mdilthey

Hi all,

I'm doing dirt rides on my cyclocross bike almost daily. Lots and lots of trails, singletrack, gravel roads, fire roads, exploring, etc.

I am looking for a nice investment in long-ride comfort. For those with experience using them, is a carbon seatpost a noticeable investment for vibration dampening and comfort? Would a short-travel Thudbuster be a substantially better investment in comfort? They are about even in price, but I like the idea of carbon because it's much lighter.

I currently have an Easton alloy seatpost. I'm pretty happy with the WTB Pure-V seat.

Here are the holes in my current thinking:

Thudbuster Pros:

?Better Dampening?
?More Durable?

Carbon Pros:

Lighter



Let me know what your experiences have been!

B. Carfree

When I switched from Al to carbon post on my tandem (I ride stoker, so any road defects find me), I didn't find that it made much difference. However, changing out from 100 psi narrow tires to 45 psi fatties from Compass made a huge difference, both in speed (big increase) and comfort (what road defects?). That said, if I was looking for some love in a vibration-damping seat post, I think I'd give this a serious look: Home | Cirrus Cycles | Bodyfloat | Suspension Seat Post | Body Isolation Seat Post

Here's a fun article by the folks who built my tandem: The Cirrus Bodyfloat Seat Post at R+E Cycles

mtn.cyclist

I used an old Rockshox suspension for quite a while and liked it pretty well. I have used a couple of carbon posts and didn't notice any difference in comfort. I use conventional alloy, straight post at the moment. I would really like to try a titanium post with some set back in it to see if it softens things up a little.

Darth Lefty 

I'd really like to try one of those Specialized carbon suspension posts but they are $pendy

Rowan

There are three Thudbusters in the household -- one for the tandem stoker and one each on the Bike Friday Pocket Llamas. They work well, in my/our opinion, and the rubber dampers are interchangeable depending on your weight (I think each post comes with three).

Be aware that you may have to sleeve the Thudbuster seatpost to fit your seat-tube; I am not sure what diameters they actually come in, but 27.2mm seems to be what we have.

The linkages also need occasional lubrication to keep them smooth.

And from a tiny number of posts here and there, the dampers may be prone to splitting, although I haven't haven't this happen.

You also seem to have plenty of room to accommodate the suspension mechanism, which might have been an issue if your top tube was horizontal and there wasn't much room between it and the seat.

staehpj1

I haven't found that seat post material made much difference in the ride. If you want some more give, the carbon post isn't going to do it, so maybe the Thudbuster is the way to go.

Being an old dinosaur, I was racing back in the days when XC racers were not using suspension. Maybe that is why I never tried a suspension seat post, but I find adjusting tire pressure to the conditions and using my legs as shock absorbers is my preferred approach. Some of my buddies love the Thudbuster though, so it must work pretty well.

Tourist in MSN

I think most Thudbusters are on 20 inch wheel folding bikes. I have never used one.

Anything wrong with one of the cheap Aluminum suspension seatposts that have a coil spring inside the post? I use one of those if I am going to be doing any rough riding. You can adjust the pre-load on some of them with an Allen wrench at the bottom. The one in the photo was maybe $5 or $10 used. It is a little noisy but I can live with that.

djb

a friend of mine has one on her bike, and when trying to set her bike up better, including seat height, I found the thing to be a pain in the keester, re seat height. I guess its because I find proper seat height to be important for me and with this, we had a tricky time getting the height set because the height changes all the time with her sitting on it and moving her weight, it would change even depending on her specific body position and change suddenly if she moved a bit (this is with her sitting on bike leaning against a wall for me to check her leg extension)

I didnt see or notice an adjustment preload thing, but could be wrong.

mdilthey

The Bodyfloat seatpost looks better to me than the Rockshox one. That's very cool.

I'm not looking for suspension, like a mountain bike. Like staehpj1 said, legs and tire pressure do that. I'm just looking for a little more vibration damping, for times when I'm forced to ride over Northeastern cracked pavement, washboard dirt roads, or scarified pavement, etc.

I'm surprised nobody found Carbon to take the buzz out. I thought that was one of the main advantages of carbon bars/seatposts.

MileHighMark

Wide, supple tires and a leather saddle (Brooks, Rivet, Selle Anatomica) will offer more comfort than a carbon seatpost.

pursuance

I have a long travel ThudBuster on my HT electric, it works a treat.
Also had one on an old Specialized HT and it got a little sloppy/worn out after about 10 years.
Come to find out the worn out one can be exchanged for a price break from ThudBuster.
I have not checked out the exact amount of discount but there it is.

