Is riding with a bent seat post just asking for trouble?

Jay wrote:
Dear RBT:

RTC has my new Thompson seat post, which they are going to swap at no
additional charge:

http://www.blueskycycling.com/cat-seatpost.htm

I am very busy at work, and can't get away for a couple days. Is
riding on this bent seat post just asking for a disaster?

http://orion.neiu.edu/~jbollyn/bike/...-seat-post.jpg

I also found out that my bent seat post did not come from Electra. It
was bought from some 3rd party by RTC. I agree with earlier RBT
comments, that the cheap seat post, combined with the frame angle,
with my 210lbs rider weight + 20 lbs backpack, simply will not work.
Physics 101.

J.



don't ride it. and as chalo says, a rack is great idea in this situation.

On Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:52:47 -0600, may have
said:

You should explain that as a gentleman you cannot possibly stoop to
her level and will therefore say nothing at all about her shoe
collection.

I had best not mention shoes. I think I may have more bikes than she
has pairs of shoes. (Maybe. It might be closer to mere parity, but
that's still not a good thing to use as an example.) Now, I could
make a case for SF and fantasy art prints; she's got more of those
than we have wall space to hang them.

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

In article ,
Werehatrack wrote:

On Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:52:47 -0600, may have
said:

You should explain that as a gentleman you cannot possibly stoop to
her level and will therefore say nothing at all about her shoe
collection.

I had best not mention shoes. I think I may have more bikes than she
has pairs of shoes. (Maybe. It might be closer to mere parity, but
that's still not a good thing to use as an example.) Now, I could
make a case for SF and fantasy art prints; she's got more of those
than we have wall space to hang them.

You're lucky. Thanks to my ridiculous collection of bike-specific shoes
(four pairs; three in active service) I have more shoes than my wife.

Oh, you can imagine the dinner-table conversations!

As for bikes, well...I'm pretty sure she doesn't know about the horrible
Raleigh I just dragged out of someone else's trash pile tonight. Heck,
she has no chance: it just went into the pile of about 10 other
project/sale bikes I have sitting outside of my two backyard sheds which
contain the "good" bikes.

Yeah, I have a problem.

Here's a little checklist:

http://www.indiana.edu/~adic/checklist.html

I substituted bicycle/riding for alcohol/drinking, and scored an 11.

"Scoring: If you noted three or four of the statements you should be
suspicious about the way you use substances.
If you noted five you may have the beginnings of a problem and perhaps
should start looking for some kind of help.
If you noted more than five, it would probably be a good idea to talk
about your use of substances with a professional counselor."

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."

On Apr 8, 2:58*am, Jay wrote:
Dear RBT:

RTC has my new Thompson seat post, which they are going to swap at no
additional charge:

http://www.blueskycycling.com/cat-seatpost.htm

I am very busy at work, and can't get away for a couple days. Is
riding on this bent seat post just asking for a disaster?

http://orion.neiu.edu/~jbollyn/bike/...-seat-post.jpg

I also found out that my bent seat post did not come from Electra. It
was bought from some 3rd party by RTC. I agree with earlier RBT
comments, that the cheap seat post, combined with the frame angle,
with my 210lbs rider weight + 20 lbs backpack, simply will not work.
Physics 101.

J.

I think the risk is not so much landing on the rack as landing on the
sharp stump of the broken seatpost.

Exercise extreme caution

Duncan
Australia

On Apr 7, 10:17*pm, Chalo wrote:
Joseph Santaniello wrote:

Werehatrack wrote:

IMO, these long very-slack-angle seatposts are not a good idea;
unfortunately, a conventional frame design that's drive-forward (like
several of the Electras) will often have this misfeature as a side
effect.

Not sound negative, but I agree, and I wouldn't be entirely surprised
if the newly spec'ed Thomson suffers the same fate.

Not a chance. *I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't proved it to my
own satisfaction, but the Thomson post will tolerate much higher
loadings than Jay has on the agenda.

