This is an older picture, but I had a bike that I stripped and I had a Specialized Carbon post in it. I decided to use it for my CrossRip and after about 7 years during an inspection, I saw light cracking below the pinch bolt, which seemed to just be the surface coating, but it was a early generation carbon post, so I thought, meh, time to replace it. I replaced with a Bontrager carbon post. It was not see through, but had some silver on it which gave it that effect.

The sleeve is just a wrapping of length of velcro that I had laying around and used it to protect the top tube when I have to lean the bike against the rack to lock it up properly. It nice in that its fairly water resistance and dries very fast when it does get wet....and I can just take it off if needed.