Ti-tillIdie

The Tamer rear seatpost on our new Santana does not always return to its original position after it is compressed. I have tightened the preload spring (the screw that’s inside the seat post) but it still has a hard time fully rebounding with my stoker on it. She only weighs 115 pounds so I don’t think excessive weight is a problem. The post is new, so maybe the parts are still tight and will loosen up? Any suggestions or experience with this?

twilkins9076

We didn't have that problem with ours, but some friends did. We took the preload spring out so the seatpost pivoted without the pressure of the spring, applied liberal amounts of lubricant, and worked it back and forth by hand several times. It eventually loosened up and started working correctly.

By the way....best of luck on your tour this summer.

72andsunny

Our preload spring came very, very loose. It was a few years ago, but I remember it requiring many, many turns before it would rebound.

Gear to go has some tips, if you haven't seen them: https://www.gtgtandems.com/tech/tamer.html

dvs cycles

I took mine off before even the first ride. Didn't want to have to mess with it.
Fixed post is fine as long as I remember to think about HER before anything serious comes up.
Anyone need a brand new never used post for a Santana?

Possum Roadkill

Anyone need a brand new never used post for a Santana?
Also removed the post but it was after stoker tried it and made the decision. They felt they were losing power from the sag making the saddle height wrong. When we got it, it made awful creeking noises I managed to fix. Anyone interested in ours, it's the carbon one that comes on the team frames or a Beyond.

72andsunny

How did you manage to stop the creaking? I had Bill and Wolfgang (European Distributor) working on ours, and it still creaks.

Ti-tillIdie

are these unpopular seatposts or does it just sound that way?

twilkins9076

We occasionally need to oil ours to keep the squeaks at bay, especially if we get wet. Just a drop at every pivot point does the trick.

twilkins9076

They're not maintenance free......but when properly adjusted work really well. I usually give ours a good cleaning and lubrication a couple of times a year and a few drops of lubricant if the squeak comes back or we get wet.

From my stoker's perspective, some sort of suspension seat post is a "must have", and the Tamer is probably as good as any. In our case, because it has the smallest minimum extension of any on the market (at least a couple of years ago), it was the only option that would work for us.

brewer45

+2 Cane Creek Thudbuster. Stoker loves it. The trick is that it uses a dampening rather than a spring system.

Cheers!

BloomingCyclist

I believe you need to grease / lubricate the piston that goes up and down in the post. I had forgotten about this until I saw the title of your post. We had the same problem at the beginning with our Santana we purchased in Jan of 2006 but we had zero experience with shock absorbing seat posts and we didn't realize we had a problem during the very brief shakedown ride at the dealer before bringing it home (an hour drive). It was not lubed properly which also meant the tension wasn't set properly either. The dealer had adjusted the tension (or so he thought) based on stoker weight and a chart that came with the post telling how to take the post apart. We rode on a fairly smooth rode by the dealer for a very very short ride but the stoker didn't know what the post should feel like so didn't know it wasn't working. During the second or third ride at home, my wife realized the seat was going down and not coming back on its own. Off the bike, I could push the seat down with my chest but would have to pull it up with my hand. I dripped some triflow oil around the piston and pushed the seat down a few times and it suddenly worked very smoothly. Now we found that it didn't have near enough tension and it was very bouncy. According to the chart we had, the tension (number of turns of threaded plug) was correct for her weight but in reality it was clearly not enough tension.

I went to the website and found the same chart. I ended up calling the company and according to the person I spoke with, the chart was for settings on the mountain post which is the main seat post they sell but the Santana post uses the road linkage and spring. They didn't have a chart for that post on the website. I set the tension a little higher and we rode a couple of tenths of a mile took the post out and turned in another quareter turn. We did this several times until we got the seat to just sag a little when she sat down but no up and down movements unless hitting bumps. I like that the post tension / preload can be fine tuned and my stoker loves the Tamer post. I'll just mention that we rode singles across America in 2005 just to emphasize that she knows what riding normally without a shock post is like on a single bike and the stoker is a strong rider in her own right. Once it was set right, I did add some grease to the piston area by compressing the post downward by leaning on the seat and wiping some grease around but I didn't take the post apart at that time.

Squeaking is often mentioned in older posts on tandem@hobbes concerning the Tamer posts. I don't know if anything about the production has been changed since many of those postings were made but we've been happy with the Tamer Pivot model since that initial discovery that the dealer didn't understand the set up of that post. As far as I can tell they did and do understand everything else about the tandem but they didn't have the seat post figured out.

We did have some squeaking that started somewhere before the 2000 mile mark if my memory is correct. I found that it stopped if I would put some tri-flow around the piston while leaning on the seat with my chest to work the piston up and down and I also oiled the pivot points. This worked but I had to do it every couple of weeks. FINALLY towards the end of that first year, I took the post out and took the threaded plug and the big spring out and the piston / plunger out and regreased everything and reassembled it and it has not squeaked in the subsequent 6000 miles and I have not put any oil in the piston at all. I have put some oil on the pivot points as preventive maintenance. In hindsight, I should have taken the post apart the first time and regreased the spring and piston / plunger.

In this thread and others, people frequently state that one does not really need a shock-absorbing seat post. They don't live where the roads aren't smooth or they are denying themselves a great benefit. We live in an area with freeze / thaw damage every winter (southern Indiana) and the county roads are often repaired by throwing shovelfuls of black top into / onto a pothole and then driving over it with the truck tires. This sort of damage and the lousy repairs make for bumpy sections of road. I'm sure my wife could endure not having a shock absorbing post but it would be silly not to have one. She can ride these roads on a single without a shock absorbing post because she can see them and get out of the seat on short notice. I know that many sections of road in many parts of the country are smooth and they truly have no need for a shock absorber other than the tires and vertical frame compliance but they aren't the rural roads of many areas of southern Indiana.

Some posters in other threads have spoken of the vibration-damping qualities of carbon fiber or the vertical compliance of particulular frame designs. I believe that a well-adjusted Tamer pivot seat post has much more impact than the frame material on shock absorption. (I ride a Kestrel carbon fiber single.) Whether any other readers agree or disagree with that - I think you will like your Tamer post after you get it lubricated and adjusted.

In summary, we've been very happy with the Tamer Pivot Pro on our Santana.

Bloomington, IN

zonatandem

Stoker Kay has never used a suspension seatpost on our personal tandem(s).
She has tried several on other tandems and found the old Alsop Softride Beam the best for her. No sticking/no squeaking/no adjusting.
She does state that the ride on our carbon fiber tandem is better than any other tandem tubing she's ridden/tested.
And after 33+ years of tandeming, she knows what she's taling about!

cornucopia72

+1.

When I took ours apart, it was loaded with grease. A drop of oil where the pivot contacts the post ring is all the lubrication we do. Zero pinch flats in 30,000 + miles running 700x25 in the rear is an added benefit.

TigerMom

I had the same problem. So, I called TamerUSA today to confirm what a cyclist should experience on the Tamer Pivot Plus.

If the Tamer Pivot Plus Suspension post goes all the way down after a bump, you do have to unweight it (lift up your butt) for the saddle to get back to saddle height. But, ideally, the suspension seat post will float over little cracks/bumps and not go down completely until you hit a big bump, so that the cyclist would not need to lift up my butt over every little bump. Tamer also said that you CANNOT over tighten the seat post suspension tension (located underneath the seat post pole) which hardens the spring load because there is a "built in" stopping point.