----- Original Message -----
From: "David Bilenkey" <dbilenkey@sympatico.ca>
>
> I have what I think is an older one of these. Can anyone fill in the
details
> on the history of these posts?
>
> A Google search led me to this:
> http://www.bikepro.com/
>
> And interestingly the one I have doesn't have this type of section for the
> main portion of the post, and it seems to have a red plug in the top. Does
> this tell us anything about age?
>
Yes. If it's original, I think the posts that had that red plug were of the original design. They were bored from a solid bar, and had stamped (gray, I think) cradle plates. The plug just kept water out of the seat tube. These might just slip in under the CR timeline; I think Bill incorporated American Classic in 1981, though might have made posts earlier than that.
Later the posts were made from an extrusion, but still the tube ID was round. Also went to the black cradle plate, also made from an extrusion. There may have been an alloy change, too. I'd say late 80's, but can't be more specific. Also had a black plastic plug that fit better.
Then the extrusion was changed to the reinforced design shown in the BikePro cat. Probably early 90's. For a while these still used a black plastic plug (with flats to match the extrusion), then changed to an aluminum plug. The cradle plate was trimmed down about 1995. The entire post design was changed again in the late 90's and is now produced overseas.
From: <Wdgadd@aol.com>
> I think American Classic was started by Alan Kingsbury and Gary(?)
Shook,
> I have a American Classic style post that is marked
> Kingsbury, bought around '86 or so; apparently a schism?
>
Not the same product. Kingsbury had a distributorship, and he sold AC products. There were some unscrupulous dealings, and several products (hubs, skewers, seatposts, among others) were sold marked as Kingsbury, but they were copied from AC products, sometimes even sold in AC packaging. I believe any of this product will be pre-1989. This stuff is mostly junk and you'd be better off getting ride of it.
Jon Schaer
Columbus, OH