|
Tamer
Post-Centric Seatpost (older models)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Submitted by
Dan Lehman
a Weekend Warrior
from Lincoln NE
Date Reviewed: July 8, 2005 | | Favorite Trail: | Sourdough in Indian peaks CO | | Duration Product Used: | More than 3 years | | Price Paid: |
$100.00 | | Purchased At: | Cycle Works | | Strengths: | Very few | | Weaknesses: | AFter a month or two it was stiff as could be; Stiction high; The housing twisted and to this day it can't be fixed; the bike shop said Tamer was sold so there was no warrantee. | | Bottom Line: | I need a new one but won't go with Tamer - i'm pretty disappointed | Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
jonathan augello
a Cross Country Rider
from box# 3018, eugene, oregon, 97403
Date Reviewed: September 23, 2002 | | Favorite Trail: | anything in crested butte | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Price Paid: |
$100.00 | | Purchased At: | from pro racer | | Strengths: | simplicity of design and adjustment | | Weaknesses: | inconsistent performance | | Similar Products Used: | i've had three tamer seatposts | | Bike Setup: | schwinn homegrown hardtail, XT-XTR | | Bottom Line: | friendly folks who are concerned with their product.
| Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Alec
a Weekend Warrior
from Ashland, OR
Date Reviewed: August 2, 2002 | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$45.00 | | Purchased At: | Siskiyou Cycle | | Strengths: | Using the Tamner Honest Abe model. Minimal or no play. It's tight and solidly built. | | Weaknesses: | None noted. | | Similar Products Used: | Less expensive generic models. | | Bike Setup: | Bridgestone MB3. | | Bottom Line: | Works as it should. Very satisfied so far with less impact to my lumbar region where I suffer from degenerative disk disease. Makes for a mellower ride. I like the fact it is an obviously higher quality product than most of the other models out there. Plus, it was the only one in that quality range I could find that fit my older bike. | Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
CHRIS DYWELSKA
a Weekend Warrior
from WINDSOR
Date Reviewed: December 20, 2000 | | Favorite Trail: | highland hills, michigan | | Duration Product Used: | 6 months | | Strengths: | DOES THE JOB. | | Weaknesses: | IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT THE WEIGHT | | Similar Products Used: | GIANI | | Bike Setup: | TREK 8000LT | | Bottom Line: | Listen I am what most of you call a lard ass, 6'5 and 235lbs
but this thing is still under me and is still working just fine, I don't like these things I feel that the design is
wrong, but it is still working just fine and shows no sign of quiting soon, I keep it lubed with axel grease and there
has been no stiction since. I have seen them break and I expect this one to go someday, but til then, lets go riden,
if it had not came with the 8000lt there's no way in hell
that I would have went out to buy one (maybe a pivot type),
when this goes the best way to go is with a THOMSON ELITE,
and you can forget about it. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Tim
a Weekend Warrior
from Nashville
Date Reviewed: October 29, 1999 | | Duration Product Used: |
1 Year | | Strengths: |
takes edge off bumps | | Weaknesses: |
Unable to keep tightened.
Breaks.
Stiction. | | Similar Products Used: |
none | | Bike Setup: |
Specialized Hardrock
mostly stock | | Bottom Line: | After getting the right elastomers (the hard black ones were too firm) I rode it for about 6 months. Then it broke at the top just above the upper elastomer. I don't do big drop offs but I do weight 200. Taken back to LSB for warranty claim. Seatpost was lost when returned to Tamer. Taken over 6 weeks to get any action despite numerousd calls by LBS. Bought new FSR while waiting. Tamer can keep the seatpost now! NOT recomended, you could easily end up with some serious injuries to parts that you don't want injured. | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
felix
a Cross-Country Rider
from miami
Date Reviewed: May 24, 1999 | | Favorite Trail: |
marham park | | Duration Product Used: |
more than 3 years | | Bottom Line: | i love my post; i've had it for 3 yrs with no problems. how the hell can anyone break it is beyond me, i weight approx 180 and would never believe that the post can snap. if i needed a new one, Tamer would be my first choice again | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Juan
a cross-country rider
from Idaho
Date Reviewed: November 3, 1998 | | Bottom Line: |
