Strengths: This seat post is great, it takes the edge off your hardtail racing bike making it alot more comfortable Note: that for the 2+ years of use I had my seat post 1/4 inch above the max recomended height and it never gave me problems. It finaly broke due to a bike shop abuse on removing it from the frame.
Weaknesses: Just some advice: If you get the older version which has two clamping bolts dont over strees them and keep them flush with the other end of the clamp. Be carefull on the instalation around the edges of your frame if they feel too sharp as they may cut into the seat post (I sanded a bit from my frame to make them smoth) Change the seat clamp so the bolt opposes the opening on the frame
Similar Products Used: Thomson Elite, Bontrager Carbon
Bike Setup: Im race about 15-20 times per year on this bike (including 24hr events) and at least the bike is used once a week. Im about 160lbs so it may play a factor on the durability
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Submitted by
Jesse VOZA
a Racer
from St-Martin, Caribbean
Date Reviewed: January 3, 2006
Strengths: + Light + Look
Weaknesses: - Too light - Slipping - Seat clamp
Bottom Line:
Get this post if you adjust it one time and will never touch it after, why ?
- It will slip in your seat tube. You tighten it, it will brake. What to do ? Tighten it one time with chalk and hope it was the right torque... - The clamp is the stupidest around. It is too light. When you tighten the seat it moves. You have to do it with the nose down and hope the seat will be flat when it will be tight... - You have 2 bolts for the clamp, be sure to tighten them evenly and after every month. - Last but not least, you will need a small hammer to release the seat from the clamp...
Stupid post, I told you. Get a Thomson wich is just a bit heavier but is top quality and works !
Submitted by
Bobby
a Cross Country Rider
from Ontario, Canada
Date Reviewed: April 26, 2004
Strengths: Very light.
Weaknesses: Seat clamp tricky to setup. Small, very fine set screw. One must use caution when clamping their seat. Overtighten and your in trouble. Had trouble with post slipping down seat tube but tried rubbing chaulk on seat post and it worked (I think I read that somewhere, MBAction). You must use a shim (comes with) or risk breaking the post...make sure there are no sharp edges digging into the post....I even had to smooth the top edges on the shim.
Bottom Line:
If lightness is your goal...this is it! The USE Carbon is super strong and light. If you like to adjust you seat height for different rides I don't think I would recommend this post (constant adjustments will no doubt scratch the carbon, thereby weakening the strength) This post will work best for the rider who's looking for lightness and the one time setup.
Similar Products Used: Thomson Elite - my back-up.
Bike Setup: Santa Cruz Blur, XTR, Easton Carbon Bar, USE Carbon seat post, Hayes, King headset, Eggbeater Ti's, King hubs with Mavic 3.1's.
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Submitted by
Antonio
a Cross Country Rider
from South Africa
Date Reviewed: January 12, 2004
Strengths: Light weight and good looking
Weaknesses: Broke the middle peace that connects to the seat. Wore down the back bracket which caused the seat the move all the way back USE agent was great and replaced the broken parts for me.
Similar Products Used: Thomson elite (great post!)
Bike Setup: Giant NRS team
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Submitted by
Nonoy
a Weekend Warrior
from Philippines
Date Reviewed: December 28, 2002
Strengths: Lightweight and cool CARBON looks!!!
Weaknesses: Price
Bottom Line:
This posts rock!!! superlight @ 168 grams only... lighter than any other posts out there... the alien clamp looks and works great!!! didnt have any problems yet with this post, using it for a year!!
Similar Products Used: Syncros alloy, thomson post
Bike Setup: Cannondale jekyll, fatty forks, Shimano XTR
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Submitted by
air
a Weekend Warrior
from berkeley ca
Date Reviewed: October 28, 2002
Strengths: light. looks good
Weaknesses: slippery. hard to get it to stay put in the seattube clamp. also, had to get two because first one didn't fit into my seattube. it measured larger than 27.2
Bottom Line:
nice looking post, very light. cool clamp. i use this on my road bike. however, the instructions say to set it up very loose in the seat tube so you don't damage (crush?) the post. so it slips down when you ride. so you make it tighter and tighter but it keeps slipping because guess what happens when it slips down? you get powdered carbon in your tube and on the post. also known as graphite. very slippery stuff. it's used to reduce friction. i was getting very frustrated because my seat would be an inch lower at the end of every ride. an email from speedgoat's tech support said "the post is not defective" meaning they didn't want it back...but after cleaning the seat tube and the post with alcohol and tightening it up super tight it finally has stayed put. i hope it lasts awhile.
Submitted by
nick slim
a Cross Country Rider
from cheltenham, england
Date Reviewed: July 30, 2002
Strengths: Lightweight, mean looks, slight shock absorbence factor.
Weaknesses: tightning of bolts, a> you cant over tighten the seatpost in the seat stay b> difficult to know when the alien post mount is tight. when you tighten the alien mount the saddle position changes.
