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Bike Seat and Post upgrade

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Expand view Topic review: Bike Seat and Post upgrade

Post by Gyrobot on Thu Mar 13, 2008 1:12 pm

The comfort saddle is UK based and it is a noseless design. I have one (but not on my A-bike) it is superb for comfort. I reckon it should fit the A-bike well, but maybe too wide for some.

http://www.comfortsaddle.com

Steve.

Post by Weakling on Sun Mar 02, 2008 12:13 pm

Garry, is this thread of such value that it should be made a sticky or a FAQ on how to modify A-bike?

Should there be a special department of the forum for such threads.
Repair and modification dep on how to make A-bike suite the rider?

Jon

Instead of starting anew with your question I post here first.

A friendly A-bike owner in Sweden sent me pictures of his modifikation of seat. He has the original A-bike too but got fed up with how the seat felt
so he bought this standard seat from Velo.

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Cost some 16USD so rather cheap. and he bought a QuickRelease so he easily could make it lay flat to the other parts of the folded A-bike.

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He also bought a standard seat tube of alu to be able to fix the standard saddle to the A-bike?

http://www.biltema.se/products/product.asp?iItemId=93700

An easy modification I guess for people who are used to mod their bikes?
didn't cost much either. And the result is very comfortable and doesn't take up much space.

More pictures of his combination of standard components to make the saddle foldable here:
http://www.viebke.nu/vikcyklar/a-bike/sadel/

Post by supertorpe on Sun Nov 11, 2007 9:23 am

Finally, I bought a normal seatpost and a very comfortable saddle, both for 21 euros. This is a total new experience on my A-Bike. Would you like to see the images?

Post by newcross on Wed Nov 07, 2007 6:04 pm

Since this summer, I've been using TIOGA SPYDER SADDLE with my A-bike. Getting this unconventional saddle was a bit of a gamble, so I got good condition secondhand one from eBay for £40 instead of spending £59-£79 for brand new saddle at various online shops.

Despite it's rather bad reputation, I love the saddle so far. It doesn't hurt my bottom and it's lighter than most of saddles around! The weight 140g saves me good 180g to compare to Specialized Rival's 320g. Now I want to try this saddle without Thudbuster... but I don't own solid seatpost in right length.

This saddle bends alot as we sit on, so the setting angle needs to be a little stooping forward and seatpost needs to be higher up.

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Post by newcross on Mon Nov 05, 2007 4:18 pm

Hi supertorpe, suspention seatpost isn't always essential.
Think this like 'Soft puffy saddle + Solid seatpost' is about same or sometimes more comfy than 'Harder saddle + Suspention seatpost' and it's up to your personal preference after all.

Either way, the modification would help your butt significantly when you ride on the cobbles. Although I cannot promise anything just by looking at the pics, it's difficult to tell.

I recommend you to get a pair of gloves with some sort of a shock absorber. A-bike's small wheels really pick up road surface well, so we get hell of vibration on cobbles --- gloves help us to hold onto handle bar more securely and reduce vibration.

(Clipless pedals are also recommended on these road. They prevent your feet to slip away from pedals by the vibration and provide more control. Well, maybe this is going a bit too far ...)

Post by supertorpe on Mon Nov 05, 2007 10:15 am

In my town there are many streets with cobblestones (see image 1 and image 2) and sidewalks with relief (see image 3 and image 4). Such surfaces makes vibrate my A-Bike and vibrations are transmitted to the saddle.

I was thinking to buy a more comfortable seat, but since the seatpost of the A-Bike is not compatible with the new saddle, I have to buy a new seatpost.

Do you think it is sufficient, for this type of surface, with the new saddle? Or will it be necessary to buy a suspension seatpost? Which type you recommend, telescopic or parallelogram (thundbuster)?

Hobson seat woks fine!

Post by lordnelson on Wed Jul 18, 2007 3:59 am

Hi-
The stock seat realy hurt, after a while. I upgraded to the Hobson seat (original). It really improved my comfort level, and allowed longer rides. I paired it with a spring-loaded telescopic seat post.

Post by rongood on Thu Jun 28, 2007 7:35 am

I got the Cane Creek Thudbuster ST seat post, it is a little lighter than the LT and lighter than others i've looked at. I hope that whenever a new model is developed for the A-bike, something like the Thudbuster ST is incorporated to replace the awful seat post that comes with the A-bike now.

Post by newcross on Wed Jun 27, 2007 11:05 pm

I made an entry on saddle upgrade in detail. Please refer http://www.abikecentral.com/blog/?p=82

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Post by newcross on Thu Jun 14, 2007 10:28 pm

Bontrager TT (Time Trial) seatpost is another one to look for A-bike.

http://dev.bontrager.com/Road/Component ... /22091.php

The design is cool and it has 360degree movable seatrail clamp, which has only one axis on the side --- this means, "the quickrelease bolt mod. to make it FOLDABLE" A-bike owner Jhon was doing (http://www.abikecentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26) could be done here as well (but just with only one bolt instead of two!)

This seatpost is really rare in UK for some reason.
Currently eBay has one. I was waiting for this to come up, but too bad it's too short for me.... :cry:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Bontrager-TT-seat ... dZViewItem

Talking about rare seatpost, Tranz-X seatpost PeKaPro uses (see above post) is also hard to come by in UK. It certainly looks good on A-bike. (Thanks for your photo, PeKaPro! :D )

Seatpost and Saddle upgrade

Post by PeKaPro on Mon May 21, 2007 1:51 pm

Hi,

I use the Tranz-X JD-555 25,4mm (dia) 350mm (length) (http://www.bikeparts.com/search_results.asp?ID=BPC302736) suspension seatpost together with the SQ-lab 611 (http://www.dersattel.de/deutsch/fahrradsattel.htm) saddle.
With my 2 meters length this is a comfortable modification. Its all aluminium and titanium so the weight is only 750g.
Folding the bike is no problem, just rotate the saddle sideways. It even fits in the bag... See photographs for details:

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Post by greenbiker on Thu Mar 29, 2007 1:06 pm

newcross:

The first pictures you showed had lots of mods done. The steel trap collapsing pedals and the racing hand barends make this look like it could be driven hard all day. All these changes are great. Thanks for the pictures.

greenbiker

Post by newcross on Thu Mar 29, 2007 12:26 pm

Easy seats look like a serious piece of engineering. :D

Here is a Japanese blog shows A-bike with JD-515 suspension seatpost and Duo Power saddle. (2007-03-29 entry)
http://blog.so-net.ne.jp/ktulu/archive/c341193

The Duo Power saddle (Spain) has some cool designs. Weight around 300g depends on the model.
These saddles are designed by the Demeter Innovation company.
ImageImageImage
This seems to be an original supplier, but I'm not sure...
http://www.tiendadeportes.com/DuoPower.htm
http://www.alabike.com/

Tranz-X JD-515 (I think it's now updated to JD-555)
JD-555 has 25.0mm version
http://www.jdtranzx.com/products/sspost/1.htm
JD-555
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Post by centerpunch on Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:04 pm

That 2-piece "Easy seat" is from Hobson, they have two better models that are due to ship in a few week, details here: http://www.hobsonseats.com/index.html

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Post by greenbiker on Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:49 am

Yes, Newcross, that's the seat. I was handling one today and the pads spread to allow for the proper placement. The downside is they are heavy!!

At the shop there were a number of traditional racing seats with the rear split. One weighed nothing but was over $120.
John

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