had one fail, bought another one which failed after 4 XC rides. Both failures were potentialy very nasty. Still use their conventional kit but wouldn't risk IBeam again….

do a forum search on SDG defects……….. theyre a great concept with some serious issues…..

Thank you for the suggestion Combe House Hotel was absolutely excellent today

YGM re local night riding

for shops, nothing in chippenham worth mentioning unfortunately you'll need to go the other local towns

Bath has 3 main shops AVC, Total Fitness and John's Bikes (IMHO I'd go to Johns every time)

I've heard good thing about Red Planet in Swindon, CH White in Malmsbury

original judy's, foolishly bought into the marketing hype that elastomers were the way forward (marketing cr#p)…….

It took a set of Risse hardbody cartridges and speed springs until they performed anywhere near as well as my Mag 20's (sadly missed as they had a Brodie brace installed)

Kwack Tony's widget inserts into the bearing so the lip sits just past the inner edge, you tighten it and it expands and grips it. to remove the bearing you attatch a slide hammer and pull the bearing out

(slide hammer = a long piece of threaded bar which screws in to the end of the widget. It has a nut at the other end and inbetween theres a heavy lump of metal which you bash against the nut to pull out the bearing)

commuting

reading = easy train less than 1 hour
london = paddington 1 hr 1:15 St Pauls, Bank etc 1:40 ish (using central line from lancaster gate) return train frequency drops as the evening progresses…..+ speed…..
Farnham = hard work…. done the drive many time got to be an early start
bath uni = cross country using back roads or train easy

As Llama, Count and Ginger say lots of trails around…local knowledge is everything and there's alway's something new

lots of trail centres nearby natural trails nearby

easy to get anywhere from Chippenham….have done CYB as a day trip although needed plenty of redbull on the drive back…….

should work fine I run the newer 970 series xtr levers (non flippy) with M960 calipers….I have a set of M960 flippy’s which are fine apart from some minor scuffs for sale £35+ postage or pickup in london or bristol

CountZero of the two failures, which occurred to me one, was on a 12 month old ‘old’ style post and the other on a 4 ride old ‘New’ micro post…

Common denominator for these failures and for one the other failures posted here was that they were 27.2 dia and had been ridden in cold weather failures seem to occur to the rear of the post where the head is bonded into place

As for the question of usage or stress one broke on Weavern Lane nr Chippenham and the other on the Canal path to Laycock

Despite getting a refund under warrantee for the 2nd post, I’ve not seen any one get an explanation from the importer or manufacturer

I really liked the I Beam system but, after having a 2nd one fail after 4 rides on nothing better than canal paths, I have extreme doubts about the durability of the head & post junction and if anyone is using these posts be alert for creaking noises as these proceeded both catastrophic failures

Sam I’d be careful… I certainly won’t be using they’re posts again…..particularly in cold weather

small d saw if your camelbacks big enough £5 at B&Q

I’ve also been a victim of bike theft in bristol, and was fortunate that the Police recovered it as part of another investigation.

Marking of the major components would have assisted in recovery / identification as the ###kers had swapped components and attempted to erase the bikes idfentity

to add insult to injury they also used a pressure washer and managed to destroy all the frame bearings on a spesh epic + hubs, BB and headset + blow water past the seals on front and rear shocks

try ribble

have a look at the following generally if the spring type stay’s the same say coil to coil should be simple it gets more complicated swaping from coil to air as the seals are different http://www.wheresweyland.com/mountain_biking/110/2006_marzocchi_service_manuals/

sainsbury…

was still there last friday

996’s

on the River Lugg north of Hereford about 5:30am adult with 2 kittens

opps sorry boriselbrus sent you mail if your still interested….

An interesting point from AlasdairMc, I would comment that the manufacturer / importer implied that they’d only had acouple of failures…yet this thread attracted significantly more that they admitted to (maybe they don’t know or don’t log defects?)

I believe the product is inherently flawed and from personal experience would not recommend using them, particularly in cold weather….

I’ve got 7 bikes in total with varying makes of posts and in over 20yrs mountainbiking only had one other failure (a USE in the early 90’s which they replace without any hassle….) compared to 2 SDG ibeams within the space of one month.

