Thudbuster

I recently had a customer inquire about longer saddle clamp bolts.  It seems he had found a certain type of saddle that fit him well that used two rails stacked one on top of the other on each side of the saddle… for additional strength.  This presents a problem since the upper clamp is now about 7mm further away from the lower clamp than normal.  One of the Cane Creek engineers looked into the matter a bit and responded.  I have his email information below for anyone who is in a similar situation…

He writes:  We do not offer the Thudbuster clamp bolts in a longer length.  As I’m sure you understand we’re good to go with standard 6.5-7mm rails, and things work great even with 8mm oversize rails…but doubled rails are a bit out of the ordinary.  The good news is that the clamp bolts are just M5×0.75 and stock they’re 35mm long so finding something that will thread in shouldn’t be a problem.  The bad news is of course that the bolt head is custom splined and has a hemi-spherical seat so the customer wouldn’t be able to use the thumb adjustment nut and the bolts wouldn’t seat very well against the “racecar” portion of the post.  From an engineering standpoint I don’t think that this will cause any serious problems provided the customer purchases some high-grade M5 bolts (grade 10.9 to be safe).  I think the only real issue he might have is that since the bolts won’t seat very well against the face of the racecar there may be a “break in” period when the seat clamp bolts will need to be tightened after every ride as they gouge their way into the post.  In any case I’d say the warranty on the head would be void but provided he’s not over the 250lb weight limit there should be no adverse effects on the rest of the post.

I wanted to elaborate on elastomer selection a bit.  The instruction sheet that comes with the Thudbuster shows recommended ranges for elastomers.  This can also be found on our FAQ page.  This is a recommendation to follow but there are other considerations beyond rider weight.  One very important consideration is riding position.  Your full body weight is actually carried at three spots on the bike… handlebars, pedals, and saddle.  The percentage that is carried at the saddle varies with riding position.  For instance, if a person is on a comfort bike with high handlebars and a short reach, a much higher percentage of body weight is carried in the saddle… and stiffer elastomers may be required.  Alternately, an aggressive racing position with a low, long stem (handlebar height actually lower than the saddle) will put a greater amount of the rider’s weight into the handlebars/less on the saddle… meaning softer elastomers may be in order.  Elastomers are relatively easy to change so experiment a little with what works best for you and your bike setup.  The important thing to keep in mind is that you don’t want to bottom-out the suspension mechanism so err on the stiffer side and approach softer set-ups with this in mind.  Happy experimenting.

Greetings once again.  It has been a little while since I posted… 4th of July weekend and lots of festivities and relatives visiting.  I just came in from a little urban ride with my 5 year old… we wandered around the alleys and parking lots of the commercial areas in town looking for fun obstacles to test our skills on… then followed it up with an ice cream cone of course!  Anyway… back to work…

I have had a number of inquiries regarding the LT vs. 3G description.  I thought I’d try to clarify a bit.  The 3G is simply the term Cane Creek used in-house to describe the “3rd Generation” design when developing it several years ago.  The 3G reference somehow got picked up and is causing some confusion.  All the Thudbuster seatposts with the two-bolt saddle clamp are basically 3rd generation.  Cane Creek defines seatposts by model… either LT or ST and by year.  So, if you are looking to make a purchase, you definitely want to get the 3rd generation design that has been out for a number of years but more importantly, you want to make sure that whichever model you choose (LT or ST) that you get the most recent model year available so that the elastomers are as resilient as possible.  What you don’t want to do is get a discounted seatpost that sat on somebody’s shelf for a couple years and the elastomers aren’t as compliant as you’d like… then end up spending money on a new set of elastomers.  Best thing to do is simply get the latest, greatest right off the assembly line.  In the end you’ll be money ahead.

Happy Father’s Day to all of you Dads out there.  I got a good ride in with my son yesterday… a little urban fun, looking for challenging obstacles, step ups, drops, balance beams… just simple fun on a bike, (he’s only 5 yrs old but getting really good!)

Anyway, we stopped in the office after our ride to get some snacks and check messages.  There was a message from a customer wanting to know whether a saddle pack could be used with a Thudbuster.  I usually use a hydration backpack personally so I don’t have alot of experience with saddle packs.  I know people do use them with the LT model… it has to be the velcro strap style bag (no plastic clips).  The upper straps loop through the saddle rails as normal, the lower straps loop around the rear arm of the suspension mechanism just below the elastomers.  I’d like to gather some information about saddle packs as used on both LT and ST model Thudbusters.  If you have either model and are using a saddle pack, please send me a photo of your bike and some info about your experience and I’ll post it here for other Thudbuster users to see.  Thanks for the help.

I got a few more inquiries about the weight of the Thudbuster vs. a rigid post again this week and it always surprises me.  Probably because I have experienced the benefit of the Thudbuster and realize the dramatic reduction in fatigue that it provides.  Saving 200 grams, only to get beat up by a rough trail and bonking before getting to the other end just doesn’t make sense.  Fatigue due to rough terrain is such a major factor in off-road riding that it really needs to be a primary consideration.  The perfect argument is the front suspension fork… my old rigid fork was lighter but the benefits of better control, better vision, less arm pump, less wrist/hand pain have proven themselves to be of more value than the weight penalty of my new 3″ travel fork.  Sometimes I think the weight question comes up simply because folks are not sure what else to ask about.  When I really think about the approximately 200 gram difference between 3″ of travel and a rigid post, I always figure… give me the travel and I’ll shave the grams someplace else.  I’m guessing the clod of dirt left over from my last ride that is still sitting on the bottom bracket would get me part way there… going through my pack and getting rid of a few needless things that have taken up residence there would probably take care of the rest.  Just making sure my tire pressure is spot on and my chain properly lubed before every ride would cut fatigue more than carrying 200 grams… but I still head out once in a while with just a quick squeeze on the tires and a ‘good enough’ comment to myself.  Heck, I think I dropped 200 grams on my last haircut!  Bottom line… if you’re interested in a Thudbuster and weight is one of your hesitations, trust me on this one… the benefits of the Thudbuster more than compensate for the weight hit.  At the end of a long, rough ride, you’ll feel better, finish stronger, and just plain have more fun on your bike.