Seatpost
Seatpost
Your saddle and seatpost together form, along with the handlebar, one of two key contact points on the bike when it comes to comfort.
If your bike has an aluminium seatpost than you may feel the benefit of a carbon fibre upgrade. That’s because the layup of carbon fibre can be tweaked to allow for deflection in the material, which is just what you want when riding on Britain’s broken roads.
Some seatposts make a bigger play on comfort than others, including the Specialized COBL GOBL-R Carbon, which is said to offer a claimed 18mm of deflection.
Canyon have taken things one step further with their VCLS 2.0 seatpost, which has a split design which acts like a leaf-spring to offer up to 25mm of deflection – and it’s very effective based on our experience.
You can also boost the amount of deflection your seatpost is able to offer by increasing the amount of post exposed from the frame and the vast majority of sportive/endurance bikes have a sloping toptube to allow for that. Of course, how much seatpost you can leave exposed will be pre-determined by your saddle height.
Many bike manufacturers have also switched from a 31.8mm seatpost diameter to 27.2mm, as the skinnier post is said to offer more deflection. Again, whether you can accommodate a 27.2mm seatpost is down to a pre-determined factor, this time the diameter of the seatpost clamp on your frame.