Aero seat posts are pretty cool looking, but according to aero guru John Cobb, they don't work. In fact, he believes an aero seat post will actually slow you down. You can go to www.bicyclesports.com for more information. Team ONCE uses aero seat posts on their Giant time trial bikes, and Cobb says their riders would go faster if they would scrap the aero posts.

RP

Not true, aero posts DO indeed work, Cobb stated that "willowy" posts such as the Corima and Giant do not fill enough of the area between the riders legs and actually can work against the rider - but - round posts are slow

Solution? Aero posts that are not too wide and have a foil shape - Cervelo for example, or BP Stealth (just got one) have foil shapes and are not willowy.

Read this to, but considering that ONCE has won the team TT at the TDF three out of the last four years it does make you wonder, even though I did follow Cobb's advice and got rid of mine on my TCR. According to Cobb, my round post is supposed to make me about 45 seconds faster over 40 kms.

Not taking anything away from John, but I wish there was another source on this.

The aero posts I had in mind are those on the TCR's and the like. I have an OCR that I have upgraded extensively, and one of the upgrades I was looking at doing to finish off the project was an aero seatpost. But after reading what Cobb said, I decided not to. Not familiar with the BP Stealth posts, but they look way cool if nothing else. I think I'll stay away from aerodynamic seatposts until I find more conclusive information.

RP

If you go to John Cobb's site and look at the Trek TT frame pictured, it HAS an aero seatpost. I couldn't find the article or post that you guys were referring to about him saying to scrape the aero post.

Did anyone else notice that ALL the aero seatpost look about the same, with only the writing being diff. The clamping looks the same. I wonder if it isn't the same company or companies making all the post. The stealth pictured above looks EXACTLY like my XLAB which looks exactly like the specialized I had.

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Olen

I am way out of my league here, and probably should have remained quiet to begin with. Here goes the explanation of my previous posts: I read on Cobb's old website some stuff about the aero seat posts. As I remember, he was not in favor of them unless they were a part of the frame. Is not the Trek time trial bike designed that way, with the aero seatpost integrated into the frame? This to Cobb was far more aero than a standard seatpost in an aerodynamic configuration (such as with the Giant seatposts). Dan mentions this in his discussion of Giant bikes on the entry level roadrace bike page on this site.

I do not believe that there is any mention of aero seatposts on Cobb's new site. I have found the technical section of the site to offer much less content-wise than the same section on the old site. The other day I received a Bicycle Sports catalog in the mail (how I got it I do not know; I have never purchased anything from Bicycle Sports in the past). At any rate, I get this catalog. Included in the catalog are a few articles by Mr. Cobb himself. Somewhere in that catalog I remembered reading that Cobb said that Team ONCE would be faster if they ditched their "aero" seatposts. I'm sure others of you out there received this catalog -- is there such an article or sentence in there to that effect (I tossed my catalog in the trash; now I wish I hadn't done that!).

I don't know much about other aero seatposts, including but not limited to the BP Stealth Gary mentioned above. Like I said, I probably should have remained quiet about this topic, but for whatever reason I did not. Now I'm backpedalling to explain.

The good news in all this is that there is a forum on the Bicycle Sports website, and Mr. Cobb posts there often. If you have any specific questions for him regarding aero seatposts (or anything else), you may be able to get a response through that avenue.

RP

Today I registered at the 'Bicycle Sports Question Forum ' and posted some post and question from this thread. Here is the answer from John Cobb:

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Re: Aero Seat Post Bennys (John Cobb statements)
Posted: 03-14-2003 07:20 AM

Back when I wrote my first article about aero seat post I mentioned that it would stir up some stuff and it certainly has managed to continue to do that. I was doing some frame developement for a bike company and the aero post thing was supposed to be included in the bike. I had not ever done any studies about seat post shapes till then so since they were paying I started testing. Certainly without a rider on the bike then any aeroseat post will work better than round. When you put a rider on the bike then sometimes the results are different. If the rider has pretty thick upper legs, the the aeropost don't seem to help. If the rider has pretty thin upper legs the the aeropost seem to help a little. The point in my article that might have been edited out or overlooked was that for the cost of some of the aero post I don't think they offer much performance gain and it is very related to the particular rider as to the actual gain or loss. At my last Wind tunnel camp the writer for Triathlete was there and we were talking about the seat post question. He had just purchased a shiny new USE aeropost and wanted to see the results. We ran his bike, I don't remember what it was, I think it was a std. Merlin with aerobars. We ran it with his aeropost and with a Thompson round post and in his case [fairly thin upperlegs] the aeropost was better. I think it was about 7-9 sec. over a 40k. I don't think any seat post shape would make a 40+sec. difference over a 40k but sometimes in articles numbers get turned around. I'm sure the seat post question needs lot's more studies and I am still looking at it whenever I have the chance. The results of something like a seat post is really tied to several other things relating to the riders shape, when your in a very controlled test like in a windtunnel these things show up, out on the road it would be impossible to measure these small differences.
I agree that it's unfortunate that more people don't do more windtunnel testing about products but it is very expensive and time consuming. I go do testing to try and steer my customers in the right direction, period. I don't like to spend all that time and money but it's the only way I've been able to find, that let's me answer a question from a customer and feel pretty sure I'm giving the right answer. You can never believe anything written by a marketing person from some bike company because you don't ever get all the facts. I'll keep testing and publishing, I'm always glad to admit that I wrong if further testing proves something else. The more I learn about the effects that back shapes, shoulder shapes, hip shapes, leg sizes etc. have on the overall choice of equipment then the more I know I will need to spend more time testing in wind tunnels.
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I hope the helps to clarify some question and statements from earlier posts.

Felix

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http://www.weilenmann.ch.vu

Clear as mud now, huh? Thanks for posting this. It kind of, sort of clears it up. I guess the point is, depending on the shape of your body/position, an aero post may or may not help. So it may or may not be a good idea to get one. Unless you really like cool looking seatposts. In that case, it's a good idea!!!!!

RP

But if you like a cool looking seat post with some additional (carbon) cushioning why not buy one. When you don't win a lot of time you can't loose a lot.

It seems that this BP Blade is very similar of Giant Seat Posts ( Maybe is the same manufaturer ). But I didn´t have a good experience on those. The mechanism of adjusting the seat it could looks like a very good idea but it´s not. I had my seat loose in two long trainings ( because of that I tight the both screws very hard ) and a week ago the black support that hold the trails broke.

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Luiz Eng

the BP Blade is a great posts, not the same as Giant, it is a foil shape similar to Cervelo's posts, very nice, easy set up and very durable, I highly rate this post.

I said: " Very similar ..." ...

But for sure they use the same system to install the seat with Two screws and two support bars...

My review is that this system SUCKS !!!

My point of view !

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Luiz Eng