I’ve got this USE Alien post from ages ago. These things are very light, but the clamp is a bit of a bastard to use and for some reason on one of the two I own it’s decided it likes to slip and revert to a slightly nose-up position, which is annoying.

So I’ve tried:

– Roughly sanding the surfaces and fitting it clean
– Carbon assembly paste, the gritty stuff
– Threadlock on surfaces prior to assembly

What else? Some kind of weak glue is probably next on my list. Maybe even a droplet of superglue.

Pop it in a lathe and roll some knurls on it.

Shit seatpost; put it in the bin.

Just for clarification, it’s not the tube part of the post, it’s the three-piece clamp. Looks like this:

The front and back piece grip the top of that alien-head shaped part, and the middle bit grips the underneath. The mating surfaces are flat alu on alu. The angle of the post is what slips.

Shit seatpost; put it in the bin.

Will make riding my bike hard I think.

Make the clamp out of the same material as trumpets.
Maximum friction guaranteed.

Oh.. I have gasket compound in the garage. Worth a try.

Will make riding my bike hard I think.

😀

buy a new one aswell, obvs. Or even something second hand. I’ll lend you the money if you’re short of funds.

If I see correctly, you tighten up a bolt / some bolts that pull the front and back bits together. These sit on top of the alien head whilst the bit in the middle sits underneath it.

Does this mean that you need to have these tightened up as much as is needed to ensure adequate friction and thus hold it in place?

If so, might it not be worth considering a layer of grease to allow the front and back bits to slide over the curve of the alien head as the assembly is tightened?

buy a new one aswell, obvs. Or even something second hand. I’ll lend you the money if you’re short of funds.

Still seeing a capital outlay in this plan, something I try to avoid.

Does this mean that you need to have these tightened up as much as is needed to ensure adequate friction and thus hold it in place?

Correct – I have tried greasing it too actually – but I think maybe I’d be better off greasing the saddle rails and using something sticky on the actual head.. hmm.

Never used to be a problem if done up sufficiently, but somehow a degree of slip in the past has worn it somehow to the point where it has found a position it likes, which is slightly annoyingly nose up.

Still seeing a capital outlay in this plan, something I try to avoid.

Life’s too short to ride shit seatposts, or something. Sell it on the forum to a classifieds only user, then buy something decent like a Thomson.

Thanks for not answering the original question at all, David 🙂

😀 I aim to please!

Ok; you could try scratching/etching the surfaces of it with a sharp object.

Or superglue some sand onto the surfaces.

WD40?

Not a joke, it does actually increase friction under load by allowing roughness of the surfaces to lock into each other.

I had to ride home 10 miles once when my Alien seatpost clamp failed.
I learnt several things:-
1. Alien seatpost clamps are pants.
2. Your legs get really tired when you have to stand all the time.
3. It’s surprising how much you use you legs against the nose of the saddle to move the bike around.

Tinas – I can see that – something to increase initial engagement but without enough greasiness to work under pressure. May try it before the gasket idea.

You’ve greased the clamp bolt threads and head and tightened it right up, I take it?

There’s a fair variation in the recommended torques on seat clamps. I’ve got one that’s 7Nm (a tiny nip) and one that’s 13Nm (really quite tight).

I would probably bin it and get something that’ll work for £20 max though.

Slap on some wet weetabix and allow to to dry. Everyone knows dried weetabix is the toughest and roughest compound known to man.

Upgrade to a Sumo. This achieves a greater angle when it slips.

I would probably bin it

You new here? 🙂

those alien seatpost heads were a pain to setup correctly. I used to carry a suitably sized rock with me just in case I needed to adjust it.

If you get them tight enough not to slip, then to loosen you’d need to undo the bolts and then hit them with the suitably sized rock to get the clamp open.

The Cyclops version was supposed to stop that from happening as it had a locking washer on the bolt. All that did though was slide up the bolt, so you still needed a rock to undo the clamp.

I would probably bin it
You new here?

Nah, just sleep deprived. 🙂

I probably wouldn’t really bin it yet, but when it continued to annoy me until I replaced it I would be annoyed at myself for not binning it earlier.

I use a 4mm allen key to jemmy it loose to adjust it.

Cut a shim to pack with from coke can.

BB

Sounds like a job for a few blobs of weld…

Another in the bin it camp. Why bother with a piece of sh*t like this, which could fail at anytime? You even admit it is worn out. Just spend £30 and get something safe that works.

It won’t fail at any time – it’ll just slip slightly.

could it be that the internal diameter of the clamp is out-of-spec? Measure the internal diameter at multiple points for both clamps. If there is variation, that may explain the slipping. Also, do the same for the saddle rails.

my USE sumo is similar. I was going to try bearing compound on it.

it’s not the tube part of the post, it’s the three-piece clamp

I used to have one – it struck me that they were the were designed more with a view to ease of manufacture rather than ease of use.

No need to bin it – despite how difficult they are to use -they’re surprisingly easy to sell. 🙂

Tighten the bolts til they snap

It won’t fail at any time – it’ll just slip slightly.

Slipping is failure…..
Persevering with a shit seatpost is failure…..

it struck me that they were the were designed more with a view to ease of manufacture rather than ease of use.

They are designed to be light – which they do very well. Weigh less than 200g and mine’s had my fat arse on it for 9 years…

The usability issues are the downside!

I will replace it if I can fix the dropper I now have for the Patriot.

Trib gel may help too, although it’s more of use for press fitted items where you’re gettting sliding between two surfaces on fitting, not sure if that applies in your case:

http://www.tribtech.com/app.1.htm

Those alien clamps are so shit, I got suckered into buying a couple many years ago and the amount of grief they give me…I wonder why I haven’t put it in the bin years ago. At least one broke, so only one more to cope with. Every crash, or even a heavy landing, and it will slip. And be a bugger to readjust to the correct angle. Shit shit shit.

I had to ride home 10 miles once when my Alien seatpost clamp failed.

You did well. I don’t think I even got 10 miles out of mine!

Much as I like to stick up for things, the clamp is a bit shit in all respects apart from weight weenieness.

The 3mm allen key in the cyclops version is in no way suitable for handling the required torque. I dremelled a slot in mine and use a big fat screwdriver. Which isn’t a practical part of my trail kit.

However the post itself is pretty robust – unlike the original one I had in 2001 which was one of the first – that flexed like hell and eventually snapped – USE gave me a new one for free because they realised the earliest ones were under-designed.

Yeah, mine would have been an early one, same sort of time. I recall looking at the shaft after my clamp failed and thinking the two had simply had a race to see which could collapse first. I’m glad they revised things a little 🙂

My first one was 25.4mm with a shim, come to think of it.