Ritchey WCS Road Seatpost

Price Paid:  $35.00 at Tempe Bicycle

Favorite Ride:
Any

Bike Setup:
blah blah

Summary:
The clamp is useless. The seat slides back constantly. A seatpost is supposed to do one thing, hold the seat in place, and it fails miserably at that. I bought it because I already had Ritchey WCS stem that I got from a friend. When I saw this seatpost on the wall at my LBS I bought it to have a matching set.

PS - I also happen to have a WCS mountain seatpost on my cross bike. I have no complaints about it. It's great.

Strengths:
Very light.

Weaknesses:
Slips constantly.

Similar Products Used:
Ritchey WCS mountain post. That thing is great.

Price Paid:  $70.00 at Bike Builders

Favorite Ride:
Mt. Lemmon

Bike Setup:
Custom steel with basic stuff

Summary:
Difficult to adjust especially while out riding. The tilt likes to move as your tightening the bolts. The seat will move.
The one bolt stripped on me while I was 45 miles from home and I had to cut the ride short and head back, the seat post sucks and it let me down.
I'll make an attempt to have Ritchey replace the aluminum top, if not I'll buy either a FSA, Campy or Easton...I need the 23-25mm of setback. I so wish Thomson had more setback.

Strengths:
Not a one.

Weaknesses:
Steel bolt screwed into an aluminum carrier. Seat tilts on it's own even when torqued to spec.

Similar Products Used:
Lemond, Thomson, Bontrager

Price Paid:  $0.00 at Van Dessel Factory

Favorite Ride:
Any - esp 'cross

Bike Setup:
Van Dessel Gin and Trombones, Campy Centaur, FSA crank, Ventos, Thomson post (now), Ritchey WCS stem

Summary:
Identical findings to others who had seat slip backwards at recommended torque and greater. It persisted after I read the review here from the 100 grit sandpaper guy and tried that. (Modern, well-engineered bike components, especially something as simple as a post, shouldn't need to be hacked to work.)Not particularly light, clamp mechanism is simplistic and needs some sort of friction (textured surface or ridges) at interface of lower clamp and post. Overall not as good as a $10.00 Kalloy post. Irony is that I upgraded to this with out of pocket cash when team bike would have come with FSA post which would probably have been fine for free. Might be competent as a road post but definitely not for 'cross, MTB, rough roads or big guys.

Strengths:
Not really any

Weaknesses:
Cheap, generic, rebadged, poorly engineered

Similar Products Used:
Every other post I've ever had has worked fine - from OEM cheapos to cheap Kalloys to Campy Record Ti. Favorites and current choices are Thomson (Masterpiece on road, Elite on 'cross bike now) - beautiful, light, superbly engineered.

Price Paid:  $60.00 at Probikekit.com

Favorite Ride:
When there's fresh air

Bike Setup:
Bianchi Via Nirone Alu frame with Selle Italia SLR XP saddle.

Summary:
Nicely manufactured product. No problems with installation nor usage. Definitely haven't come across any of the slippage issues some have reported. The bolts were all hand tightened with baby allen keys, so no extrodinary torques used.

Strengths:
Construction and appearance.

Weaknesses:
None noted. Although I'd expect the decals to rub off eventually.

Similar Products Used:
Bianchi seat post that came with the bike.

Price Paid:  $43.00 at Sale at Pricepoint

Summary:
Rather than whine and moan, did anyone ever think to use some 100 grit sandpaper to rough-up the surface that clamps to the rails ?? This solution has been used by road bike riders for, hmmm, about 50 years, and it always works ...