I spent over $100 on a piece of crap tamer suspension seatpost. I'd ridden a $40 Giant post, and a Coda suspension seat post and was impressed by the action they had. I thought I'd be getting what I'd pay for with the Tamer and I was wrong. I've tried changing elastomers and everything to get it to perform half as good as the other posts I tried. It sucks! I wish I could get my money back. Don't make the same mistake I did! You don't alway get what you pay for. | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
kirk
a weekend warrior
from tennessee
Date Reviewed: October 27, 1998 | | Bottom Line: |
I stand by my earlier review- the more of these things that are out there the more I feel I should warn people not to use them- I'd been using a Tamer seatpost since '95 and it never worked right- 1st it was too much side- to- side play so they said send it back they had a new design (by the way Matt that was you I talked to). Got the post back and it worked about two weeks and then the bottom bushing broke loose and the whole upper post and saddle would rotate. I called them back they said send it in they had a new design(again) so I did. Got it back,rode it about ten times ,and then it snapped on me. I called and talked to Kevin who said they had a new design (again?) and they'd get my replacement parts out the next day. Two weeks later I still hadn't seen those parts-called and left message for Kevin-Five days later still no parts (and no response from Tamer) so I left my earlier review on this site. A week after that I got an email from Kevin proclaiming Tamer's service supreme but guess what? I still didn't have the parts he'd promised a month before-so he sent them out requiring a signature on delivery like I was some kind of deadbeat trying to rip off this junk- and then guess what? I get my new re-designed post parts and they look just like the ones that snapped off on me- I tried to give Tamer the benefit of the doubt at first but these things break under normal use and they shouldn't- Sorry Matt if the truth hurts- go elsewhere for your seatpost needs, everybody!!!! | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
g. garcia
a cross-country rider
from Rossland
Date Reviewed: October 27, 1998 | | Bottom Line: |
Man, it sounds like there is a war going on here. I'll give my 2 cents worth.Had a Tamer Centrik in like '96. Good post. I raced it for a season and sold it with the bike. Used a USE in '97. OK, but it seemed like I had to rebuild it all the time to keep it working good. Got a new pro carbon in march of this year. This is a kick a-- seatpost! The carbon fiber is super-cool. I've had it apart once to lube the bumpers, and it continues to work perfectly. Very little stiction, and I can climb better on rough uphills. The older post was good. This one is quite a bit better than the USE even, and I'd say that's pretty good. | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Joe
a cross-country rider
from Atlanta GA
Date Reviewed: September 28, 1998 | | Bottom Line: |
Had the same problem as Kirk below with the aluminum post. The post snapped at the threads near the lower bushing after 6 months. The post did a good job of taking the edge off small bumps, but it isnt the same as full suspension. I would stay from Tamer. Seems like a major design flaw on a critical component. | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Matt Gersib
a racer
from Englewood, CO
Date Reviewed: September 24, 1998 | | Bottom Line: |
Sorry about your unfortunate incident Kirk. You obviously had a post that was an earlier design, but your abuse of Tamer is unfortunate. Since you mentioned the self-serving Tamer ads..., I'll set your record straight. I'm not a Tamer employee. I was two years ago, but have since moved to Colorado, and am a semi-professional mountain bike racer. I've been running the same Tamer Pro Carbon seatpost since my original post in January of '98. Since then, I've had the post apart for cleaning/lubing twice, and have won a NORBA NCS race with the post on my bike (Breckenridge). No other maintenance, no problems. I'll be at the 24 hours of Moab with the same post. It's obvious that Kevin has his posts sorted out.Like I said, sorry about your leg. That's really bad, but your experience isn't necessarily indicitive of the quality that's going into these posts. If you had any idea of how many of these posts are out there, you'd understand that, at times, there are warranty issues stemming from unforseen manufacturing variances. It's just a bummer that you got one of these anomolies.Thanks for the advice...I'll keep mine. | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Kirk Wilson
a
from tennessee, usa
Date Reviewed: September 8, 1998 | | Bottom Line: |
