Originally Posted by
Fat Boy
I'm a little skeptical of people talking about the 'damping' qualities of carbon fiber. I just don't see it. Damping means that you are converting kinetic energy to heat. I have yet to see a bike frame (or racecar for that matter), get warm because of the damping that is going on.
When people say that an aluminum bike transmits more 'road buzz' to their hands than a carbon bike, then I understand that. The aluminum frame is stiffer (higher natural resonant freq. in that particular mode) and therefore transmits higher frequency inputs better than the carbon (or steel or Ti) frame.
My guess is that the biggest change a carbon seatpost would make is in your wallet.
I'm with you in all that. There's a lot of hype going around and very little proper engineering knowledge.
I had a CF seatpost on my Swift and it was plenty stiff, stiffer than the Mini's post, but not as stiff as the original Swift post. So it is only for stiffness that I am thinking of CF, any self-damping must be in the high frequency range, not 100rpm.