Quill seatpost
 

For those that haven't seen a quill seatpost, this from a 1985 Peugeot PSVN10.

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/...psf11d3d34.jpg

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/...ps746bd700.jpg

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/...psde23c0b1.jpg

Interesting. I wonder if there is a technical or performance based reason for the seat tube binder bolt to have become the standard instead of this?

Well, running a long bolt down the whole seatpost to a solid wedge is probably heavier than using a clamp, but then again that didn't stop the same thing being the standard for stems for a long time.

I expect after a saddle was installed getting to the tightening bolt to adjust saddle height was awkward at best.

Excellent point.

Someone showed their bolt less fastback seat stay bike, they wished they could find one of those.

maybe they will see this and make an offer..

I recently made one of these for a guy in Norway from a modified Kalloy post, a very long stem bolt from Nitto and a wedge from a 1 1/8" stem. His original Peugeot post had broken.

What happened to the frame? If your selling it you should be nice and include the post with the frame so a potential buyer does not have to look for one.

Not in all cases.....
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y44...R/DSC02338.jpg
A Brooks Imperial or a Selle Anatomica saddle with the top slot should make it easy to access teh wedge bolt from the top. Will also make it easier to deal with the clamp bolts on Nuovo Record seatposts, as you can see in my pic.
I think there are also modern saddles that have relief slots on them that will give good access to the bolt too...not to mention those SMP saddles...

Chombi

Also note that these quill seatposts usually have wedge binder designs that exerts a more distributed outward load to the seat tube, compared to a typical wedge design on a quill stem. This is to avoid bulging out the seat tube which has thinner walls than the typical steerer tube that stems are inserted into.
This Atax post in the pics from the OP is a cool design at the wedge area, but seems to be a bit over-built and heavy at the clamp.
Maybe it would work also best with an MTB that will require a stronger seatpost with best anchorage to the frame to keep the post from slipping when cycling on rough terrain....
Mid 80's Peugeot PSVN and PGN owners are usually looking out for these as the Delrin material at the clamp, sometimes crack apart and spare parts are almost impossible to find. They also sometime have these seize in the seat tube where the lower, separate parts of the wedge system gets stuck in the tube because of corrosion and he only way to get the parts out is with destructive methods.

Chombi

I extracted a such a post from a Peugeot last year. The post had corroded in place. getting the post portion out wasn't too hard but getting the expanding ring/sleeve was a REAL pain. All because the bike had never been serviced since new. It only takes a few minutes to pull a post, clean the frame &post , re lube and reinstall. Andy.

Moser bikes had a similar concept using a campagnolo seatpost, but the thing was adjustable from the side not from the top, from the top is just a bad idea. Remember cannondale had a bike that used the same concept in the seat tube, the seatpost as the campagnolo ones adjusted from the side and was not like this one that is a expander that tights as much as you can, the campagnolo and the cannondale one used a twist motion like the modern BMC streampost.

Seen the cannondale and the system is sweet but the bad thing is that the seatpost tend to crack in the bolt.