If you want to take the edge off a hardtail's ride then a suspension post is the wayto go- but whatever you do , STAY AWAY FROM TAMER!!!! In my opinion this post is dangerous and they should all be recalled. Mine snapped off where the lower bushing threads are inside the housing- resulting in a jagged ended tube sticking up out of the seattube- also resulting in a 4 gash on the inside of my right thigh. Tamer has known about this design flaw since at least Feb '97 (see review below). Do yourself a favor and possibly prevent another Bobbit incident- get your seatpost from a reputable component manufacturer ( and ignore the self-serving Tamer ads submitted below by a Tamer employee)- NO STARS- NO WAY- IF YOU HAVE ONE OF THESE THINGS GET RID OF IT!!!!!!! | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Freddie Stoner
a weekend warrior
from Tempe, Arizona
Date Reviewed: June 16, 1998 | | Bottom Line: |
In terms of quality, there is no difference between bike components than any other component, you get what you pay for. The comfort plus is the entry level suspension seatpost from Tamer, and it performs as expected. Common to all telescoping designs, the Tamer suffers from severe stiction. The offset seatpost clamp contributes to this problem making it impossible to adjust so that the weight of your body is in line with the axis of the seatpost. This is common physics and the guys at Tamer should have realized that when they designed it. One good note however is that this post does do a good job at softening the high frequency vibrations. This is evident from the lack of the normal rear-end soreness after a 2-3 hour cross country ride. I would recommend this seatpost only if you are currently suffering from soreness that keeps you from riding more frequently. A blessing in disguise, my Tamer was recently stolen from my bike. My next post will be a Thudbuster or Moxey. | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Matt Gersib
a racer
from Englewood, Colorado
Date Reviewed: June 4, 1998 | | Bottom Line: |
After 6 months, my ProCarbon Tamer is still going strong. Very impressive. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Matt Gersib
a racer
from Lincoln, NE
Date Reviewed: January 6, 1998 | | Bottom Line: |
Just got a new Tamer Pro Carbon. WOW! It's a nice, smooth seatpost. I also have an older Post Centrik post and the new one is much nicer. It's the first Tamer post I've had that you can bounce on the back of the seat and the post soaks it up without binding. Pretty good...Looks like they're putting more material where it's needed. I'll update this in a couple of months after I've had time to thrash it. | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Carl Matson
a racer
from Lusby, MD
Date Reviewed: December 7, 1997 | | Bottom Line: |
Follow-up from my first post below.That tension pin breakage kept the post on the bench longer than on the
bike. Complained loudly to TamerUSA (tamerusa@aol.com) and got an
instant response: they'd fix what I had or for $50 upgrade me to the '98
ProCarbon. Went with the latter.And what a good choice. The ProCarbon addresses about every problem
they've ever faced with the PostCentrik (and especially the carbon-fiber
Centriks). Beefier wall thicknesses in the shaft, a much improved collar
area, a rubber boot ala' USE posts, and a normal saddle rail clamping
mechanism. The tension pin remains, but I think my Post Centrik is so
old and worn that short of filling in the gaps somehow there will be too
much play for the pin to survive anyway. The ProCarbon is rock solid in
that respect.Added bonus: they now include the hard and soft elastomer stacks with the
post when you get it, so tuning your factory loaded medium stack doesn't
mean waiting another week and spending $10 more. The little bottle of
White Lightning they include for lubing the stanchion is a joke, though.
Just not where that stuff belongs (I do love it on my chains, mind you).Overall, for great customer service and much needed improvements, they
get one more chili than last time. | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Emilio Ruocco
a weekend warrior
from Pittsburg
Date Reviewed: May 29, 1997 | | Bottom Line: |
For the money, the Tamer post is an excellent choice. I'm a 225 pound rider so I couldn't go for the SL lightweight model, and I ordered a heavy elastomer kit. The Centric is beautifully machined (Working for Alcoa, I notice these things) and elegantly designed. I really like the simple seat angle adjustment. With 1 and 3/4 inches of travel, the Centric absobs everything, even at my weight. Compression is very smooth and also consistent, a far cry from the Girvin Flexpost (see additional comments). Climbing is a breeze! In the last three weeks I have climbed steeper, rockier and generally tougher terrain than I was comfortable doing with a rigid post. Preload adjustment is also easy, though you do have to remove the post to access the screw. One thing missing is a dust/dirt boot. I had to wait for mine, back ordered, but it was well worth the $140.
