Alright, I have another one of those ‘I should probably know this’ questions but here goes anyhow!
I notice those nice wide seat post clamps on the KH Trials and the 24 inch Yuni for example and think: “Not only do they look cool but they are probably much more reliable than the ordinary simple clamp with the allen key bolt”. So is that the deal? Are they easier to clamp down and unclamp? I find the ones I have on my uni’s take quite a bit of force to get tight enough so the seat won’t twist in a fall and then when I want to change the seat post or make an adjustment it takes a heck or an effort to get the bolt loosened off again.
Do the wider clamps distribute the ‘hold’ on the seat post more so that it doesn’t take so much torque to keep it snug or do they just look way cooler than the simple clamp?
Your selection of clamps depends partly on the seatpost size.
My experience so far is that the hold is more dependent on the seatpost than the clamp. My freestyle with the GB seatpost (stronger than the Miyata standard) and Odyssey GI clamp is great - it just never twists at all. My Pashely MUni with a Thomson seatpost and the Pashley clamp is just about the same. Both of them are single-bolt clamps. With the Miyata seatpost and the quick-release on the freestyle - I was always having twist problems. Same with the Coker. In fact, on the Coker with that combination, just mounting would cause the seat to twist. With the two-bolt Primo clamp on the Coker still with the Miyata seatpost, the twist problems are less extensive but not gone.
With all cases, keeping the bolt well-greased will help, but in the end it is a pain. Two bolt clamps are more than twice the pain.
I have no experience with the seatposts with holes drilled in them.
the salsa flip lock collar that you can buy off uni.com in a variety of sizes is really great. Definately the best one I’v ever used on any bike or uni.
I have a three bolt clamp on my trials uni and on my MUni. they are the same make and work great! they fit the standard uni frames with seat posts of 22.2mm. If you want one, they are made by a company called Pazzaz, and you can probably get them through your LBS. you have to ask them to order a 25.4mm seat post clamp, because the clamp’s dimension (25.4) is the ID of the clamp. so it works out that the OD of the frame is 25.4 mm so that works perfectly. Also, if three bols is overkill you can get a 2 bolt version from the same company. I’ve never had these clamps slip, and they cost me $9 CAN !!Oh, and they take a little longer to put on(3 bolts to do up), but require very little effort to put on tight enough to stay on.
Hope that helps,
I believe it was Scot Cooper who showed me this trick?
Put a screw in the back of the seat post when the seat is lined up.
The screw goes into the seat post at the cut out in the seat post tube. If you place it right, it allows you some up and down adjustment should it be needed and if there is slippage, it barely moves. Because the screw acts like a jam only allowing an extreme minimum of slippage right or left.
I also am the proud owner of a pazzaz three bolt seat post -clamp which was given to me. It works great and i haven’t had any problems with it. Set and forget.
>I have no experience with the seatposts with holes drilled in them.
I have a Semcycle Deluxe with that system. Obviously it never twists
much, but it does have some twisting freedom since the frame is two
halves which have some freedom to move. Also, there may be a slight
(uncorrectible!) bias if the holes are not perfectly oriented. This is
indeed the case in my Sem, not enough for me to worry though.
I have had no problems with the Odyssey single bolt clamp, no turning problems or anything. It’s easy to adjust, as long as you have the key for it. I just have an all purpose cycling tool, small, compact, take it on rides. Compared to the ther bolt and quick-realease clamps it’s awsome. The only thing is to make sure that you keep a key with you on long rides, if you take a bad fall and the seat post twists, it’ll be hard to put back.
