I've been riding a 2013 trek 2.1 madone(alum frame carbon fork 105GS) this season. I love the bike it fits and rides well, only thing I've graded was the ****ty squishy affinity 1 seat it came with to a paradim RL. I really have no desire to go for "lighter"upgrades being it still a alum frame coming it at 20lbs stock, and I'm better selling it when the time comes and upgrading to a whole new carbon, just wondering comfort wise would a carbon seat stem be much more noticeable then the stock alumni it came with? Or not worth the $$? Just wondering if it make a difference 2hrs+ on the road when you start to feel the bumps a little
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Can you fit 25mm tires on that frame? would make a bigger difference than a carbon seatpost.

it's seatpost, or seatpin. there is a small but not deal-breaking difference b/w carbon and aluminum seatposts. save your money.

Changing seatpost from alloy to carbon will have minimum effect on comfort. There are other reasons, however, that also valid such as cosmetic or setback needs or weight saving.

It could have a dramatic affect comfort, I think, but it depends on how much seatpost extension is available. You'll get max impact at +5" of extension; 3" or less and I think it wouldn't be as noticeable.

this is just based on my experience, and I've never seen any study or even mention of extension as an element of seatpost comfort, but clearly it must matter. There's a Velonews seatpost test talking about bump deflection and vibration damping out there you can check out, but again, no mention of the extension lengths they tested, or if they were even uniform.

the nice thing is that you can get a carbon post for relatively little and give it a shot.

"When choosing between aluminum and carbon seatposts, our tests indicate that the carbon seatpost will offer more vibration damping on high-frequency bumpy surfaces and more flex for big bumps, while also being lighter; but they are more expensive."



Read more at From the pages of Velo: Getting the most from your post - Page 5 of 5 - VeloNews.com

that's the article I was talking about, and I should correct myself to say that VN did say they positioned the saddle in the exact same place relative to BB and bars. The amount of post extension is unspecified, however and unfortunately.

Or... what is your weight and tire pressure.. even with 23s you could be running too high. i still stay going to 25s is a more solid change if they fit. (my bike doesn't fit them )

I added a carbon seatpost , bars and stem to my CAAD 9, along with a carbon fork. Adding all that carbon did eliminate a lot of road buzz and vibration. It's not like my carbon bike, but if you added a carbon seatpost, you'd save weight and it would minimally eliminate some road buzz. It the $$ worth it? only you can answer that.