Why a expensive seat post
 

I need a new seat post

Can someone tell me why one would by a 90$ Nitto Crystal seat post like this? As opposed to a cheaper one from a LBS?

What would a upgrade do?

Lighter?

Absorb more shock then other material?

Just to be cool :)

thanks

http://www.velo-orange.com/nidy626secrf.html

http://www.rivbike.com/products/show...eatpost/11-031

You mean a seat post, I guess? The more expensive one will be lighter and look cooler and leave a larger dent in your budget. If it's carbon it may even absorb some more shock but you won't notice that unless you make yourself believe that it does. So get a $20 aluminum seatpost and spend the $70 on something useful. Although you won't be able to brag about your seatpost.

Adam

First of it's a seat stem not steam, steam is liquid vapor.

The Nitto is expensive because it's the best aluminum stem with more adjustments, as well as the most polished looking stem on the market, and will last a lifetime. If you don't need a stem to last a long time or look great then just get the el cheapo stem.

The upgrade may be lighter, but I don't know what your comparing it to, no stem will absorb shock unless it's got a built in suspension system; you'll have to get a seat that can do that to some degree.

Can lugged pedals be far behind.

lugged seat posts? I've seen lugged handlebar stems but I think their ugly and their very heavy.

First off it's first off, not first of.

Ohh, what we have here boys and girls is the perfect typist who never makes a error while typing, I bow before your presence, and have mercy on my soul oh god of typing.

Ha ha! That's great guys! An old Abbott and Costello routine, am I right?

(To the OP, get the cheaper seatpost, in my opinion)

Seat posts...

A super thin, super light aluminium job came with my hybrid. To use a very popular phrase, it was a jarring experience for my rear. The clamp bust after about 5000miles. New post required

So I went to my LBS and purchased a carbon number. In fact it was a carbon wrap post but what it really was was a heavier guage of tubing. So where the tubing on the original piece was very very thin (and not very comfortable) the tubing on the new piece was substabtially thicker and probably the real reason it was infinitely more comfortable.

The new piece lasted about three weeks when the clamp (allegedly milled from forged alloy ingots) failed in spectacular fashion. In fact if I wasn't on the ball i would've been in the hospital receiving reconstructive surgery to an area where you'd want it least.

I returned the failed unit to the LBS and cut a good deal on a Thomson Elite which seems to be living up to it's reputation as a tough unit. Excellent clamp assembly, sturdy and comfortable. The tubing features some interesting butting where the tubing is substantially thicker at the front and rear than it is at the sides. It is expensive but the money spent seems to have bought a very good quality component

As far as carbon is concerned...I'm not a fan..especially on a commuter. They really are disposable items when you have an accident. Even if they look OK the general concensus is, post incident, they can't be trusted as the damage to a carbon unit may not be apparent.

*an error

HTH

For most expensive posts, you're paying for the name brand. I have a Thomson on my brevet bike. There are other ovalized posts that have similar strength, and other 2-bolt posts with the same adjustability. They're even around the same weight... but mine says Thomson on the side. :)

Similar to getting a Carradice saddlebag or a Berthoud frontbag instead of a Velo-Orange. They're all similar quality and styling.

Oh crap I made another error? by the way there's not enough room on this forum for two gods of typing, please fight the other god for supremacy and to the victor I shall bow.

Your punctuation and capitalisation\capitalization are questionable:

Oh crap! I made another error? By the way there's not enough room on this forum for two gods of typing. Please fight the other god for supremacy and to the victor I shall bow.

Don't tell me there's 3 potential god's to the throne...hell I gave upty i jst spil an pncutate wattevr i fellin lik.

I only corrected you because you corrected you. He just mistyped it, it's not a big deal, but you felt the need to correct him.

That nitto wayback seatpost will forever occupy my day dreams.

I corrected myself? You said "I only corrected you because you corrected you". Sorry but you fail. I corrected the spelling not a mistype, and the spelling for stem as steam was done several times in the post which the poster has now corrected, a mistype is an error that occurs once. So I was only correcting the reoccurring error, I don't care about mistype or punctuation errors, just as I really don't care about me correcting me error you made just that you brought it up so I highlighted your error...actually I thought your error was funny!!!

Can't resist any longer...


http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png


Bugly64: The Nitto Wayback is awesome with that lugwork, but the V-O Grand Cru long setback is pretty sexy in its own right.

Yes. That's why I'm a Kalloy fan. $20 seatpost keeps your butt off the ground. What more do you need?

For a lightweight post like the Thomson, and a big dude like me (230 pounds), the ovalized interiour section is important to keeping it from bending in half during 40 mile sections of potholed chip-seal or 15 miles of gravel mountain service road.
Of course, a V-O post does the same thing for $50 less.

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/computer_problems.png

Back on topic: Cheaper seatposts use a one-bolt design with grooves on the adjustable clamp. If the clamp is a bit loose, it can tilt and wear down the grooves. Then it won't keep the seat locked in place. So make sure the grooves are lined up, then tighten the bolt securely.

Adjustability, material(lightness and vibration dampening)

The single bolt ones just fail and never really stay put

The Crystal Fellow is a single-bolt seatpost. Did you mean to claim that it too will "fail and never really stay put"?

Who is this magical Crystal fellow you speak of?

It might help to read the OP's original post.

A buddy of mine has a $100 seat post. I asked him what about a seat post could possibly be worth $100. I asked this with sincere curiosity and not in any way mockingly. He honestly couldn't answer the question. Some people just have too much money was my conclusion.

It's true only if he can't answer!

Perhaps one of the biggest reason why the Nitto (and Thomson) seatposts are so expensive is where they are made. Japan (and the US of A) do not exactly have cheap labor. On top of that, the manufacturing conditions (e.g., environmental restrictions, health regulations, etc) add quite a bit to the cost. Due to the inherent high baseline cost, it makes no sense to use cheap material/processes, so you'll also getting one of the best material and manufacturing processes (including QC). It all adds up.

The cheaper seatposts may be just as strong, but they may not be as consistent and you may loose out a bit (or a lot) on making sure the labor is fairly compensated and adequate care had been taken to mitigate environmental impact. To make the seatposts that much cheaper, some corners have to be cut. These corners may have nothing to do with the functionality of the product, but corners were cut nevertheless. It's not as if anyone's getting rich making seatposts or any other bike parts!

We all make our choices, hopefully with eyes wide open.

$25 worth of material and tooling, plus $75 worth of envy as people drool when they check out your bike.

Is a SON28 really 2x better than a Shimano 3N80?
Is a Thomson post really 2x better than a VO Grand Cru?
Are VO stainless fenders 2x better than PB Freddy HCs?
Probably not... but it makes me smile when people tell me how nice my bike looks.