep this bike or sell it and this may be the final straw. If I can't adjust my saddle on the fly for optimum position the bike is useless to me. What a stupid, stupid decision on someone's part.
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Old 03-11-11, 08:52 AM
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Don't hold back - how do you really feel.
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Old 03-11-11, 09:03 AM
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I'm the guy the designed that seatpost. What's it to ya?!

Got any pics of the piece in question, or possibly a clearer description? I've known some folks in my group to have a hell of a time with their seat posts (these were on Fuji SST 1.0's) and there turned out to be a simple piece they were overlooking. After discovering it, they loved the design. They'd even realized most shops weren't aware of it since a lot of the shops in the area weren't selling that particular model very frequently.
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Old 03-11-11, 09:17 AM
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I feel your pain.

But why do you need to adjust the saddle frequently?
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Old 03-11-11, 09:19 AM
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Originally Posted by jamesdak
If I can't adjust my saddle on the fly for optimum position the bike is useless to me.
Do you do this regularly? I don't.
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Old 03-11-11, 09:19 AM
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Originally Posted by jamesdak
Anyone dealt with the idiot seat clamping design on the 2011 Trek Seat caps? What an idiotic piece of crap! There's no way you are making any adjustments on the road with this setup and it's near impossible to get set up even at home. I'd love to meet the "engineer" that designed it and the idiot that allowed it to go into marketing. They obviously don't actually ride their products.

Anyway, trying to make what would be a "two second" angle adjustment on any other seat post and am getting quite frustrated with this piece of biking crap and needed to vent. Been debating whether to keep this bike or sell it and this may be the final straw. If I can't adjust my saddle on the fly for optimum position the bike is useless to me. What a stupid, stupid decision on someone's part.
You know you can change to a better seat post without having to buy a whole new bike, right...?


Originally Posted by sbxx1985
Do you do this regularly? I don't.
I don't either, but I can appreciate the hassle of trying to dial in a good fit with such a problem. I usually first notice things that need adjusting when I'm actually riding, not when sitting at home with a work stand and a bunch of tools, so it would be nice to be able to make that adjustment with just an allen wrench or two on the roadside.
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Old 03-11-11, 09:22 AM
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Originally Posted by guadzilla
I feel your pain.

But why do you need to adjust the saddle frequently?
Trying to dial in the best position for me with a Fizik Aliante. My Brooks are more forgiving of the angle but not the Fizik.
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Old 03-11-11, 09:24 AM
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Originally Posted by MegaTom
You know you can change to a better seat post without having to buy a whole new bike, right...?

I don't either, but I can appreciate the hassle of trying to dial in a good fit with such a problem. I usually first notice things that need adjusting when I'm actually riding, not when sitting at home with a work stand and a bunch of tools, so it would be nice to be able to make that adjustment with just an allen wrench or two on the roadside.
How many aftermarket options exist for the non-standard setup on these Trek Madones? It's not a seat post but a seat cap that fits over a seat mast.
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Old 03-11-11, 10:02 AM
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+1. We just got a Madone for my wife and we're chaining out saddles to try different ones and the seat clamp is a total PITA.
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Old 03-11-11, 11:46 AM
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I had this motorcycle a while back. The turn signal was a little button you would push one way or the other. You would push it to the right and make you right hand turn and push it back to the middle to shut off the turn signal. It was sort of a pain because sometimes you would overshoot the middle and turn on the left turn signal. One day, after about a year of owning the bike and thousands of lefts and rights, my friend informed me all I had to do was push the button in to turn off the signal.

Not saying the Trek seat clamp isn't a POS, it likely is. Just wanted to share a "DUHH!" moment in my life.
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Old 03-11-11, 11:56 AM
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Originally Posted by Painful Chafe
I had this motorcycle a while back. The turn signal was a little button you would push one way or the other. You would push it to the right and make you right hand turn and push it back to the middle to shut off the turn signal. It was sort of a pain because sometimes you would overshoot the middle and turn on the left turn signal. One day, after about a year of owning the bike and thousands of lefts and rights, my friend informed me all I had to do was push the button in to turn off the signal.

Not saying the Trek seat clamp isn't a POS, it likely is. Just wanted to share a "DUHH!" moment in my life.
I wish it was a "DUHH" moment! It's just a POS design. The parts of the clamp mechanism that go into the tapered seat cap top are some kind of hard rough textured material. Once they are seated but not even tightened down they will not rotate. In other words, once the rails are fitted into the clamp these pieces are forced to seat into the cap and then cannot rotate. So you have to keep taking it all apart just to try to get the angle right.