My Surly 1x1 had a very normal seat angle, but I was using a 410mm
post near its maximum extension, and I weighed up to and in excess of
400 pounds during the time I owned that bike. *I had no definite
reason to believe that the seatpost would fare any better than all the
others I tried, but it did.

Note that the Thomson post is the established favorite of the downhill/
hucking bike crowd, and a lot of those bikes use slack seatpost angles
too-- much slacker than their effective seat angles.

Chalo


I am very glad to hear you say that, Chalo;

Because othewise, it would mean my Electra was a huge mistake for my
load and height. This would also mean Andre was misguided in his
Electra suggestion. I just don't think so. I am commuting on city
streets. Never jumping off curbs, or anything of the sort.

I have decided to not ride the bike as it is. I have pulled the
seatpost off, and I will carry it to RTC, bring the new seatpost back
to the office, and install it. The markings on the seatpost indicate
it is a '27.2E Kalloy' silver seatpost, which sells for ~ $18 USD. I
think the RTC sales person bought the cheapest extended seatpost she
could find, without asking the mechanics in the shop for their
opinion. She originally did not order an extended seatpost at all,
even though we discussed this in some detail during our earlier phone
calls and emails.

J.

On Apr 8, 1:51*pm, Jay wrote:
On Apr 7, 10:17*pm, Chalo wrote:

Joseph Santaniello wrote:

Werehatrack wrote:

IMO, these long very-slack-angle seatposts are not a good idea;
unfortunately, a conventional frame design that's drive-forward (like
several of the Electras) will often have this misfeature as a side
effect.

Not sound negative, but I agree, and I wouldn't be entirely surprised
if the newly spec'ed Thomson suffers the same fate.

Not a chance. *I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't proved it to my
own satisfaction, but the Thomson post will tolerate much higher
loadings than Jay has on the agenda.

My Surly 1x1 had a very normal seat angle, but I was using a 410mm
post near its maximum extension, and I weighed up to and in excess of
400 pounds during the time I owned that bike. *I had no definite
reason to believe that the seatpost would fare any better than all the
others I tried, but it did.

Note that the Thomson post is the established favorite of the downhill/
hucking bike crowd, and a lot of those bikes use slack seatpost angles
too-- much slacker than their effective seat angles.

Chalo

I am very glad to hear you say that, Chalo;

Because othewise, it would mean my Electra was a huge mistake for my
load and height. This would also mean Andre was misguided in his
Electra suggestion. I just don't think so. I am commuting on city
streets. Never jumping off curbs, or anything of the sort.

I'm the same weight, I have my seatposts out as far as yours, and I
jump off kerbs all the time, and ride onto them too at speed, just
lifting up on the pedals to shift my weight with the bike. And my
seatposts are suspended items, which makes them even more fragile. My
seatposts are Post Moderne and Kalloy. The first Post Moderne was
wrecked by the LBS stripping the threads in the head in angling the
seat. After reading of your problem, I've inspected the seatposts on
both my Dutch city bikes and they seem okay. It's not you, it's an
inferior seatpost.

I have decided to not ride the bike as it is. I have pulled the
seatpost off, and I will carry it to RTC, bring the new seatpost back
to the office, and install it.

Probably the safest thing to do. Though I must say, my experience with
a broken seatpost, taken secondhand, is that the guy it happened to
was still mobile and the next day continued on his tour of Ireland. I
told the story here befo I found this guy on the pavement in front
of the library, waiting for me by my bike to ask for directions to the
LBS. He'd broken the titanium seatpost on his touring bike. I had a
post I could give him so I took him home with me; the steel post
didn't fit, the LBS had nothing he wanted, so I called around the bike
shops in the city and the next day the guy picked up a new post. Thing
is, he was a physician and knew how to describe what had happened, and
while he was bruised, he wasn't bleeding or crippled or anything. He
was a little pale but no more than a guy who has just taken a long
ride on a new Brooks saddle.

