2

My current bicycle is a 2013 Specialized Allez C2. I'm thinking of using a conduit bender to bend the angle of the seat post two inches forward. A conduit bender can bend one inch for every 3 inches of pipe. I have 10 inches of seat post above the frame of the bike. Now, although the seat post is the cheapest part of the bike, and it can easily be replaced, does anyone foresee a structural problem with that alteration?

2
  • The saddle is all the way forward? Different saddles have different length of rails. In particular, some expensive saddles have very short rails in order to save weight.
    – Vorac
    Sep 9, 2014 at 16:12
  • You may have more luck getting a lay-back seatpost and installing it the wrong way around.
    – Kibbee
    Sep 9, 2014 at 16:50

2 Answers 2

3

What are you are tying to achieve? Is the bike too long for you?

Bending a seatpost will weaken it.

You can buy offset seatpost. Most people use them to move the seat back I cannot see why you could not use it to move the seat forward. But you are not going to pick up two inches. Two inches would put you almost straight over the pedals - are you sure that is what you want?

And you can get a shorter stem for the handle bars.

1
  • 3
    If the effective top tube is just too long, you may need a whole new bike.
    – Batman
    Sep 9, 2014 at 16:21
2

I'm not sure about structural problems, but the bigger problem is that bending it two inches forward will likely throw off the angle of the mounting clamp more than you can overcome by readjusting it. You'd probably want to put a z-bend in it: two inches forward and then two inches back to level off the mounting clamp. And you don't have enough seatpost to pull that off.

Some people seem to have luck running Thompson layback posts backward, but they only get about 2 cm of forward offset. You could try the same thing with a different brand of layback post, but you'd run the same risk of throwing the mounting clamp off too much.

The easiest (and safest) thing to do is to buy a seatpost with a forward offset. A quick Googling seems to turn up Profile Designs Fast Forward seatpost as the most common option. According to the specs, you can get 38 mm forward shift out of it. Not quite the two inches you were looking for, but close. Pick up a slightly shorter stem and you'll be there.

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.