I had a very strange experience with my Soloist at NYC this weekend…
On Saturday I took it for a spin and noticed that the seat shifted on the horizontal plane by the time I was done. Couldn’t budge it by hand, so I loosened the screw and put it back where it belongs, then tightened it up. HARD. Hard as I could, actually, although admittedly not with the longest lever imaginable. Still, there’s no way that bolt was getting any tighter.
After the race, when I picked up the bike out of transition, the seat was about an inch behind where I had put it. Originally the leading edge of the top of the clamp was to the rear of the last mark, and when I was done the trailing edge was in front of the first mark. So, over an inch of horizontal shifting on the seat to the rear. No change to seat angle, just the whole thing sliding back on the rails.
I’m not that strong on the bike. Nor am I particularly oddly sized, or putting my seat in an unusual position or angle. It was dead flat, and slammed forward (where it belongs!). Again, the was not movable after the shift despite smacking it firmly with my hand, and the bolt still seemed *very *tight. There was more room on the rails beyond where the saddle settled in to park itself. It was as if I had installed it in this spot rather than where I had actually put it.
User error, design flaw, or component compatibility problems - I have no idea which is the likely culprit. Help is much appreciated. Saddle is a Profile Tri-Stryke with ti rails.
Two questions: why did it shift, and how can I get it to stay put in the future? Is there some magical compound to apply, a trick to use?
On my Soloist with the flippable seat post head, I had trouble getting the seat level and tight with the seatpost in the setback position with the stock Sella Italia SLR saddle.
I got out my Dremel and ground off 1/4 inch or so from the knurl-headed bolt to shorten it up a bit.
Do you have the one-position seat post that comes stock on the SLC or the two-position post that comes with the Team? Are you running it forward or aft?
I have two seatpost heads. Incidentally, I ground down the bolt on the one to use in the rearward position so that I could get the stock SLR level… but that’s the other seatpost head flipped the other way.
This shifting thing has only happened in the forward position. I suppose the only thing in common between the two setups is the extreme difficulty getting the seat level - the hand-turn bolt has to be either cranked all the way down (and filed off) or very very loose, depending on which setup it is.
you need to tighten it down more. if you’ve got the hand-tightened bolt down all the way and it stil slides, you probably need to cut more off the bolt. I’ve ridden with that post in both fwd & backward positions for thousands of miles & it definitely will not bulge if you’vegot it tight. crank that sucker down!
Right, I’d bet it’s too loose because the hand-tightened bolt can swivel on its base. You probably tighten it when it’s on an angle in relation to the body of the seatpost head (closer to horizontal.) Then when you put weight on it, it swivels to a more vertical position and is therefore loose, it is longer in the vertical direction. tough to put into words, i hope you can visualize what i’m talking about. when you tighten it, make sure you’re squeezing the top & bottom pieces of the post head together with your hands.
If i remember right, in the rearward position they should be touching each other in the front & then I used needle-nosed pliers to tighten the hand-tight bolt, then cranked down the hex bolt second. there should be no air space in the front after you do this. in the fwd position its much easier if I recall, as the hand-tight bolt is toward the rear of the bike and won’t need to be cranked to the bottom. in this case you need to find the right spot where it needs to be, so that when you crank the bejeesus out of the allen bolt, your saddle is level. if your saddle points down, you have to loosen the allen bolt up & tighten the rear bolt further, then crank down the allen bolt again.
In the rearward position, I filed off part of the bolt, used pliers, and tightened the hell out of both bolts. It took some maneuvering to get the saddle level, but now I don’t touch it. It’s fine.
In the forward position, the hand tightened bolt isn’t cranked down. I found the spot to get it level, then cranked the hell out of the allen bolt. Despite this, the seat shifted when I was riding. that’s the root of the problem… how to keep the seat level but get the bolts tightened enough so that it doesn’t move?