You don't need a softer seatpost, you need a harder ass

First: there was the Cane Creek Thudbuster, the seat post for people too poor for a full suspension mountain bike but, who still had $200 to spend on unnecessary crap.

Shown here prior to being installed on a 1986 Slingshot mountain bike

With up to 3 inches of travel from the replaceable elastomer the thudbuster seemed like a not too terrible an idea.   The thudbuster existed for years making an assortment of fringe cyclist happy, people put thudbusters on folding bikes, tandems and decade-old steel bikes with Spinergy RevX wheels.
Fast forward to 2012 (the Chinese year of the kickstarter campaign)
What seemed almost palatable coming from cane creek apparently, wasn't good enough for some people.

Enter the Cirrus Body Float suspension seatpost.

Sweet scaffolding Bro

Their aim: provide comfort, reduced lower back and soft tissue trauma, improved cornering and handling ability and suspend the rider and not the bike
Instead of a nearly maintenance free elastomer the Body Float uses springs that can be loaded to your specific riding needs and body weight. Heavier springs can be installed for heavier riders and for more ‘cushion’ while lighter springs are utilized for lighter riders and for a more fine-tuned ride on smoother surfaces. The post has four pivot points for added rigidity.
Looking beyond the testicle numbing, sterility inducing, ass-hatchet that is the Selle Italia Flite saddle the Body Float looks like a garbage sculpture. With handling much like a Softride who could want anything more?

As it turns out the folks over at Cantitoe Road wanted more.
With a design that is less "trampoline" and more, "hey is my saddle clamp broken" Cantitoe Road has designed (but not yet built) the BioFloat.

The BioFloat seatpost uses a clamshell elastomer to trap the saddle rail clamp, completely separating it from the alloy outer clamp. This not only diffuses vibrations and shocks, it provides 360º of “float” for the saddle, letting it truly move with you as you pedal. Oddly, this seems like the least likely to fail so I'm sure it will never come to market.

Meanwhile in France -a country considered to fairly effeminate even by European standards- this is how they prepare for a bike ride:

This 28 year old woman is field testing Pinarello's the newest UCI Approved seat post

So instead of buying a new seatpost, get on your trainer and watch reruns of Paris Roubaix

"I wish I had a suspension seatpost" said Greg Lemond never.

The UCI might be a Bag of Dicks

It's been a pretty big week for the UCI.

"AIGLE, Switzerland (VN) — Julien Carron will step down as technical coordinator at the Union Cycliste Internationale at the end of November, according to press reports.
Carron has been central to the world governing body’s equipment-approval program, which is essentially a mandatory pre-production check on equipment to ensure that it is UCI-legal before it ever rolls off the assembly line, thereby reducing start-line confusion for racers and commissaires."

The Approval Stickers are mandatory however even riders sporting bikes with those stickers will have to have their position checked, their clothing checked, their bikes weighed, and checked to make sure there are no motors in the seat tube, all before giving mandatory blood/urine/semen samples. The "Approved" stickers (which cost well over $10,000 per frame design) amount to nothing more than UCI masturbation.
Additionally:
"Beginning in January 2013, forks will have to be approved along with their corresponding frames. The UCI cited difficulty in checking frames where the fork as been changed out, and the increasing number of time trial bikes being sold with illegal forks on an otherwise legal frame."

"Hey you peeing in the cup, is this the original fork or did you perform some kind of magic? "
-Some Asshole

I have created my own logo that I encourage any small frame builder to use for free, especially those builders that cannot afford the $10,000 price tag.

Peace out Mr Carron

I like bikes and Stuff

Few things in life are as simple and beautiful as a bicycle. Riding bikes is flying without the wings.
This blog is mostly about bikes and partly about all things the other things that make life worth living