I chose to go the suspension seatpost route because I had @ $1.3k invested in my '95 DBR Vertex and did not want to replace the bike yet. I first went cheap (Girvin Flexpost), BIG mistake. The Flexpost has a flawed saddle mount design which twice got stripped before completely tightened. You get what you pay for! | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
E. Ritchie
a cross-country rider
from Kingwood TX
Date Reviewed: April 7, 1997 | | Bottom Line: |
Too much stiction. It works well when it is new but it does not last. I also had a CODA suspension post and this one worked a little better than that one but was still not very effective. DO NOT waster your money. | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Rob
a cross-country rider
from MS
Date Reviewed: February 24, 1997 | | Bottom Line: |
Ugh, snapped off my _second_ one last week. This time the outer tube broke, just below where the plunger meets the elastomers. As before, the thing was machined out too much, this time with some threads cut into the inside of the tube. Too much metal in the wrong places, not enough in the right places.At 170 lbs I'm no Clydesdale parts-pounder, just an average hard XC rider. Two clean snaps in a month isn't a fluke. Tamer needs to re-engineer this thing, with some understanding of how much metal can be removed without over-stressing what's left. THEN, they need to test their stuff before sending it out.I liked how of the post worked, but if it doesn't last it's worthless. | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Rob
a cross-country rider
from MS
Date Reviewed: January 27, 1997 | | Bottom Line: |
Like:
Provides enough cush to let you spin over choppy freshly-cut trail sections, ordinary roots, and sub-fist-sized rocks -- so it does 80% of what I need a full suspension rig to do, but for a lot less weight and money. Solid construction, nice machined shim, nice seat clamp. Brutally simple elastomer-only design.Dislike:
Stiction you can feel. SL version snapped at mile 47, and the 'standard' version is noticably heavier (but much more durable). Didn't come with any sort of boot or dust seal. Needs MCUs, not solid urethane bumpers, to make it less temperature sensitive.It does all I expected and all that I need it to do: I now go faster and finish fresher, without having to trade in my hardtail. The only problem so far happened when the SL version, which has a hollow cro-mo shaft, snapped at the seat clamp. Basically a bad design, they simply machined out too much metal at a critical stress point. No such problem with the standard version though! If attacked, you could fight off bears with it. And 5 stars to my LBS, which offered money back or a straight swap for the standard post, without any awkward questions.Despite the claims in other reviews, I like the clamp design, and haven't had any trouble with it hurting my hollow rail saddle. It grips well, and makes seat tilt adjustment simple and precise.Finally, the o-ring 'seal' on the shaft is either a bad joke or only intended to help you adjust the preload for proper sag. Before you leave the bike store, have them give you an old 1.5 tube and a couple of zip-ties to make a dust boot. Cut a 4-5 length of it, and tie it down against the seat clamp and below the knurled fitting where the shaft goes into the main tube. 100% sealed for 100% free.As it stands, this post rates 3 stars. The shaft could be made durable and much lighter by not boring it out all the way through to the seat clamp. It needs Judy-style MCU's, not Quadra 5-style bumpers. A dust boot, though easily kludged up, should be included. Finally, some stiction relief like the Bodyshock's little roller in the back, would be a great improvement. This is a good product, worth every penny as is, but it could be made a lot better without much effort on Tamer's part. | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Matt Gersib
a racer
from Lincoln, NE
Date Reviewed: December 9, 1996 | | Bottom Line: |
Believe the hype. Tamer suspension seatposts are the answer for added cush on a hardtail. I will say up front, that I'm a former employee of the company, so I'm probably biased. Regardless, they're light, durable and provide relief from a rigid bike. They can be reached at (402)475-3430. Tell Kevin that Matt G. told you to call. He just might get you a really good deal. Maybe not, but it never hurts to try...
Happy trails... | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Chris
a weekend warrior
from Ontario, Canada
Date Reviewed: November 15, 1996 | | Bottom Line: |
Effective, simple, good value. We use the tamer shock post on our tandem for
the stoker. Really takes the bite out of the bumps. No seat rotation. Steel shaft
more durable. Elastermer bumpers good but not as plush as my Judy XC.
Clamp system not good. Stupid design. | | Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Carl Matson
a racer
from Lusby, MD
Date Reviewed: August 20, 1996 | | Bottom Line: |
Can it be...? A suspension seatpost that has 1.25 of travel, weighs 300 grams,
and doesn't blow up after a couple rides (e.g. HydroPost, ugh)? Being of the
belief that fully-suspended people rarely use more than an inch or two of their
3+ inches of rear travel unless downhilling, I recommend boing-posts for most
people who want a little cushiness for the 80% of their riding which occurs in
_other-than-downhill_ conditions. And Tamer's post is designed better than
most. I have the carbon fiber shaft version because I got it cheap from a pal
at the shop, but if you adjust your saddle height a lot I would recommend the
aluminum version if you can find it. CF-epoxy does NOT like abrasion. The
hex-style stanchion works extremely well to keep the saddle from rotating about
the post axis, but the split-rod used to attach the clamp hardware to the top
of the stanchion broke in half on mine. Easy to fix. The elastomer style
suspension avoids the blown seals that any and every hydro style post will
eventually experience (what kind of engineer expects the seals/bushings in
a hydro style post to withstand the off-axis forces acting upon them without
blowing out...duh) Major complaint with the Tamer: the saddle clamp system is
the kind that pinches your rails between a couple of half-pipes. Baaaad.
Stress concentrations. Baaad. Ti or hollow CrMo (or hollow anything) railed
saddle users beware...or lose 50 lbs. | | Overall Rating: |
| |
|
Photo Caption Contest
(sponsored by Maxxis)
|
Enter here
|
|
|
$