Of course, I'd love to be proven wrong by someone and shown how stupid I am but alas I don't think that's the case this time. Anyway I'm heading out for a ride so maybe that will relax me a bit. Of course if the angle isn't right I'm going to be getting quite pissed a few miles into the ride.
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Old 03-11-11, 12:28 PM
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worthless w/o pics
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Old 03-11-11, 12:32 PM
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I want to see pics of this too. curious now.
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Old 03-11-11, 12:45 PM
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This is the system the OP is talking about.
1 Bolt that pushes 2 Conical wedges in the carbon seatpost to lock the seat in to place.
I have used the system on my own bike and I adjust those weekly for customers and I never seem to have any problems with it.
Could be just me though.
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Old 03-11-11, 12:49 PM
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My specialized came with a seatpost like that, and all I did was loosen the bolt, and then bang on the nose of the saddle with my palm a bit to tilt up or down, then retighten. If I just tried to move it smoothly, it was impossible. Gotta hammer on it a bit.
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Old 03-11-11, 12:56 PM
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Originally Posted by EcoRacer


This is the system the OP is talking about.
1 Bolt that pushes 2 Conical wedges in the carbon seatpost to lock the seat in to place.
I have used the system on my own bike and I adjust those weekly for customers and I never seem to have any problems with it.
Could be just me though.
This is like the post in my Synapse. I'm able to loosen the bolt and hit the front or back of the seat with the palm of my hand to get it to move.
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Old 03-11-11, 01:35 PM
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Originally Posted by Painful Chafe
This is like the post in my Synapse. I'm able to loosen the bolt and hit the front or back of the seat with the palm of my hand to get it to move.
+1. I have the same bike and clamp and it's a PITA to adjust. What I do is put one rail and inside clamp piece in the right spot, adjust where I think the angle should be (it's all up to the clamp), then place the other inside piece on the other rail and starting from the top push down so the other inside piece sort of flips down into place. Then just tighten. I then put a mark on the clamp and the post so I can replicate it next time. Took many hours to figure that out but it's the easiest way to get it right. GL
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Old 03-11-11, 01:41 PM
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Originally Posted by EcoRacer


This is the system the OP is talking about.
1 Bolt that pushes 2 Conical wedges in the carbon seatpost to lock the seat in to place.
I have used the system on my own bike and I adjust those weekly for customers and I never seem to have any problems with it.
Could be just me though.
Looks similar to the Specialized seatpost. Which I think is super easy and actually quite an elegant design. Are we missing something?
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Old 03-11-11, 02:01 PM
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I have 2 specialized bikes that use that same design. Not the easiest to adjust and requires a hard hit to the front or back of the seat or take it apart. For the longest time I though my seat was twisted, but it was actually the seatpost, both sides of the seatpost clamps were not lining up with each other requiring me to disassemble the seatpost to realign them. Not the best design and not hard to adjust, and once you get it where you want it, then its pretty rock steady.
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Old 03-11-11, 02:22 PM
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Originally Posted by back4more
Don't hold back - how do you really feel.
+1. Though I'm not sure who the idiot is.

I can't stand it when people diss an entire company based on anecdotal experience and on a very specific issue that's debatable, but chooses to do so publicly online. It's not reasonable to expect any company, big or small, to get it right each and every time.
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Old 03-11-11, 02:49 PM
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Originally Posted by sbxx1985
Do you do this regularly? I don't.
i agree here once its set it is set you know. i can understand how it could be frustrating when you are dialing in your fit but once you got it there you are done.

still i will agree there are a few idiots at Trek.
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Old 03-11-11, 02:52 PM
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seat masts seem a bit silly to me. it prevents having a choice of seat post.
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Old 03-11-11, 03:16 PM
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Originally Posted by coasting
seat masts seem a bit silly to me. it prevents having a choice of seat post.
I totally agree.
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Old 03-11-11, 03:20 PM
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Originally Posted by jmX
My specialized came with a seatpost like that, and all I did was loosen the bolt, and then bang on the nose of the saddle with my palm a bit to tilt up or down, then retighten. If I just tried to move it smoothly, it was impossible. Gotta hammer on it a bit.
Well mine does not move even when you "hammer it a bit", It doesn't move when you hammer it a lot for that matter, that is the issue. I'm just not impressed at all with this setup. Being stuck with a seat mast/cap design is bad enough but add in this factor and it's quite annoying.
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Old 03-11-11, 03:24 PM
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Originally Posted by mpath
+1. Though I'm not sure who the idiot is.

I can't stand it when people diss an entire company based on anecdotal experience and on a very specific issue that's debatable, but chooses to do so publicly online. It's not reasonable to expect any company, big or small, to get it right each and every time.
Well, I've no problem with being proven the idiot here if that is the case.

But explain to me why you've never complained when I've praised things by Trek but do now when I complain about what I feel is a poorly designed piece?? At least I call them as I see them, plain and simple. Of course a little too much coffee helped with the tone of my post this morning...
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