The seatpost offers the ability to switch the head around, offering more fit flexibility. Russell Burton / Our Media After that experience, I knew that level 3 was the best setting for me. Yet each of you will have to do all of this fine-tuning on your own to find the best possible setup.

Rather than using a full-suspension bike (for comfort), you can fit a suspension seatpost to a hardtail and enjoy similar levels of comfort without the extra weight, price and complexity. 4 Reasons To Not Use Suspension Seatposts The Cane Creek eeSilk is less than 100 grams heavier than a high-quality aluminium seatpost. It’s great if you have a ‘sporty’ ride position like me, or if you mostly ride smoother roads. Given it only has 20mm of travel, you will have to compromise on the rougher roads, but I still find it offers a significant comfort improvement over a regular post. Plus it doesn’t bounce, it’s light and it’s elegant. Suspension seatposts allow you to pedal while seated on terrain that normally requires standing up. Compared to a rigid post on the same bumpy climb, I find that my legs often feel fresher simply because I’m standing up less.You can measure the length of your existing stem as shown in the following picture. The length is measured from the center of the handlebar to the center of the steerer tube. The Kinekt 2.1 Aluminium Seatpost is a spring-loaded suspension seatpost that makes a welcome addition for your gravel or adventure bike. It takes a bit of playing about with to get it set up, but once done it is effective – as long as you don't mind the weight increase. A suspension seatpost allows you to take bikes with narrow tyres on much rougher terrain than you normally could. Obviously, this isn’t an ideal situation, but you’d be surprised how off-road you can go on 38mm tyres! I've recently bought one (Suntour SP12-NCX) and I'm super impressed - I ride mainly on the road in Devon, where the surfaces aren't exactly smooth. Should stop the filth getting in too, it's on the good bike, when I properly go off road I remove the mudguard from the seatpost so I can drop it more.

In addition, linkage posts ensure that the saddle-to-pedal distance is (mostly) maintained when the seatpost is compressed. Telescopic seatposts move in a different plane to bump forces coming up from the rear wheel. I *think* my knees are happier for getting rid of the suspension seatpost also, it seemed to be aggravating some ITB syndrome or something in my left knee, but perhaps I just never got the saddle position right. I must say, although the bumpy forest route was delivering huge comfort improvements, I think the Redshift suspension seatpost performs best on fast gravel roads with a lot of high-frequency vibration. You don’t really notice the suspension working underneath, and you don’t feel any bounciness either. Another option is the Canyon S15 VCLS 2.0 CF seatpost. The post is split into two sections which pivot at the top, giving vertical compliance, and it works very well indeed. It came on the Grail CF SL 8.0 SL that I tested, and the added comfort was very noticeable.Initially I really liked it, obvious benefits if and when you couldn't avoid a pothole or puddle etc. Adjustability: 7 out of 10. While both the seat angle and the suspension properties are adjustable, they do require tools and, in the case of the latter, removal of the seatpost from the frame. The short answer is you need to find a good quality one. Some users have reported that some of the cheaper alternative suspensions seatposts don’t work as well at offer comfort which they should. When sitting sometimes they are constantly bobbing and this can get annoying. You want one that is more firm but still has that nice comfort factor.