When seatposts fail (not pretty)
 

I felt compelled to warn others of my experience with the U.S.E. titanium seatpost and the f'in nasty injury it caused me. This was with the original 2-bolt clamp design which has since been revised, but the "new" one-bolt design looks as flimsy as the original. Short story:

I bought the U.S.E. seatpost for my Surly from an online parts retailer that I've used for years. Never had a problem with the post until one night riding home when I briefly sat up in the saddle and rode no-hands for half a block. The next thing I know I'm falling off the back of my bike and miraculously end up in a standing position watching my bike wreck in front of me. Naturally, I'm like wtf just happened? End result: busted clamp, large bruise/gash on left thigh and a f'ckd up new rear wheel (I fell on it). I pulled the f'in piece of crap post out and rode home for the better part of 12 miles with no saddle. Yes, my quads burned, but not as much as the silent rage that seethed within me.

I contacted U.S.E. and sent them photos of the broken clamp (below). I calmly informed them that I rode daily on their *new* seatpost for less than 6mos. It was installed and used properly. At no time did it creak or give any indication that a failure was imminent. They apologized & offered to replace it with their MTB Sumo model through the retail shop I ordered from. I said 'no thanks'. I'll accept a refund but never confidently ride on their crap again, thankyouverymuch.

U.S.E. = ultimately sh1tty engineering

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y44...ost-saddle.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y44...oken-clamp.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y44...njury-day4.jpg

wow...did they offer to replace the wheel as well?

I politely mentioned that my new velocity wheel was trashed and never heard back from them.

They are stupid. Ponying up to replace a wheel and
refund a seat goes a long way towards re-creating
some semblance of good will and reputation.

Anyway--glad you are (mostly) intact. Sorry about your wheel.

How is that seatpost supposed to be connected together?

Exactly. The curved head of the post (1st pic) is supposed to be held tight in the clamp (sitting on saddle rails) when the dinky 4mm allen bolts are tightened. In my case, the titanium clamp prongs of the middle piece snapped off (see pic #2). I thought the amount of material used in the clamp to grip the saddle rails looked a bit thin, but I trusted it anyway.

That looks like a really **** design. And apparently it is.

that is one awesome bruise. sorry about the accident, though.

I had a similar accident but with another type of clamp, except I landed on the back tyre, getting a nasty bum burn, then landing in a sitting position on the road and breaking my coccyx :eek:, after which I rolled onto my thigh and removed most of the skin. The doctors thought the bum burn was a great joke :(
This was on a near new bike.

Owwie. Glad you didn't get hurt worse---I was expecting a grosser picture. This makes me appreciate my cheapo, heavy Axiom two bolter.

awesome bruise.

you see, it WAS worth it, 'cuz you got some good pics

That is a ******** design. Different for the sake of being different. Sorry about your injury.

Never been happier to be a cheap sod riding a Kalloy!

Ouch dude! Glad you didn't land on anything more sensitive.

FYI, that's aluminum, not ti. Sucks regardless. Ouch.

I'd avoided USE because I'd heard the clamp was a pain to adjust properly. Now I see it's just a pain. Never, never, never...

+1 ! you would have prob lost your ability to reproduce! Glad you'll live to ride another day (What doesnt kill you makes you stronger! Grrrrr!)

Somebody in the road forum has as their signature "When the answer is Thomson, should you have really asked the question?" and I think that's pretty relevant to your current situation.

While it does look, at first pass, like a poor design, I don't think any of us are qualified to pass judgement without having actually worked the numbers. Is there any evidence of the posts failing in general use or is this an isolated issue? You mentioned this being an older design, was it updated because of tendency to fail?

Edit: A quick googling on this turns up numerous accounts of the inner block cracking, saddle separation. So we got a poor design or one that is implemented in such a way that the end user is prone to improperly tightening it.

According to their web site "Extensive FEA development". In this case I'm guessing they evaluated what happens after the post breaks.

USE=utterly ****ty engineering

EDIT: By the way, how DID you get such a bruise, exactly?

Hahahah! High-five :D

No shame in riding a Kalloy. After riding on cheap no-frills (but sturdy) alloy seatposts forever i thought I'd indulge in this "premium" titanium one. Thus ended my experiment. I'm back on my 10yr old Ultegra post.

I'm surprised to hear they didn't offer you a lot more. Your bike was damaged, and you sustained personal injury directly as a result of a poor design. You could sue them and they would be obligated to issue a recall, and they only are going to give you a replacement post?

This thread itself is already costing them a lot.

Pretty sure the post gouged me as I fell off the back. I had enough adrenaline in my blood after the wreck that I didn't notice the rip in my pants and the slowly spreading bloodstain until much later. What pic#3 doesn't show is the massive bruise under my thigh from landing on my rear tire.

I'm lucky I didn't lose my nutsack. sheesh.

If you read most manufactures literature, they absolve themselves of any damages resulting from the use of their product. Standard boilerplating in our litigious happy world.

Sure he could sue. But that's a big hill to climb and a recall has to be based on more than opinion.

I snapped the gooseneck off a homemade dirt bike back in the early 70's. That nice sharp steel post did a number on my thigh as I pitched over the front end. Opened up about a 6 inch gash right down to the bone. Another 2" to the right and I'd be Dobbrina.

Took something like 75 internal and 100 external stitches to close it all up.

Just to state the facts: nothing wrong with Titanium - it's a very strong metal, in all senses. Very reliable if welded properly.

What you had is the alloy part that failed.

Aren't there some weight limitations often associated with titanium parts. I seem to recall limitations with Crank Brother pedals, Brook saddles and Phil bottom brackets.

Crank Brothers has a 185lb rating on some of their Titanium pedals http://www.crankbrothers.com/candy_4ti.php