Compared using any usual of performance say; time, mileage or longevity or any combo of these; the of the performance of SDG I Beam seatposts has been shocking and I for one will not trust my safety to them

Unless you’ve got Kevlar reinforced shorts then I’d pick another post, or run the risk of having a ragged edged piece of aluminium tube rammed between you internal organs

ET …….tosh…..

comments about lots of Dysons at tip etc, not surprising as they sell loads more that all the other makes mentioned on here.

one good thing with a Dyson is it’s repairable, with spares available for most component parts

pantsonfire is right, i use a 1″ AF socket

have a look at the BIFM web site and some of the big players in the market eg interserve, Johnson controls, KMS (keir managed services) Soedexo, ISS, + some of the consultants eg Arup,

Tooslow

liked pic nr 4 (Sea Fury) last of the greats….. inc shooting down a jet in combat in Korea…….

don’t give up hope…I got my Epic back in Bristol, the boy’s in blue found it in a crack dealers house in Knowle…..the key thing in getting it back was my detailed description and that despite the sc#m b#g changing the saddle, tyres and believe it or not a kick stand! it was distinctive enough to trace

although i wish the kn#b hadn’t pressure washed everything to death hubs, bb, headset, f&R shocks and pivots.

Bristol’s a nightmare my bike was secured in the basement of PWC’s building but the security guard let the scummer in (then denied everything and PWC covered everything up…)

alternatively look out at autojumbles for 1″ AF which works well

dremmel will do the job, i’ve had to resort to using one in similar circumstances, try grinding 3 slots (2 opposite each other)then use a large screwdriver in the slot you’ve created the twisting should break the shell away from the bearing seat

have a look at the Mavic UST Valves I’ve been running them on both my DT 5.1’s and 819’s

I can certainly name where I purchased my out of warrantee post and the one that failed in under 4 weeks / rides came from a internet retailer in the UK on Silverfishes approved list of suppliers……. the whole purpose of starting this thread was to see if there was a patern or if I’d been genuinely unlucky

As I’d had a search on the web and hadn’t seen if any one had asked the question “SDG is there a design Flaw”

Silverfish may have a point but it’s not how to win friends + coments from them and SDG saying that they’ve had only a couple of failures, don’t seem to ‘hold water’ given the train of emails and peoples experiance……
the question intended in my post was is there a design flaw……SDG & importer seem to imply failures are exceptional… yet experiance here would imply a serious problem exists.

Although SDGChris comments that they have theyre products CEN fatigue tested for 100,000 it makes me want to question the validity of these tests and said certification…… this may mean pursuing this though some other route (i’ll be investigating if it should be trading standards or some other UK or EU agency)

Yes i would have liked a replacement for my post which is out of warrantee, i’ve resolved the replacemnt of the on which was less than 4 Weeeks and XC rides old…….

However I’m very concerned about the safety of this product and nothing I’ve read has provided any comfort

Formula FX V comfy but post broke after 4 xc rides shame as really liked the FX

Chalkyslide, I’d agree about the ‘failure mode’ my concern relates to the robustness of the construction one post failed after approx 12 month’s… that I can forgive….. the other failed after 4 local XC rides and it failed on a canal side Sustrans trail which is unforgivable especially for a ‘premium’ product

I agree with Stoners comment about restraint, It’s certainly worth giving Chris an opportunity to help, however he still hasn’t been in touch, I would have at least expected an email to say that they’d be in touch with a full response after say 10 working day’s

SDG_Chris

likewise you have not been in contact with me.

What process is there for sorting this out?

Hi Interesting Thread

Count me in for one of the

4 x 18650 cell holders

details in profile

cheers

Rob

what ever you do try Kona TC’s 1st as it will help then go to the pub and wait until tommorow..

I assume that you’ve used a spined tool to remove the non drive side and the drive side has frozen in place and that youve been using a large spanner on the tool blah blah blah

in which case put the tool in a vice and try by using the frame as it will give more leverage

again i’m assuming the cup is steel then you might have to use a more brutal approach either cut 3 slots inside using a hacksaw (obviously aking care not to cut down to the threads then try again and it will collapse the cup

or

again if it’s steel go nuclear and Mig weld on a bar to the cup and use that as a spanner (longer the better) mind your paint……

or if its an alloy cup in a steel frame use Caustic Soda to rot the cup

each time saddle just felt ‘loose’ for a couple of seconds then saddle an insert went backwards before ending up with a jagged edged split tube round by your family jewels…………

Opps Lyons yes the FX was very comfy but has been returned with the post…….. still leaves me with a year old I Fly and bust post in the Garage

Lyons 1st bike was an Rockhopper in ’87’ with ‘U’ brake on the chainstay since then I’ve had one seatpost break in the early ’90’s a very light USE xc post (a rail carrier cracked and they replaced that out of warantee)

I make that 8 failures just posted on here?