Giant Contact Switch Seatpost..... A handy tip

desmojen

Hi all,
I went and bought a new Giant Contact Switch seatpost the other week. I thought they looked interesting in the press, but on seeing one for real at the local Giant store I was sold.
I fitted it with no problems to my Trance, cable was a bit long but I didn't think shortening it was really worth the bother. First ride at Afan - no problems, worked exactly as you'd expect it to, nice and smooth, just the job. I should mention that it was wet at Afan, and we did W2, so lots of exposure to the nice Afan sand and grit storm.

Next ride, less than a week later at the Forest of Dean. I went to lower my seat for a section, and couldn't move the lever, it was stuck fast. I pulled over and eventually free'd it, but it needed both hands! Once it was moving I could operate it with one thumb again, but you could hear the sandy sound in the cable, and it was far from smooth.

Today I took it to bits so that I could lube the cable and clean everything out. Here is how the attachment end looked when I took the seat off.



Look at all that sand, from one ride!
I undid the cable and set about trying to clean and lube it. I couldn't pull the cable right out because the end gets a bit munched by the clamp, so I did the best I could. On reassembly though it just wasn't right. A bit smoother and easier to operate, yes. But not right. I had a spare gear cable inner in the box, so I decided to replace the inner altogether. Inspecting the now removed original inner, there were patches of white corrosion along the entire length, and both end parts were stiff and crusty, from corrosion products and the muck that had got in. On trying to use the old inner to lube the outer, I discovered that the outer cable was actually full of water! Aah right, that'll be why it keeps getting stuck then :roll:

Off I trotted to the local bike shop and got a new bit of cable outer. The nice pre lubed Shimano kind
All fitted with no issues (and now the right length), I added a little grease seal in the seat area.



So, I'm not complaining. These things happen, and if I had been less lazy and shortened the cable in the first place, I would have lubed it all when it went back together. Hopefully though, if anyone else is looking at buying one of these and they see this post.... well, forewarned is fore armed as they say

Jen.

TownyDC

desmojen wrote:

Hi all,
I went and bought a new Giant Contact Switch seatpost the other week. I thought they looked interesting in the press, but on seeing one for real at the local Giant store I was sold.
I fitted it with no problems to my Trance, cable was a bit long but I didn't think shortening it was really worth the bother. First ride at Afan - no problems, worked exactly as you'd expect it to, nice and smooth, just the job. I should mention that it was wet at Afan, and we did W2, so lots of exposure to the nice Afan sand and grit storm.

Next ride, less than a week later at the Forest of Dean. I went to lower my seat for a section, and couldn't move the lever, it was stuck fast. I pulled over and eventually free'd it, but it needed both hands! Once it was moving I could operate it with one thumb again, but you could hear the sandy sound in the cable, and it was far from smooth.

Today I took it to bits so that I could lube the cable and clean everything out. Here is how the attachment end looked when I took the seat off.



Look at all that sand, from one ride!
I undid the cable and set about trying to clean and lube it. I couldn't pull the cable right out because the end gets a bit munched by the clamp, so I did the best I could. On reassembly though it just wasn't right. A bit smoother and easier to operate, yes. But not right. I had a spare gear cable inner in the box, so I decided to replace the inner altogether. Inspecting the now removed original inner, there were patches of white corrosion along the entire length, and both end parts were stiff and crusty, from corrosion products and the muck that had got in. On trying to use the old inner to lube the outer, I discovered that the outer cable was actually full of water! Aah right, that'll be why it keeps getting stuck then :roll:

Off I trotted to the local bike shop and got a new bit of cable outer. The nice pre lubed Shimano kind
All fitted with no issues (and now the right length), I added a little grease seal in the seat area.



So, I'm not complaining. These things happen, and if I had been less lazy and shortened the cable in the first place, I would have lubed it all when it went back together. Hopefully though, if anyone else is looking at buying one of these and they see this post.... well, forewarned is fore armed as they say

Jen.

i'm looking at getting on of these for my anthem x4, how much did you pay for this?

dave

1mancity2

Think they retail for £160 but have a dig around I got a Reverb for £162 of CRC

kenan

Anymore problems with the post dave?

playasyougo

From this thread - viewtopic.php?f=20005&t=12849316&p=17686250#p17686250

Update:

Received the seat post back repaired (1 month) which is good but after asking if the repair had a warranty applied to it and if there was anything i could do to keep the seat post in good health and stop any future returns, this is the response i received back.

"Warranty of the product is from original purchase date and is 12 months. The fault is rain water and mud getting into the seat post. Giant suggest a small strip of black electrical tape on the back edge will stop the water going down the seat post when splashing up onto the underside of the seat dripping down."

Here is the seat post with the tape on it. Giant applied this, not me. I received it back repaired like this.



All in, glad it was repaired but disappointing to hear that as soon as the warranty runs out, no matter when it was bought, that's it. So, if your seat post fails a month before warranty ends and it gets repaired, when it's back there is no additional warranty on the unit.

It cost me to return back, there was zero communication about the repair and i had to send an email asking what the issue was and if the repair was covered. This wasn't with Giant directly and really is separate issue with an online dealer the unit was bought from. Just a little moan!