It all started with Jim's post over at 400000 Miles And Counting a couple of months ago about his seat post having slipped and caused a knee injury. My seat post used to be marked with electrical tape but yet another plane trip had seen it peel off and I had never gotten around to replace it. More out of curiosity than really expecting my saddle heights to be wrong, I dug out my summary sheet from my bio mechanical assessment and professional bike fit that I had done a couple of years ago.
14 mm! I couldn't believe my eyes and measured three times just to be sure but, indeed, my seat post had slipped down by 14 mm.
After riding the bike a few times and getting used to the new correct saddle heights, it dawned on me that when I got the Peacemaker, I took the measurements off my roadbike and not from the bike fit, which meant the Fixie seat post needed adjusting, too.
To my even greater surprise, the seat post wouldn't move. Now that was unexpected! The bike is only eight months old, surely the seat post couldn't have ceased in such a short time. I googled for solutions and found Sheldon Brown's 14 Ways to Unstick a Seatpost. I went out and bought WD-40 (did you know that WD-40 stands for Water Displacement - 40th attempt?). For a whole week Alberto and I soaked the seat post and whacked and pushed and slammed and pulled. It wouldn't budge.
Is it just me or are you unhappy and sad, too, when one of your bikes is not quite right? I mean, why is it that for months I rode the bike happily with a saddle slightly too low and now, that I know the seat post is ceased, I can't stop thinking about it?
A job for the Pros, I took the Peacemaker to the guys at Fusion today. When they whacked it with a hammer, I had to close my eyes and look away! Then they clamped the whole bike in a vise and tried to use the leverage to break the lock. Nothing!
I had to leave the bike behind. Heavy hearted I drove home.
Now I will wait all week for the phone call that the seat post is freed and my Fixie is healed. Oh, the heartache!
10 comments:
wow. i will have to check mine. i think i marked it with a sharpie.
I mark my seat post too and found it slipped a little so I check it before a ride.
Separation anxiety I know that feeling!;)
Lisa - What I really learnt from this is to make checking my seat post part of the routine check, just like brake pads and cables and tires.
Richard - I still haven't put the bike up for sale. It's on my To-Do list for today! ;(
What are the materials your fixie and seat post are made from? Steel and aluminum, by any chance? Seizing of seat posts in steel frames is common and can be avoided by putting a thin layer of bearing grease on the aluminum seat post before inserting it into the seat tube.
From reading the comments, it sounds like slipped seat posts are more common that I would have thought! Glad you found yours before it turned into a chronic sore knee! BTW, my other two bikes were set up after the original bike (from a bike fit) and the measurements taken from that bike and applied to the other two... and the slippage had already started, so all three were too low. A lesson learned there!
...sandra...lemme, uh, lean over & ask in a quiet whisper...
...by "seat post ceased", did you actually mean to say "seat post seized" ???...
...i figured like this, on the side, quietly between two friends, if that was a mistake, there wouldn't be any embarrassment, ya ???...
...now...your friend 'once known as the badger' is quite correct regarding the 'peacemaker' with it's steel frame & aluminum seatpost...coating the aluminum with grease doesn't allow for the galvanic corrosion of the two dissimilar metals to proceed when they're in close contact...
...it's surprising how quickly that seems to have happened & it may have been induced by the moisture from the atmospheric conditions down your way...
...bottom line ???...i hope your baby will be okay & soon...
Once Known as The Badger - Yes, the frame is steel and the post is aluminium. Thanks for your post in the first place. Without it I'd still be riding around with a low saddle and a jammed post - completely oblivious!
bgw - It's stuck, I guess! Jammed, immovable! And I actually wish it would cease... to be stuck. There you have it! Thanks for you quiet word between good friends! ;)
phew! if that was me i'd have taken (regretfully and stupidly) a hacksaw to it!!
...i'm seized by the need to know if the shop solved your peacemaker's stuck seatpost problem & i shan't cease my inquiries 'til you've informed us of the situation...
Kate - Ouch! You stabbed right in my heart... LOL
bgw - Last I called, they had transferred it to the Intensive Care Unit and were just setting the defibrillator and asking everybody to stand back... :(
...i feel like i'm there, on the ward & that i've been through this before...
..."doctor, doctor, gimme the news........."...
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