Seat clamps, anything I need to know before replacing my Bonty cheese special?

So I have finally realised the benefits and plain joy of dropping the saddle for fun bits. Much as I would love almost any uppy downy post the budget is somewhat tighter than a ducks derrière I just have to crank away at the seat clamp.

Inevitable crud build up, lack of maintenance and ham fisted use and the Bontrager seat clamp lever is bent, well bent.

So, what is going to fit (36mm) and keep working for an age, like, until my daughter is 18 maybe? (she was born 2 weeks ago).

Chromag.

Salsa also good

APF

That Cromag one looks interesting with the brass bushing, is it going to be more vulnerable to gritty crap getting in though being softer? Not cheap but I guess if it will last… and work…

Nice long looking lever on the Salsa one as well…

Any others to consider?

Had a Salsa one before but I prefer the Hope ones

chromag one is faultless.

Oh, hadn’t noticed the Hope one also has a brass bushing, And is half the price pretty much. Chromag does look to have a nice long, flat lever though…

Any reasons not to get the Hope other than lust for the Chromag?

I didn’t get on with the newer hope ones, didn’t tighten as well as the originals did.
Trying out a salsa at the mo.

Salsa levers are pretty long and therefore very easy to use, Hope clamps are lovely and neat.

Chromag just seems indulgently expensive to me.

Salsa +1

Have owned a Hope and it broke. Chromag looks good but I’d worry about that bushing as the (similar) Hope one wore away pretty quickly.

Hope, treat mine like dirt, quite literally, and it’s fantastic! Made in UK also, pennies going to a guy in Yorkshire …

My hopes are about 5 years old all working

The older style Hope one works for my bulk. The newer one slips due to lack of crankage with the flimsy lever – loooks nicer though so if you are 10st get a new one.

OK, so a Hope one might be fine, or might not be… Nothing like a consensus is there?
How about the Chromag then. Anyone less than delighted with them? (seems a reasonable question considering the price).
Any serial seat droppers on the peaks/anywhere gritty using the Salsa one without issue?

The Bonty one was just a mess in the cam/bearing bit hence the concerns about use when filthy.

Serial seat dropper here. Salsa FTW no question. Been using them for twenty years plus. I did have a Hope one a few years ago on a Sub5 and it did work well but next time I got a different diameter seat-tube I went back to salsa without hesitation. They’re a classic for a reason.

Would love a dropper post, I use the QR all the time, but there is no way I am shelling out £200 odd on something I can’t rely on. (and no I am not a skinflint – Ti hardtail, expensive forks, tyres £70 a pair etc. etc. – I just like stuff that works)

I have one old Hope on one bike and a new style one in the other

Can’t say I’ve noticed a difference. Both stay tight

I had a hope one on my P7, it was rubbish, hard to get tight enough and graunchy, hence I went with the chromag, I have them on all my bikes never failed me.

(anecdotes don’t make science, just because I found the hope to be shite doesn’t mean other people wouldn’t get on with them..)

Wish someone would make a nice sealed internal cam lever. My favourite is the salsa but they do scratch up in peaks winter grit. I find spitting a mouthful of camelbak at it before using helps. Still my lever of choice though.

I’ve had the Salsa clamp and Hope. The lever on the Salsa is nice, but without a brass bushing it does not work as well as the hope.
I would find that when out on the trails continuous dropping and lifting of the saddle, the Salsa would somehow tighten itself and eventually it’s too tight to clamp the lever closed. Then to loosen you need to use an Allen key on opposite side of lever. Where on the Hope you have a thumb nut you can tighten/loosen by hand.

I would love a Chromag Clamp, but at £35 I can’t justify spending that much on a clamp.

For Onzadog, I recently cut down a Shimano Deore skewer, re-threaded it, and fitted it to a Hope clamp i’d been given. If the clamp had been in matching black instead of Tart’s Gold, it’d probably look as good as it works too.Can’t figure out why Shimano don’t make them themselves.

I had a hope for a year and it was awful. Seatpost slipped, clamp could never provide enough torque, the lever was tiny and uncomfortable, and the nut on the other side was sharp enough to slice into my gloves. Replaced in with a salsa that has been utterly flawless and a joy to use. If you value your sanity don’t buy a hope one. Get a salsa or a chromag one.

They used to but It’s going back to the days of lugs on the seat tubes. I used to have a lovely xt one holding up a matching post.

Often looked at the tune clamp.

Like the idea of cutting down a skewer. Just need to find the right sort of clamp and a good sized washer.

I have 3 hope ones for sale in the classifieds 😀 sorry to hijack…

My hope qr slipped too much, over-tightening eventually snapped it in half. Avoid.