The markings on the seatpost indicate
it is a '27.2E Kalloy' silver seatpost, which sells for ~ $18 USD. I
think the RTC sales person bought the cheapest extended seatpost she
could find, without asking the mechanics in the shop for their
opinion. She originally did not order an extended seatpost at all,
even though we discussed this in some detail during our earlier phone
calls and emails.

I'm really rather disappointed in a shop that everyone recommended so
highly. This isn't just a stupid, careless and greedy mistake, this is
potentially dangerous.

Furthermore, I think two paradigms are being thoughtlessly compounded
here. A guy who buys a Dutch city/sports for well over a grand for the
stated purpose of long-term all-weather year-round commuting clearly
wants the best, defined as the most reliable parts. He is most
definitely not a weight weenie. Everyone in cycling knows, or should
know, that Cheap + Low mass = Unreliable. I conclude that if you're
trying to save a buck -- which I know you're not, but for the sake of
a complete argument -- you should have a good steel seatpost, not a
cheap alloy one. If you're not trying to save a buck -- which we know
is the case here -- the mechanics would have told her on request which
alloy seatpost has the reputation of lasting even in offroad abuse (as
Chalo says), except she clearly never asked.

In your position, I would say something polite but pointed to the
owner of this LBS, starting with the words, "I came here because
you're highly recommended," and ending with a pious expectation of
dealing in his shop in future with someone more experienced than the
person who made "this reckless and potentially dangerous mistake".

Andre Jute
http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/B...20CYCLING.html

On Apr 8, 7:07*am, eldunco wrote:
On Apr 8, 2:58*am, Jay wrote:



Dear RBT:

RTC has my new Thompson seat post, which they are going to swap at no
additional charge:

http://www.blueskycycling.com/cat-seatpost.htm

I am very busy at work, and can't get away for a couple days. Is
riding on this bent seat post just asking for a disaster?

http://orion.neiu.edu/~jbollyn/bike/...-seat-post.jpg

I also found out that my bent seat post did not come from Electra. It
was bought from some 3rd party by RTC. I agree with earlier RBT
comments, that the cheap seat post, combined with the frame angle,
with my 210lbs rider weight + 20 lbs backpack, simply will not work.
Physics 101.

J.

I think the risk is not so much landing on the rack as landing on the
sharp stump of the broken seatpost.

Exercise extreme caution

Duncan
Australia

Fundamentally dangerous, you think then, Duncan? -- Andre Jute

Jay Bollyn wrote:
Dear RBT:

RTC has my new Thompson seat post, which they are going to swap at no
additional charge:

http://www.blueskycycling.com/cat-seatpost.htm

I am very busy at work, and can't get away for a couple days. Is
riding on this bent seat post just asking for a disaster?

http://orion.neiu.edu/~jbollyn/bike/...-seat-post.jpg

I would ride using that seat post under one condition - with a hardwood
dowel slightly smaller than the I.D. stuck inside it and the annular
space filled with epoxy (like a Chrysler Airflow).

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful

On Tue, 8 Apr 2008 05:51:10 -0700 (PDT), Jay may
have said:

On Apr 7, 10:17*pm, Chalo wrote:
Joseph Santaniello wrote:

Werehatrack wrote:

IMO, these long very-slack-angle seatposts are not a good idea;
unfortunately, a conventional frame design that's drive-forward (like
several of the Electras) will often have this misfeature as a side
effect.

Not sound negative, but I agree, and I wouldn't be entirely surprised
if the newly spec'ed Thomson suffers the same fate.

Not a chance. *I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't proved it to my
own satisfaction, but the Thomson post will tolerate much higher
loadings than Jay has on the agenda.

My Surly 1x1 had a very normal seat angle, but I was using a 410mm
post near its maximum extension, and I weighed up to and in excess of
400 pounds during the time I owned that bike. *I had no definite
reason to believe that the seatpost would fare any better than all the
others I tried, but it did.