That BodyFloat sure looks the business but I'd probably order a short travel ThudBuster for my next touring bike.

Thanks for starting this thread, i learned something.

Leebo

Bigger softer tires?

Tourist in MSN

I screwed in the pre-load enough so that when I sit on it, it just barely moves. The springs on my Brooks are there for the rough road surface and vibration from that, the suspension seatpost comes into play when I hit the bigger bumps.

I usually use a solid post but if I expect that the trip will be rough enough for me to put on the suspension fork, the suspension seatpost goes on along with the 57mm wide tires.

mijome07

I used to have this on my 29er. It's a Sette Ride 'post. Took the edge off while on and off-road. Fully adjustable. Not sure they sell them anymore. This was in 2010-2011.

fietsbob

^^ these are pretty cheap , Sette is a made up trade name for the Importer .. no Sette factory exists.



I like my Cane Creek Thudbuster .. My Bike Friday Came with a LT, I bought the ST for another bike which had less seat post Out..

The riders weight guides the choice of the elastomer density.. which are replaceable .

there are accessory "thudglove" covers for the parallelogram and pivots to keep them cleaner, if in a dirty environment.
or just not wanting to bother re-lubing the pivot bushings for a Long Time.

mdilthey

People who have elastomer front shocks from 1995 are having to rebuild them because the elastomer wore out. Am I going to be desperately trawling Ebay for elastomers in ten years when Thudbuster alters the design and mine becomes obsolete?

pursuance

The long travel still use the same elastomers today as they did 10 years ago but the bushings have been seriously up-graded.
If a bike has enough seatpost out for the LT I'd go that way instead of ST because the elastomers can be mixed, like a black n blue and the preload can be adjusted.
I set my old one up fairly firm so it was not pogoing as I rode. Granted it ain't pretty but it is effective.

The BodyFloat is sweet looking but about $100+ more than a ThudBuster. The BodyFloat needs shimming if the seat tube is not 27.2mm(iirc) but the ThudBuster is offered in several diameters.
You know the drill on seatpost shims like creaking and other stuff. ;-)

fietsbob

Nah, you can buy them all day long thru Dealers with a QBP account. Hoard extras If you want.

MassiveD

That claim has been made for carbon all along with many other types of equipment. Golf clubs for instance. For the most part it is nonsense. For pure vibe control there are some rubber things that can be inserted into tubes to deaden the vibe, though the effect is sometimes offputting when the whole thing feels dead. And it isn't designed to deaden vertical displacements from road cracks, that is a suspension issue. Sims was one of the companies to first get into this stuff.

mijome07

If you're trying to take the buzz out, run bigger tires with less air. I did this on my 1st 'cross bike I got back in 2008. Came stock with Kenda Kwick 700x30 folding tires.

I don't weigh a lot and I never changed the tires. I was able to run lower PSI's and it helped dampen road/trail vibrations on an aluminum frame/steel fork.

staehpj1

That is probably about as effective of a way as any and also takes away the buzz in the hands which for me is more important.

djb

absolutely, and even the same tires but 5 or 10 psi lower can make all the difference. Experiment , assuming you have a good gauge to keep track of pressures.

bmike

i had a thudbuster LT on my fargo. worked well enough, but it got in the way of bags when i did backpacking stuff, etc... and i felt robbed of climbing power when seated and dieseling up road grades.

i pulled it, used it every once in a great while, tried it on the krampus for a week for trail riding, tossed it back on the shelf. i think about it every now and again when i'm on some choppy nasty bit... but never really go back to it.

i like the body float one, i've heard good review for folks out doing trans iowa and other gravel endurance races.
i also like the looks of the ergon post:

ERGON BIKE ERGONOMICS

Carbonfiberboy 

The Specialized carbon CG-R post is very nice:
Specialized CG-R seatpost review - BikeRadar USA

It's the stoker post on our tandem and my wife loves it.

The problem with other sorts of posts are that if they have little friction in the system and thus work, they also cause problems with height adjustment and bouncing. If they have more friction, like in many suspension posts, they help with the big hits but not with the little stuff. We've tried different posts, and the CG-R has been by far the most successful.

bradtx

I'm glad you had a link for this seat post. I saw one on a tandem, but didn't take note of the manufacturer and my searches were unproductive.

Brad