I bought four carbon posts last year for use (testing) on my Empella cyclocross bike. The one I kept was the Deda Blackstick. It is very nice and just flexy enough for good comfort. On cyclocross re-mounts you tend to rack your nuts less with this post. It also soaks up the washboards and bumps on high speed grass sections. I haven't ridden it on the road, but I have to believe this would be very nice on pavement. I've tried the Selcof, Easton you mentioned (good but a LOT of saddle clamp setback)and another one I don't remember which obviously didn't impress me much. Good luck!

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

You might want to look at the U.S.E. Alien Carbon seatpost. I rode one all last year and I thought it was much more comfy and smoother than the Easton that I used the previous year. I will be buying the aero one this year for my tri bike. The seat clamp is truly a work of art.

http://www.use1.com/carbon/carbon.htm

U.S.E. Alien is the finest carbon post made. Period. It's the lightest because it as the best clamp design. I have a Record Carbon, an Easton (I don't recommend it due to bad bonding issues), and a U.S.E. Alien...The U.S.E. is definitely the lightest and easiest to adjust.

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http://wattieink.com/elite-team/
Raising funds to help wounded veterans and racing RAAM 2013 with http://team4mil.org/
"If you are gonna charge... CHARGE HARD!"

puskas- any feedback on that bladed one? Or is this the one your are talking about?

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I have the round one. It's on my CCX bike. A bit of a joke since I ride a steel CCX bike...

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http://wattieink.com/elite-team/
Raising funds to help wounded veterans and racing RAAM 2013 with http://team4mil.org/
"If you are gonna charge... CHARGE HARD!"

go to www.supergo.com look at the weyless brand its light,cheaper and good looking.

you probably know this already, but the seat post is one of the last places to actually look for comfort.

"you probably know this already, but the seat post is one of the last places to actually look for comfort. "

Actually, I totally disagree with this. With a sloping top tube, "compact" frame, or a TT/tri frame with lots of seatpost showing, the difference in (seated) comfort is definately noticeable when one switches between seatposts.

I was able to put Ti posts on couple of my bikes a couple of years ago (TiCycles brand - great post, by the way. www.ticycles.com,) and yup - felt different. Significantly more comfortable. vs. the al post (s) they replaced.

By the way, I think Ti, not carbon, is the way to go for a more comfy seatpost...

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/

2nd on the Weyless carbon post. Well made, pretty easy to adjust and inexpensive. Stiff, too. But I used it on a traditional frame so not a lot was showing.

Another post stated that you can't make a difference in comfort with seatposts, but I disagree. I use a Ritchey WCS post on my Specialized E5 and it has quite a bit of give to it when compared to the original cheapie i had on it. SO much in fact, it sometimes concerens me as I broke a Control Tech post once, and was lucky to not get hurt. Anyway, the flex in the Ritchey post does add a lot of give to an otherwise very stiff bike.

I would not go with an ultralight post as i've heard too many horror stories with the Campy carbon post snapping off. Scary.

I just recieved (yesterday) a new BP Blade aero post from www.bikeparts.net. It is quite different from the ALien Aero post in that it achieves the aero advantage of a posts as described by Cobb (similar to a Cervelo post) because it fills the area between the riders legs while not being willowy, it is a foil shape, looks much like a Cervelo post on my freinds P3.

My frame came with a brand new Easton EC70 27.2x300 post nand EC90 all carbon 1 1/8" fork, not going to use them, will sell on ebay I guess

I had huge problems with the Easton post.. this was mostly due the highly polished aluminium clamp, which hated the ti rails of my saddle. Very slippery combination, I couldn't torque it down enough. Also, I couldn't get the post to stop slowly sinking into my seat tube, it could'be been a combination of carbon fiber bike /w spacer (Kestrel Talon) and the carbon seatpost.. my exerience was very poor. Went with a thompson, no problems.. might try aero post in the near future. The BP looks pretty nice.

mike

I didn't say carbon post "don't help," just that if you are really looking for comfort they are one of the last places to look. I thought is was general consensus that vertical compliance is the major factor and vertical compliance is virtually non significant btw the "main bike materials." In this regards, check rec.bicycles.tech regarding the actual deflection of the different frame materials. It seems the case is often that people mistake lateral compliance with "soaking up the road shock" when the actual vertical compliance remains the same. Obvioulsy, longer posts will have more lateral give, certainly creating a different feel. Vertically, it would be the same regardless.

vertical compliance (or lack therof) would of course severely limit seatpost(s) as a factor in comfort if they (seatposts) were vertical - but they aren't (except in VERY rare cases.)
Even at 79 degrees, the amount of seatpost amplitude possible in the vertical plane (which must be distinguished from the lengthwise plane of the post - 11 degrees off vertical axis) is pretty significant, and more so the more post is showing [although seatpost extension probably has a non-linear relationship to seatpost deflection, which will vary with the seatpost angle. Lower seatpost angles will result in more seatpost deflection per mm of extension...]

Have you ever seen a TitanFlex bike? It's essentially what you get if you flatten out the seatpost angle to the maximum possible amount (0 degrees), and use a Ti post. As you steepen the seatpost angle, the amount of deflection lessens, but it doesn't go away.

As a point of interest, this is one of the bigger problems in designing a shock absorbing seatpost - the post doesn't want to go straight up and down, and eliminating the tendancy for the post to bind up from vertical rather than telescopic motion is a little tricky.

And then there's damping, which is an entirely different story ( and what I personally think people tend to overlook when they dismiss "multi-material" or "Frankenbikes" out of hand - but, hey, I build musical instruments for a living and tend to think about vibrations a little bit differently than most bike geeks. What's the resonant frequency of YOUR bike?)

And heck - sometimes the seatpost is all that's left to change....

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/