Will carbon seat post feel different?
Thigh_burn
Posts: 489
I've got a steel bike. Recently did a bike fit and one of the recommendations was to go for a carbon seat post. To be clear, the fitter wasn't trying to flog it to me, his suggestion came after I was asking about making a few weight savings on the bike.
He did say however that it would feel a lot more comfortable with a carbon post, vs my current Condor alu post. If so, any recommendations, much difference between Deda/3T/Fizik etc?
He did say however that it would feel a lot more comfortable with a carbon post, vs my current Condor alu post. If so, any recommendations, much difference between Deda/3T/Fizik etc?
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That'll make a pretty enormous weight difference (and potentially comfort improvement too).
Saying that a carbon seatpost will be 'a lot' more comfortable is basically talking rubbish, particularly if your frame has fairly traditional geometry and so not that much seatpost showing.
It should be a bit more comfy, but it's a marginal difference - presumably you didn't go in for a bike fit because your censored was getting shaken to pieces?
You can probably make a good weight saving, although worth checking the weight of your current seatpost first - quality aluminium seatposts can be within a few grams of quality carbon ones (and lighter than cheap carbon).
Deda kit is good for the money but they have a rep for under-quoting their weights so take them with a pinch of salt. Personally I'd buy the one which gave me the most g/£ saving while still looking good with the bike.
Yes it does.
You're right, it wasn't ars* comfort that drove me to get the bike fit, but a few separate issues.
It's steel afterall, so I know weight savings on the seat post will be marginal overall. Thanks for the general feedback.
Can't really tell the difference in comfort myself. Swapping my tyres did more for comfort than the seatpost.
It weighs 60g less than my alu one. If I take a flapjack on my ride, that weight saving is negated!
The trick there is to eat the flapjack before the ride so that the weight doesn't count. I also ensure that I drink any water in bottles prior to a big climb...
I do think my science might be a little flawed though.
Why limit your opinion of carbon to just bars, stem & seatpost?
For the last 2 years I've been riding a Colnago Dream (alu frame) with a alu seat post and have recently switched to a carbon Deda superzero.
For me it has taken some of the road buzz away therefore improving comfort.
Never run carbon in a steel frame so can't make that comparison I'm afraid.
Colnago CLX 3.0
Colnago Dream
Giant Trinity Advanced
Italian steel winter hack
There is a leaf spring post out there somewhere (Canyon?) and that might feel different. But you have a steel frame, which is already more compliant so I'm not sure why you'd bother.
When I firstly switched to carbon seatpost I couldn't feel the difference right away but as I said if you apply that little difference on the whole ride it helps since there are less vibrations absorbed.
because unlike weight, you can further improve things ie:-
steel bike = comfortable.
Steel bike WITH fatter rubber = more comfortable.
Steel bike with fatter rubber and carbon post, stem and bars = EVEN more comfortable.
its hard to understand because people are used to the physics of weight, where :-
Bike = heavy.
Bike with no water bottle and rider having a big dump = light.
Bike with no water bottle and rider having a big dump AND with light weight wheels, post, bars and groupset = the same weight as before as he has already taken the water bottle off and had a dump
The thing I've consistently noticed as I've improved the quality of bikes I've had is that I don't much notice the improvement until I go back to what I had. I still have my original Focus Variado 105 (£375 ex-demo) and only going back do I notice how harsh the ride is. Bars, in particular, are probably the longest cantilever and I really notice how springy the drops, especially, are with carbon. Bars weigh about 20-25% of the weight of a frame. They are also about 20-25% the cost of a similar standard carbon frame. I struggle to see how anyone can argue a carbon frame is worthwhile but bars aren't. I've not done the maths on a seatpost but I'd imagine it's similar. Steel is a slightly different story because it's already more forgiving than aluminium as a frame and a cheaper material.
There's a clue in this - steel is lovely and springy that why they make, err, springs from it. I wouldn't bother fitting carbon to steel solely for reasons of comfort.
This seems to have made a difference to the ride comfort of my CR1 SL...clearly designed to provide some additional flex, and I would say it's noticeable (in a positive way).
I will be getting one of these for my Six13 build.