Bottom Line:
The weight is scary the looks great , now it is on and has been on for a few rides wow!! but it took two rides to get the whole set-up right. The seat post kept slipping, my fault maybe as I didnt have a torque wrench and may have been over careful fitting, but essentially I had to get off the bike raise the seat post 10 times until it stopped moving. Finally when that was sorted the saddle ripped off the alien mount, general theme seems to be me not tighniting up the bolts enough. When I put the saddle back on having now learned to adjust the seat position to be just lower that what you actually want as the tighening process hikes the seat angle up, I sheered the small allen key head off the bolt. USE were great 1 email later new ones were in the post. Touch wood alls going well now. Bottom Line it takes time to setup but well worth it (hence still the 4 chilles for overall)hope my experiences can help you guys in having a less painful setup time. Jerome I too broke my balls.
Bike Setup: trek stp - carbon bike needs carbon bits!!
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Submitted by
JEROME TORDO
a Cross Country Rider
from FRANCE Cassis
Date Reviewed: July 29, 2002
Strengths: look, weight, seat clamp
Weaknesses: manufacturing
Bottom Line:
I broke my nacke this weekend with it. As I was riding down a technical trail the clamps went of leaving me with no saddle a few seconde after I was down, flying over head. The result the seat tube broke like a dry peace of wood. Incredible. My mechanical backgrounds leave my thinking that some bounding glue is missing betwen the carbon layers. The result a broken hand and some mechanical job on my bike to figure out how to get off the last part witch felt down in the seat tube.
Similar Products Used: Easton Carbon, Syncros Ti, Syncros Al
Bike Setup: Seven Verve, Seven Sola
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Submitted by
GAVIN
a Cross Country Rider
from Melbourne, Australia
Date Reviewed: June 4, 2002
Strengths: Very light(mine was only 155gm), soaks up bumps better than an 6013AL Titec X-wing. Outstanding after market service...read below for story.
Weaknesses: Very expensive...I paid AUD$220! A little time consuming to set up, but straight forward instructions are easy to follow. Saddle clamp screws are small and made of a soft alloy that allows the screw head to become rounded easily...making it impossible to remove with a 2.5mm allen key. If that occurs, use a side-cutter to grip the screw head and the blades will dig into the soft alloy, allowing removal(use your imagination).
Bottom Line:
An excellent product! Can't believe how well it helps cushion shock and vibrations compared to aluminium. As mentioned before, I accidentally rounded out the screw head using a little too much force during the re-tightening procedure. I rang Ian from BicycleExoticaDirect in Brisbane and explained my situation. Being the top bloke that he is, he sent me a replacement screw FREE OF CHARGE! If I happen to break this post with 85kg(187lb) of crash tumbling abuse, I would get another one from Ian tomorrow!
Submitted by
Troy
a Racer
from Wallingford, CT, USA
Date Reviewed: December 21, 2001
Strengths: Lightest seatpost I could find. (I have the 270) and sawed off another 10 gm off the end (slack on a Y - Foil). Looks greats. Durable.
Weaknesses: None
Bottom Line:
First off I should inform I'm a road cyclist (no Carbon Alien listed on 'Road Reviews'). Considering I weigh 195 lb & cut 1 5/8" off the shorter 270 mm model, I'd have to say this seatpost is very strong (least for road purposes). Didn't really notice any shock dampening advantage, but I'm riding a Carbon Y-Foil with a seat that works very well for me already. That said, for the lightest seatpost I could find that's strong & good-looking I can easily recommend this product.
Submitted by
marco righetti
a Weekend Warrior
from bellshill,lanarkshire,scotland UK
Date Reviewed: December 16, 2001
Strengths: lightweight,good shock absorbtion
Weaknesses: none so far
Bottom Line:
its early days yet but as far as i can makeout the alien clamp is easy to work with if you follow the instructions (especially the squeezing the 3 metal parts together bit)and i feel that the clamp mechanism is very clever because as you screw in the screws the 3 bits of metal come together to make it really secure so much so that when i was changing my saddle and i unscrewed the screws completely out from the mechanism i had to use a blunt tool to whack the metal bits apart!as it was really secure,so i really dont understand when some folks say that the saddle slides after a ride!
Just a nice bit of kit. The need to use a shim means it looks a bit spindly (why won't USE allow its installation in acarbon frame without a shim?). Good shock absorption. You need to tighten the clamping screws after a bedding in period. I do not yet have carbon splinters in my sphincter. Which is nice.
Weaknesses: Clamp is harder to set up if your seat rails are thick, but once set up is no problem.
Bottom Line:
A very well made post, with a funky clamp. The clamp will take you longer to set than most, but if you have half a brain shouldn't cause to many dramas. The design of the clamp is what helps save weight, the post weighs about 130g. I ordered my from USE in England because there is no distributor in Oz. They were great, although don't expect them to answer your emails, they don't!! A word of warning, I'm a road bike rider and this post has very little set back, so if your looking for that stay away. All in all I'm happy with my purchase, the post is strong light and looks great. I hope I never have a waranty claim because they will probably ignore my emails.