+1 for Salsa clamp, I have been using the same one for 4yrs on two different bikes still works as good as the day I bought it, and that was secondhand, few scrapes but just keeps on working. A genuine piece of good kit.

widge34 – Member
I’ve had the Salsa clamp and Hope. The lever on the Salsa is nice, but without a brass bushing it does not work as well as the hope.
I would find that when out on the trails continuous dropping and lifting of the saddle, the Salsa would somehow tighten itself and eventually it’s too tight to clamp the lever closed. Then to loosen you need to use an Allen key on opposite side of lever. Where on the Hope you have a thumb nut you can tighten/loosen by hand.

Completely agree.
In the last 6 months I’ve bought a Salsa for one bike and a (new) Hope for the other. Riding through the winter & occasionally dropping the post, grit gets into the Salsa and it gets too tight to do up without getting an allen key out to back it off. The Hope just seems to keep working & can be backed off esaily.

I was expecting to prefer the Salsa but it has it’s drawbacks in the muck.

Chromag no question! Have owned 3 different Hope seatclamps, and 2 Salsa, as well as Santacruz, Cove etc which came with frames.

Have had issues with all of them, apart from Chromag which are on both bikes. They just work better, and worth every penny. If I had to choose between the rest, next best was Salsa, but they seized up a bit in crap weather, as others have stated.

Chromag’s not too flash, very well thought out design, reliable in any conditions. Will outlast anything out there. I’m not that rich to buy cheap stuff* ;-).

Get it, and forget about all others.

Hope works well for me… Salsa works better on day one but seems to start wearing out on day two.

The Chromag one is lovely though- if I was regularily lifting and dropping posts, that’d be the winner.

Wish shimano still made seat QRs

the old ones with their cam action are still the best design ever produced, pity they’re heavy and ugly. a modern Deore/XT version is long overdue.

Check what’s available in the size you need first – 36.4mm is a Trek/Fisher/Klein exclusive.

Hope make one, as do Salsa now, but don’t know about Chromag.

Well I don’t have kit to cut down and thread a wheel QR so that’s out. Bloody good idea though.
Nice try pete68 but they are the wrong size 🙂
That Tune clamp… Fortunately they don’t seem to do 36mm so I don’t need to worry about the lever coming out in the wrong place (would make me happier if it came out of the bottom so gravity takes cack away from the mechanism, not into it).

So it’s looking like Hope or Chromag. They will both inevitably wear and I have no doubts at all that a lever/bushing set will be available forever from Hope. But what about Chromag? I know nothing about there after-sales…

My inner pretend engineer seems to think that the Hopes more open design would be more likely to scrape of gritty rubbish where the Chromag traps it?

Want the Chromag, head is saying Hope so someone tell me about Chromag service then to let me get it, or throw a spanner in like that Tune one…

Salsa on all my bikes. Hope were hopeless.

Half a Ringle on my ’89 Alves

Well I don’t have kit to cut down and thread a wheel QR so that’s out. Bloody good idea though.

not sure how effective that would be anyway, the old Shimano seat QR skewers were thicker in diameter than a wheel skewer

The chromag just doesn’t get any dirt in it. Hang on and I’ll take pics of mine for ref.

I’ve had Hope ones and on one the skewer burst into my thigh, the other the hole on the collar for the skewer snapped.

I run an NC17 one which is very impressive at about £18 but Chromag are the best. Obviously depends on post size- NC17 don’t do a 36.8.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=23396&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Shopping&utm_name=UnitedKingdom

Right chromag in action.
First is one thats on a mates covert, he is an obessive OCD wierdo when it comes to cleaning.

These are from the tr450 after yesterdays push up session at gawton.

Hmmm, thanks Toys, you might have just cost me an extra £15…
Someone tell me spares are ok and it could be a done deal with Chromag.

Chromag are just lovely pieces of kit, the lever feels fab, and as shown above they keep working in the crap.

Well worth the extra £15, although there’s some on ebay for £26.50 and the guy says he can get other sizes and clours (but not black just now) if you contact him…

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CHROMAG-MTB-QR-SEAT-CLAMP-35MM-GREEN-BNIB-/221008712302?pt=UK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR&hash=item337525526e

I dunno about spares, I’m not sure you’ll ever need them, mine is two years old and feels like butter…
CRC have this which is a ti thumbscrew for the seatclampand it implies in the listing that it includes the bushing.

Edit – the one ont he black covert was mine, I had it for two years and then gave it to my mate as I got a reverb and didn’t see the need for a qr.