I’ve deceided that the road bike deserves a carbon seatpost.
(any excuse)
however, looking around on ebay, there’s a big price difference between the branded ones and the unbranded ones and everything in between.

I can’t work out if any of the cheaper ones are excellent value, or just dangerous / don’t work / do up tight etc.

Has anybody had any success with the 31.6 mm carbon seatposts off the interweb or do i need to spend the fortune for one because they’ll all fall off?

anything decent vlaue and lightweight in between?

Mine didn’t break… but in all honesty I haven’t noticed any ‘feel’ improvement either… bike feels exactly how it did 12 months ago…

But it is the right Diameter and looks like carbon and is light lol

your choice but with carbon stuff just be careful who you think your dealing with http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fake-britain-carbon-bike-parts

I once looked at some eBay carbon posts, but in the end I bought one of these for my cross bike: http://www.tredz.co.uk/.RSP-Elite-Carbon-Seatpost_50752.htm

Not exactly cheap, but not expensive either.

Does the job, ok weight, clamp has been easy to adjust and holds tight.

my useless anecdote:

I have snapped* precisely 2 carbon seatposts

1 – A genuine USE Alien in the early 00’s
3 – A genuine Bontrager jobbie, last week

*also cracked an Easton one but removed before the chance of bum splinters got too high.

Neither were over tightened or crashed or subject to any kind of excessive force, although both broke slightly above where they were clamped.

I have also got a couple of eBay carbon posts that have not broken (yet) despite one of them having been battered into the ground quite hard during an accidental ‘exit through the front door to river’ incident during a race last month.

As always, strength and longevity will be down to individual build quality, which may or may not be better on a branded part, *hopefully* decent testing and standards are followed whether generic or banded, but shoddy ones will slip through in both circumstances, but maybe more prevalent in cheaper options, especially if obvious ‘fake’ items made to look/stickered up as genuine, vs decent but own brand/unbranded.

In short, make your own mind up 🙂

There are however plenty of decent Alu posts at decent weights, and decent carbon posts in sales at major retailers so probably a better bet there than random chance on eBay.

What’s your reason for wanting carbon, is it weight or ride feel?
Weight wise it’s only really top end stuff that is any lighter than the decent Alu options, and ride feel is very much model dependant as some are quite stiff and others much more compliant so some research may be required if you’re after something specific.

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=141561926492

Running one of these on my road bike last 18 months .. Silly light and very nicely made .. I offered £50 or thereabouts which bought it..

your choice but with carbon stuff just be careful who you think your dealing with

Personally I wouldn’t buy a “GENUINE Ritchey Superlogics Crabons seating post” from eBay, but I’d happily buy a carbon post of an original design. No idea if that’s a safer strategy or not, but I’d rather they put design into making a reasonable post, not trying to make an aesthetic copy of something else.

Yeah don’t buy carbon off eBay – unless from a trusted seller.

I’d look at firms that buy stuff direct from china/taiwan themselves…

Superstar have 25% off controls this month I believe, code should be easy to track down…
http://www.superstarcomponents.com/en/shop/road/road-controls/road-seatposts/

18 quid “bontrager” 31.6mm from Aliexpress for me, bought as much as an experiment into direct-from-china shopping. Top quality as much as can be told with the eye, great cosmetic match for my frame (glass UD carbon with white details), lighter than just about any high end CF post I’ve laid my hands on (about 180grms) and as I used carbon assembly paste on the ritchey style head I’ve had no problems with slipping.

As a result, I’ve just dropped 400 quid on some Light Bicycle wheels…

I bought a Fizik Cyrano from CRC; lovely looking but appeared to have used an anvil for the head and as such it weighed more than my cheap OE alloy post. It went straight back courtesy of their free returns.

I cracked (from overtightening) a EC70 carbon post within 1 month.

Ironically I’ve currently got in a really really cheap carbon post that I bought from planetX 5+years ago- its fully de-laminated as I used it on a mountain bike and it was dropped/raised constantly. No signs of it being destroyed anytime soon. Same amount of tightening too.

its fully de-laminated as I used it on a mountain bike and it was dropped/raised constantly

Do you mean you’ve scratched the lacquer off? That’s not really the same.

I bought a Fizik Cyrano from CRC; lovely looking but appeared to have used an anvil for the head and as such it weighed more than my cheap OE alloy post. It went straight back courtesy of their free returns.

There’s something there about the link between weight and quality I guess. Will your “Bontrager” post be as strong/any stronger than a non-fake Bonty post, will the Fizik have been any tougher? Clearly you decided lighter = better (and very wise 😉 ), but that’s not really the whole score is it.

I broke the top off my Hylix- it was silly light though so I wasn’t too shocked. I think the metal part unbonded and as it came adrift it cracked the carbon.

Exotic are generally a good option- though, not as cheap as tehy were.

i had a non branded one on my road bike for about a year . no problem at all but it is not very light . the clamp looks similar to Kalloy products .

it is currently on ebay at 12.50 and no bids so i guess people prefer to pay a bit more for a reputable brand .

I cracked (from overtightening) a EC70 carbon post within 1 month.

Is that supposed to be a comment on the quality of the seatpost or your ability to operate it?

I think the metal part unbonded

I hate bonded posts of any kind now for that very reason, Alu, carbon, Ti, that always seems to be the eventual failure mode for them

I tend to buy branded items, it’s like a guarantee of quality imho… if it’s a well-known brand there is a reason…but for that you’ll have to pay more of course.. 😛

Does that include eBay sales though, or are you just saying that you’ll only buy stuff from reputable brands?

Because buying a “Bontrager” seatpost on eBay in order to guarantee quality is quite likely to end badly!

but that’s not really the whole score is it.

it isnt, but I dont expect a premium carbon part to weigh more than the cheap OE alloy part it’s replacing (I know light weight isnt the only factor for choosing carbon but upgrading and adding weight is anathema to me!). The problem with the Fizik was a lovely post spoiled with a huge chunk of ugly heavy alloy as the head and clamp, which seemed to undermine all the work theyd done on the post itself and added a silly amount of unnecessary weight..

My cheapo post looks like this

which has a minimalist clamp/head design which is obviously far lighter than the Fizik anvil.

I got it as a bit of a punt/experiment and was fully prepared to bin it in disgust, but I’m struggling to find a premium branded part that I can justify replacing it with.

Anyway, I’m eagerly waiting for my 1300grm LB wheels to arrive any time now 🙂

I use a New Ultimate seatpost – 121g for 27.2x300mm IIRC.

It’s marginal on being too short, and if I replace, it’ll be with something like this, which is rather cheaper!