Following on from the “weight at the front or back thread”…

Set off on a BB200 practice bivy on Wednesday, plan was to ride from home (Wirral) head out towards the Clwyds and find a nice spot near Moel Famau. At literally the furthest point from the house I got to the top of a hill, there was a loud “SNAP” and my saddle fell off !

Not sure if had anything to do with the weight of gear in my saddle bag (nothing out of the norm) or whether the continuous riding with weight hanging off my saddle had caused the bolts to weaken?

I managed a quick fix with some Velcro and attached my saddle bag to my bars but after ½ hour had to admit defeat and ring Mrs Barney for a pick up.








Having a bit of a re-think now on my packing strategy as I haven’t got a clue what I would have done if it had happened in a fortnights time.

Oh yes, I owe my wife a bottle of wine as well…

Just unlucky I reckon Mark. I take it just the bolt snapped, not the actual post?

I had a similar FAIL in Guatemala when my seat post snapped in half (by coincidence, also made by On One). I guess there's not much you can do to prepare for something like that. In my case I think I had probably over tightened my seat post clamp. I had to cycle 20km out of the saddle to the next town and then take a bus back to Guatemala city to hunt down a seat post. Highly annoying... but at least it wasn't a carbon post! I've heard scary tales of riders sustaining bad injuries after sitting down on a broken carbon post!

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I couldn't get the remainder of the post out of the seat tube. I ended up getting some crazy local to help me carefully hammer and drill it out whilst trying not to destroy the frame. It was very stuck indeed!

That's the good thing about that kind of seat post. The weak spot is the bolt.
Two spare bolts for longer trips is all it needs.
It's also a sensible place to check the right torque.

I use Thomson posts on my bikes (except for one that's got a reverb). Expensive but light and reliable.

Yeah, thomson posts are worth the extra, internally ovalised tube wall, stronger for the loaded direction, lighter where possible.

All of my bikes are fitted with Thomson post/stem combo's.

I was rushing through a single track section and bumped my arse down on the back of the saddle for a pedal turn, then back up out of the saddle. Sat back down to find that I had snapped the head off of the USE sumo, ouch! Just bad luck I'd say, not a packing issues, just wear and tear.