A New Hope (seatpost, that is)

Giraffoto

If you're looking for a seatpost that will smooth out the worst of the bumps, the Hope Carbon Seatpost is well worth considering. Having bought one because the design of the clamp promised absolutely no movement or creaking, I was surprised to discover it gives a noticeably smoother feel than the CG-R seatpost it's replaced. All while weighing and costing less, not creaking and looking less strange. Now to put the CG-R on eBay . . .

imposter2.0

Unconvinced, sorry...

dwanes

Hmmmmm....

Giraffoto

Seriously, I'm not a made up ID for a one-off advertising campaign. I'm a real human being with a real dodgy lower back, and I know whether the ride is rough or smooth.

imposter2.0

So can you explain how you think the seatpost affects the ride? There must be a hell of a lot of vertical movement in it.

Giraffoto

Imposter wrote:

So can you explain how you think the seatpost affects the ride? There must be a hell of a lot of vertical movement in it.

It flexes. Now, if I had a vertical seatpost, it would need to have vertical movement. Being tilted back at at 73 degrees from horizontal, that fore and aft flexing translates to several millimetres of movement at the saddle. This is plenty of movement to iron out the bumps - Pinarello believes that 10mm of travel is plenty for a gravel bike, so "several" millimetres is certainly enough for badly maintained tarmac. This is how any seatpost contributes to a hard or soft ride.

I suspect that the CG-R seatpost is fairly stiff along most of its length and does all of its shock absorbing in the kink at the top, whereas the Hope is more flexible throughout its length. Certainly I can see the flex in the Hope, which I can't in the CG-R. This would tend to make it rebound a bit more slowly, and so feel like it's delivering a smoother ride. It's likely to be particularly noticeable for me because (being fairly tall) I have the seatpost a long way out.

imposter2.0

Sounds a lot like post-rationalisation to me, sorry (no pun intended). I'm happy for you though.

keef66

If he's got loads of seatpost showing, I'm persuaded that a more flexible carbon post would give a more forgiving ride.

Sadly no use to me; in the interests of minimising saddle to bar drop I've chosen frames which mean I have relatively little post exposed. My only shock absorbing options are slightly fatter tyres and old-school leather saddles

Giraffoto

keef66 wrote:

If he's got loads of seatpost showing, I'm persuaded that a more flexible carbon post would give a more forgiving ride.

Sadly no use to me; in the interests of minimising saddle to bar drop I've chosen frames which mean I have relatively little post exposed. My only shock absorbing options are slightly fatter tyres and old-school leather saddles

If, as I suspect, the CG-R post does all of its shock absorbing in the kinked section at the top, then it might be just what you need.

Also, Imposter wrote:

Sounds a lot like post-rationalisation to me . . .no pun intended . . .

Now who's coming out with implausible claims?

iPete

Don't worry I believe you

There was a tangible difference on my old Allez moving between the stock seatpost and a Deda Carbon.
http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/arti ... vel-46208/