Note that the Thomson post is the established favorite of the downhill/
hucking bike crowd, and a lot of those bikes use slack seatpost angles
too-- much slacker than their effective seat angles.

Chalo


I am very glad to hear you say that, Chalo;

Because othewise, it would mean my Electra was a huge mistake for my
load and height. This would also mean Andre was misguided in his
Electra suggestion. I just don't think so. I am commuting on city
streets. Never jumping off curbs, or anything of the sort.

I have decided to not ride the bike as it is. I have pulled the
seatpost off, and I will carry it to RTC, bring the new seatpost back
to the office, and install it. The markings on the seatpost indicate
it is a '27.2E Kalloy' silver seatpost, which sells for ~ $18 USD. I
think the RTC sales person bought the cheapest extended seatpost she
could find, without asking the mechanics in the shop for their
opinion. She originally did not order an extended seatpost at all,
even though we discussed this in some detail during our earlier phone
calls and emails.

There are cheaper and crummier posts than Kalloy, believe it or not.
The fact that it failed is not terribly suprising, though. The brand
is adeaute for the purpose for which it is most commonly sold; as a
post for a mountain bike. Kalloy's been around a while, but the
proliferation of slack-angle frames that might need a long extension
on the post is a situation that's been building; I suspect the word
will get out that Thompson's the only reliable way to go for that app.



--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

On Apr 9, 6:08*am, Werehatrack wrote:
On Tue, 8 Apr 2008 05:51:10 -0700 (PDT), Jay may
have said:



On Apr 7, 10:17*pm, Chalo wrote:
Joseph Santaniello wrote:

Werehatrack wrote:

IMO, these long very-slack-angle seatposts are not a good idea;
unfortunately, a conventional frame design that's drive-forward (like
several of the Electras) will often have this misfeature as a side
effect.

Not sound negative, but I agree, and I wouldn't be entirely surprised
if the newly spec'ed Thomson suffers the same fate.

Not a chance. *I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't proved it to my
own satisfaction, but the Thomson post will tolerate much higher
loadings than Jay has on the agenda.

My Surly 1x1 had a very normal seat angle, but I was using a 410mm
post near its maximum extension, and I weighed up to and in excess of
400 pounds during the time I owned that bike. *I had no definite
reason to believe that the seatpost would fare any better than all the
others I tried, but it did.

Note that the Thomson post is the established favorite of the downhill/
hucking bike crowd, and a lot of those bikes use slack seatpost angles
too-- much slacker than their effective seat angles.

Chalo

I am very glad to hear you say that, Chalo;

Because othewise, it would mean my Electra was a huge mistake for my
load and height. This would also mean Andre was misguided in his
Electra suggestion. I just don't think so. I am commuting on city
streets. Never jumping off curbs, or anything of the sort.

I have decided to not ride the bike as it is. I have pulled the
seatpost off, and I will carry it to RTC, bring the new seatpost back
to the office, and install it. The markings on the seatpost indicate
it is a '27.2E Kalloy' silver seatpost, which sells for ~ $18 USD. I
think the RTC sales person bought the cheapest extended seatpost she
could find, without asking the mechanics in the shop for their
opinion. She originally did not order an extended seatpost at all,
even though we discussed this in some detail during our earlier phone
calls and emails.

There are cheaper and crummier posts than Kalloy, believe it or not.
The fact that it failed is not terribly suprising, though. *The brand
is adeaute for the purpose for which it is most commonly sold; as a
post for a mountain bike. *Kalloy's been around a while, but the
proliferation of slack-angle frames that might need a long extension
on the post is a situation that's been building; I suspect the word
will get out that Thompson's the only reliable way to go for that app.


Once again, I agree. I don't think failure in this particular case
speaks poorly of the Kalloy.

Judgement on the part of the LBS in installing it is a different
story.

Joseph