dhk2 said:
When looking at weight vs cost, don't forget about strength and durability. A seat post isn't something that should need replacement every year or two, or that you have to worry about every time you hit a big bump in the road. Just making something light is easy; light and strong enough to last "forever" is much harder.
Which standard are people supposed to apply to "light and strong": the one from 1980? 1990? 1995? 2000? 2004? "Light and strong" is about as vague as a statement can get. It's equally hackneyed.
If people are going to give advice and tuition about materials, you'd think they'd at least expend the minimal effort to learn about the evolution, from the first blessed and holy steel bike to today's deathly fragile CF contraptions, of said materials and the techniques of working said materials. Of course that doesn't happen. No, people just throw out that ol' chestnut about light weight, durability, blah, blah, blah, without putting it into any context or defining what the standards are for qualification as "durable" or "strong."
So? What's "strong" and what's "durable?" Someone, quick, give me some values so that I can write them down for use when I go buy something.
The idea that a CF post has to be retired after 1 or 2 years flies in the face of everything except mistaken ideas about the material. Big bumps are worrisome? The last 2 posts I saw break were aluminum posts. What does that say about aluminum? Or is that just an aberration to the "strength and durability" of aluminum posts? FWIW, they weren't lightweight aluminum wonder posts. Now, that makes me all worried. Now I have to worry about aluminum posts and CF posts. Dagnabit. I guess I'll have to get me a seatpost made of Reynolds 531, since something that old must be strong. Plus it's steel which according to all the experts is real and has no weaknesses at all. Plus, the steel seatpost will be lively, responsive, and more comfortable than a feather bed.
It's amazing what you can learn on the internet tubes.
FWIW, if a CF seatpost is a bit too tight or difficult to insert in a CF seat tube, you can put grease on it. The idea that you can't is ****ing ridiculous.
Y'all think thems Formula 1 drivers is or is they ain't afeared 'cuz there be grease all over the place 'round those carbon fiber suspensions pieces? Why, I'm surprised that grease don't cause thems things to explode at every race. I don't knows why they just don't use some big ol' heavy leafsprings like is in my old Ford out back on the cement blocks.
Yeeeeeehaaawwwww.