Seatpost stuck

short circuit

Hi there ...

Seems to be a winter of problems here ... trying to get my seatpost out last night .. and its stuck ... really surprised as its a carbon seatpost ... thought these weren't supposed to stick ..

Read through Mr. Brown's advise .. but most of it is to do with Steel / Aluminuim seatposts .. and his advise seems to be to have a go at them fairly agressively ... does the same hold for carbon seatposts as well .. I am scared of damaging it in someway I can't visually see ..

By the way ... I didn't grease it or anything ... thought it was not recommended for carbon posts. The frame is Aluminium by the way.

Been spraying WD40 every hour to see if it helps ... but nothing so far.

Any suggestions welcome ... tks

Lumen

Upend the bike, spray the WD40 in through the bottle cage holes, leave overnight, warm seat tube with hairdryer, reattempt removal.

I've read that there does exist specific grease for carbon components.

Danbo!

Got a quill-style stem or an old bike lying around? Assuming the seatpost is open at the top use the stem if it fits in. I had a seatpost snap right at the frame before (old bmx, did a lot of standing on the seatpost while bike upright!). Put it in, tighten up and it should give you more leverage. This would help in addition to Lumen's idea, and doesnt involve clamping or hammer-bashing the seatpost. Generally older mountain bikes will have thinner steerer tubes that would fit into a seatpost.

Quill-style stem:

short circuit

With boards down last night .. got to spend more time on the interweb looking this up ... it seems its not as uncommon as I thought ... and that carbon seatposts do stick.

Solutions offered here and here.

It says Carbon and Aluminium don't mix ... and do react chemically ... so not sure if WD40 will help ... but will give it a go first ... the next recommended solution is to pour coke down and leave it overnight .. ... the coke might have to go in through the bottle cage holes as well .. as in no mood to take off the bottom bracket just yet.

Bought the bike last March ... the original carbon seatpost shattered in a month ... went to shop and got it replaced with a new carbon seatpost .. same make as what came with the bike (basically a swap with a new bike) ... my question is if grease or a carbon paste is recommended, why don't bike manufacturers build the bike with some on the seatpost ... or why don't bike shop mechanics know this has to be done :mad: .. Being my first bike .. I didn't have a clue .. else along with the fortnightly chain clean .. I would have regreased as well ... really pissed off now.

Question: I saw on a website that if more than 8 inches of the seatpost are exposed .. a Carbon seatpost is not recommended ... Do all of you follow this? Secondly ... how many of you use Carbon Vs Alloy seat post? Lastly ... anyone have any seatposts to sell .. will get the seat tube dia as soon as I have this one off

Hermy

Just thought I'd mention that I'm currently working on an old Peugeot with a quill-style seatpost. I was stuck for a while wondering how the hell the thing stays in place when there's no seat clamp - I just assumed quills were only used with stems!

Danbo!

Hermy wrote: »

Just thought I'd mention that I'm currently working on an old Peugeot with a quill-style seatpost. I was stuck for a while wondering how the hell the thing stays in place when there's no seat clamp - I just assumed quills were only used with stems!

As far as i knew they were, I was only suggesting using it to get a better grip on the post, interesting though.

blorg

FWIW I have used carbon seatposts in aluminum, titanium and carbon frames without any difficulties - never greased a carbon post, would always grease metal ones. From reading those links maybe I have just been lucky and should slap some assembly compound on them through. Good luck with the extraction.

TinyExplosions

I managed to scratch mine quite badly when taking it out of the mercian (I suspect from the snugness of fit that it's a 27.2mm one instead of 27 or something, but that doesn't matter -the question is, whats the best way to remove the scratches and polish it up proper like -any recommendation for a paste or something to do the job?

short circuit

TinyExplosions wrote: »

I managed to scratch mine quite badly when taking it out of the mercian (I suspect from the snugness of fit that it's a 27.2mm one instead of 27 or something, but that doesn't matter -the question is, whats the best way to remove the scratches and polish it up proper like -any recommendation for a paste or something to do the job?

Assuming that its not a carbon fibre one ... else you will just destroy it ...

For anything else ... I would just try T-cut and see if it works ...

TinyExplosions

short circuit wrote: »

Assuming that its not a carbon fibre one ... else you will just destroy it ...

For anything else ... I would just try T-cut and see if it works ...

It's alloy... off to find some T-Cut

Billy Whizz

short circuit wrote: »

Question: I saw on a website that if more than 8 inches of the seatpost are exposed .. a Carbon seatpost is not recommended ... Do all of you follow this? Secondly ... how many of you use Carbon Vs Alloy seat post? Lastly ... anyone have any seatposts to sell .. will get the seat tube dia as soon as I have this one off

I have a carbon seatpost with about 9 inches of seatpost showing (it's a compact frame and I've long legs) and have never had any problems. I imagine that if you're a lighter rider you would get away with it.