REDSHIFT ShockStop Suspension Seatpost for Bicycles

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Rather than using a full-suspension bike (for comfort), you can fit a suspension seatpost to a hardtail and enjoy similar levels of comfort without the extra weight, price and complexity. 4 Reasons To Not Use Suspension Seatposts The Cane Creek eeSilk is less than 100 grams heavier than a high-quality aluminium seatpost. Lastly, we have air springs, which are sometimes used in telescopic seatposts. The main advantage is that you can adjust the spring stiffness to a higher degree of accuracy. Suspension Seatpost Designs

If you ride a decent percentage on smoother surfaces or are sensitive to suspension bob, you will prefer elastomer seatposts as they’re less noticeable underneath you. At 402 grams (as measured by me, officially 400 grams) this post is about 150 grams more than many decent-quality seatposts (which are in the range of 180 – 280 grams). I’m fine with this level of weight penalty if the products is useful and if it allows me to use a more aerodynamic position for a higher proportion of time or to be more aerodynamic in that position because then the slight weight penalty will be easily made up for with the reduced air resistance and it will make me faster overall. Saddle Bags

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Here’s where it gets interesting though. I’ve been suffering from some knee pain recently from a noncycling incident, and thus have been spending a little more time seated while pedalling than I may have liked. Cane Creek’s eeSilk suspension seatpost offers 20mm of elastomer-based vertical compliance and is made from forged and machined aluminum with titanium fastening hardware. This emphasis on premium materials, along with the post’s minimalistic design, means the eeSilk weighs in at less than 300 grams–a comparable weight to many performance alloy seatposts. First, why would you want to vary the position of your saddle while riding on the road? The main reasons are aerodynamics and comfort, which are both important criteria for ultra-distance cyclists.

But interestingly, data recently collected by the University of Exeter (England) suggests that once the seatpost is installed on a bike, it may not reduce vibration exposure. If using clip-on aerobars on a regular road bike, it certainly makes sense to have two different saddle positions available. The RedShift Dual-Position Seatpost achieves this goal extremely well and is very well designed and manufactured. The easiest way to determine your handlebar size is to see if it's printed on the handlebar. This will require removing your current stem faceplate. A telescopic post is usually considered inferior, as the angle that it compresses is different from the direction of force coming from the rear wheel – resulting in a less reactive suspension system. Telescopic posts also end up with a shorter saddle-to-pedal distance when you are riding over bumps. The other dropper option is the PNW Coast, which has 40mm of suspension travel and is the best-value dropper, by far.Redshift suggests that riders up to 80kg should only use the main spring and those from 90kg to 110kg must install the inner spring as well. With the main spring fitted, my unit weighed 538g. Damping determines the speed at which a seatpost will move over repeated bumps. A seatpost that dampens vibrations effectively will help to insulate you from road buzz coming up through your bike. If smooth roads are your thing, you’ll likely find spring seatposts a bit too active. This brings me to elastomers… The Cane Creek Thudbuster uses an elastomer to provide more damping than a coil spring. If you love dropper posts but also want to maximise your ride comfort, there are actually two suspension options available, and a third in the works (Redshift). There is also a model that is rigid at the highest and lowest positions of the dropper, but offers ~10mm of travel when you set it anywhere in the middle (Bike Yoke Divine SL).

And finally, the air seatpost improved things a bit (6% improvement) but clearly requires a higher bump force to activate than other suspension seatposts. When we measure seatpost vibrations in a laboratory setting, we find that some seatposts can absorb 15x more vibrations than others. For example, the Thomson Elite seatpost was tested by Microbac Laboratories to absorb just 0.025gs of vibrations while the Ergon CF3 was absorbing 0.375gs. The seatpost offers the ability to switch the head around, offering more fit flexibility. Russell Burton / Our Media On the rough trail, the spring seatposts are, by a large margin, the most effective at mitigating vibrations (17-24% improvement when compared to a carbon seatpost).

You can measure the length of your existing stem as shown in the following picture. The length is measured from the center of the handlebar to the center of the steerer tube. The Cirrus KINEKT 2.1 is an aluminum suspension seatpost that’s designed to isolate your body from surface vibrations and impacts to improve comfort and control. Each post comes with two extra springs so you can mix and match, creating a custom experience. The KINEKT post springs are available in five color-coded tensions for riders ranging from 50-320 pounds. The Thudbuster ST weighs in at 580g (31.6 version) and is built out of forged aluminum with threaded, hard anodized aluminum axles. Note that the new axles are serviceable, unlike those found in the previous version. This handy PDF from Cane Creek outlines the differences between the two versions of the Thudbuster ST.

A suspension seatpost both absorbs bigger hits as well as damping vibrations coming up from the road. The less strain your body experiences when you ride, the fresher you will feel at the end of the day… or, the longer you can ride! The eeSilk Post comes in a 27.2 diameter and is 350mm in overall length. Interchangeable elastomers allow the post to accommodate riders ranging from 100 lbs (45kg) to 330 lbs (150 kg). Not sure what size seatpost you have currently? There are a couple different ways to find out.• Most seatposts have the diameter printed somewhere near the bottom of the post. You'll need to remove the seatpost from the bike frame (mark your existing seatpost height with a bit of tape before you remove it so you can replace it easily), and look for a number like 27.2, 30.9, or 31.6 (etc.). That is the diameter of the post. Many of the popular models of dropper posts used on mountain bikes don’t work perfectly unless they’re setup correctly and well maintained. Fortunately, the RedShift post is far simpler and works smoothly every time with no special setup or care needed. I also ran a suspension fork for this year’s event, and having a bit of front and rear compliance kept me fresh and comfortable, and allowed me to pedal through rough terrain.

Suspension Seatposts Wrap Up

A suspension seatpost is a great comfort upgrade, as it will both absorb bigger hits, as well as dampen vibrations coming up from the road. This essentially means you’ll feel fresher at the end of a long ride. Any bag that just attaches to the saddle or just attaches to the post is fine. But when you attach to both the post and the saddle you need to account for the relative motion of the saddle to the post. This means that if you cinch down the bag when off the bike it might have some movement when you get on the saddle and compress the post a bit - this might not be a problem but it might be something that is an issue. mm is common on older road bikes with drop handlebars. - There are other less common sizes that we do not provide shims for. However, other handlebar shim sizes may be available at your local bike shop. There is no way that the post could move by itself while riding because to get between the two positions it travels in an arc that requires it to go up first and there is also some mild mechanical resistance to the movement.