Carbon seat post

[vitualis]

This is a bit of a ramble of my experiences...

In February, after moving back to Sydney from the country, I sold my Apollo mountain bike that I used for commuting (still found memories...) on ebay and bought myself a road bike basically for some fun. I ended up getting a Cell Team.

The first time I rode the bike, I was surprised at how much faster I was cycling, though it was much less comfortable than my old mountain bike. Fat low pressure tires and front suspension makes a difference! I actually mostly got used to it but I ended up ordering a Specialized Pave Pro Carbon seat post (the one that has a rubber insert near the top) to replace the alloy post that came with the bike. This was a bit of a gamble as although it has favorable reviews, I couldn't quite see how replace one stiff tube with another was going to make that much of a difference.

Well, I was amazed by the difference! The new seat post took away a hell of a lot of the "bumpiness"/"vibration" and took the "edge" of the larger bumps.

My question is this a function of the material of the post itself or is it actually due to the design of this particular post?

Cheers.

[mikesbytes]

Carbon has excellent properties for absorbing road vibration.

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[Bnej]

Both.

Carbon composite on it's own will flex and absorb vibration far better than aluminium, but another benefit is that it can be made in all sorts of shapes to do specific jobs.

eg., on my bike, the chain stays and seat stays have parts that are flattened horizontally, so they are stiff laterally but flex vertically, which reduces vibration coming through the seat and pedals.

Your seat post has been designed specifically to reduce shock and vibration, so it will be better at that than other CF seat posts.