23 February, 2011

Seat Post Clamp Check

How are the various parts of a bicycle component assembled at the factory, say the parts of a brake, or headset, or a seat post head? In my experience they are often assembled at a large table by a group of jolly women. I'm not kidding, more often than not there is a huge table with bins of parts in the middle and a half dozen women, often middle aged, screwing together all those little pieces. And they are almost always chatting and laughing and having a great time, maybe cracking jokes about the funny visitors.

Usually these assemblers do a great job, but not always. Which brings us to the point. We've noticed that on a few of our seat post in the last shipment the clamp on the top is assembled front-to-back. The clamp is almost symmetrical so it's a very easy mistake to make. Having it backwards limits the seatpost's range of tilt and it might not clamp as tightly as it should. So have a look at your seatpost and if the clamp doesn't line-up, as in the photo, switch it front-to-back. It only takes a couple of minutes to do.

14 comments:

David Crowell said...

Doh!

I actually sold my VO seatpost. I couldn't get the angle right. I wonder if it was assembled incorrectly...

Oh well, I bought a different seatpost, that is single-bolt, so it's harder to adjust, but it's working out well.

alan said...

thanks, because i've had mine off when switching saddles and i look at it and say, "is that thing on backwards or not?"

Ian Dickson said...

It's probably clear enough already, but a second picture of the clamp set up incorrectly would be neat.

LTI / Lightside said...

I agree .. a second pic would be great!

Darrell G said...

I had that problem with mine also. Had to create a small shim to resolve the issue. I'll check to see if mine is reversed as you described.

Alec said...

Ask and ye shall receive:

backwards clamp

eflayer said...

this info needs to be front and center on the page where the post is displayed in your web store. i use the post on 3 bikes and never knew there was a right and wrong way.

Unknown said...

Perhaps an arrow or some other mark on top of the clamp would help the jolly women avoid errors. Might also help the jolly but foolish customer who somehow loosens the thing so far it falls off (like I've done with other seatposts).

Jon

dan said...

aaaah! THAT must be what's up with mine-- it bottoms out toward the front! thanks for the heads up.

fmackay said...

I guess this is in response to my comment on the last post - this is clearly the problem I had, I had noticed that the upper and lower clamps didn't quite line up but put it down to being at the limit of the seatpost's adjustability.

I agree with eflayer that you need to publicise this as widely as you can - when I searched for others with the same problem I found a couple of people who had broken the clamps on these posts. A backwards clamp would seem to be a likely explanation for these failures and a failing seatpost could have more serious consequences than a bit of perineal discomfort from a slightly imperfect seat angle.

Anonymous said...

SInce we're asking. How about a side by side "right way" "wrong way" pic?

Steve Warburton said...

Thankyou, Mine seems to be ok from the side. Could we have a view from the top, as the 2 cut-outs viewed from the top are different lengths.
The longer one is to the front of the post on mine.

Bike Hermit said...

I have that post on one of my bikes. Love the setback, the double bolt tilt adjust and the sculptural good looks.

Anonymous said...

I've verified that the clamp on my seatpost is oriented correctly, but try as I might, I can never get my saddle clamped such that the "fingers" on the clamp line up vertically.

Well, I can get them lined up just fine as I do the install and things seem nice and tight, but after a ride, it'll always end up with the upper portion of the clamp being further back than the lower portion.

Am I doing something wrong, e.g. do I need to crank down on the bolts tighter than I already am? Do you have a torque spec recommedation for the saddle rail clamp bolts?

I do have the saddle (non-Brooks) slammed all the way back as far as I can get it, so is that kinda pulling the top part backwards as I put my weight on the saddle?

Anyway, thanks for making a *real* setback seatpost. It's helped me get my fit right on a frame with a too-vertical seat tube.