22 August, 2008

VO Grand Cru Seat Posts


I've gotten a lot of questions about the long awaited VO seat posts and I have good news and bad news.

The good news is that the seat posts have arrived and they are everything we'd hoped for. They are a gorgeous polished two bolt design. They have 30.8mm of setback, among the longest ever. This is very important for those who ride Brooks saddles which have very little fore-and-aft adjustment due to the short rails.

The VO posts are internally ovalized to reduce weight to 254gms for the 300mm version. The adjustment is from the bottom and the two bolt design makes it easy to precisely adjust the seat angle. Also note that the head is integral with the post, not pressed on as on many modern posts. This makes them stronger and lighter. 27.2mm only. $45.

So what's the bad news? For technical reasons the first production run was cut short. So I imagine that we'll soon run out. And production won't re-start until October. Get them while you can.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

the posts look good. nice work.

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous. I've been digging around for something like this and have not been impressed with the offerings, until now!

Unknown said...

Awesome. Does the phrase, "the 300mm version" mean that there's also a shorter version?

Velo Orange said...

There may be a 250mm version in the future. We are still considering it. But it's easy enough to cut down a seatpost yourself.

Anonymous said...

If you get them in 26.8 & 26.6, I'll buy four of them!

Miles said...

have you considered offering them in 400mm ? I know its not exactly your target market, but it would be nice to have a seatpost with the much setback for some mountain bikes.

Anonymous said...

I would be in for 2 at 26.8 and 1 at 26.6

Anonymous said...

Are these the 'Racing' seatpost models from the german firm Humpert in AL 2014 T6, but with a very nice polished, and not matt, silver finish (who came up with the matt finishes for bike parts anyway?)? If so, would not the 'Hook-Race' model, indentical but made of a better aluminum (AL 6061 T6) and shorter (280mm) be a nicer product?

Humpert only offers the 27.2 size: how many sizes can one offer on a one-piece design such as this?

I've also been looking for a large setback for ages, and settled with Brompton's steel bar-end like adapter. this is prettier! thanks for offering this product.

Velo Orange said...

Alex, Humpert seems to re-sell items made by various Taiwanese manufacturers; we do a bit of that too. I see that they have a listing in the big Taiwan "data book" so I'm not sure if they are actually a German or Taiwanese company. In any case, we don't buy from them and I really don't know which factories make products for them. I've never even seen their full catalog. I think I might know the seatpost that you are referring to and I've looked at it, but I think our's is superior. (Is that a surprise?)

We probably won't offer it in sizes other than 27.2. It's not that I don't want too, but the high tooling cost is better spent elsewhere. When we get as as big as Cannondale or Trek we'll have it in all sizes ;<)

Anonymous said...

hello Chris. it's definitely exactly the same seatpost, just a different finish. I wouldn't underestimate Humpert and their quality and designs: they've been around since 1918 and only opened a Taiwan office in 2002, and a China office in 2003, where they apparently make mostly automotive parts. They make and sell millions of handlebars and other parts a year, with excellent quality control. It's hard to tell who designs what these days, and they themselves write only that 'most' of the designs are their own. But I would guess it's not usually Humpert selling other firms' products as their own. At any rate I think it's fantastic, second only to Nitto (and my favorite: the Brompton Pentaclip!- a different bit of metal than I referred to above).

Anonymous said...

Chris, I just got mine today. It is a very beautiful seatpost. thanks.

Anonymous said...

Would love to see these in 27.0 and 26.8

Anonymous said...

Hi...for the 300mm post what is the effective length of the post...after you deduct the bit that has to remain inside the seat-tube?......cheers....Leon

Ranger63 said...

Need a 26.2 for the IG road bike build!!
Maby you can nudge the mnfg to offer other sizes?
If they cost more than the 27.2 so be it.