[CR] Question Seized seat post

(Example: Events:Cirque du Cyclisme:2002)

From: "Ken Foster" <kenf3@me.com>
To: <bill@wbpnet.com>
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 11:26:59 +0100
Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR] Question Seized seat post


Hi Bill

As no-one else has tried to answer your question and if you didn't get it out over the weekend, I'll have a go and relate my recent experience though I'm still new to restoration so this club hammer and cold chisel method may wake up the more knowledgable!

I've just had the same problem with a Hill Special I recently bought. The bike did not have a saddle or any fittings, and the alloy seat post was, as you say, well stuck. I tried all the usual, release oil etc. with no success. I went to the local dump and bought an old Triumph Palm Beach for a couple of quid. This had an old horsehair saddle with a solid steel frame and the old type four piece fittings that bolt to a u clamp on the seat post all clamped together with a single bolt. I put this on the alloy stem, put the bike on the stand, and gave it a good whack with a rubber hammer - still no good.

So I then went all industrial and used a cold chisel and club hammer and tapping the steel frame of the sacrificial saddle it finally started to move. No damage to the frame, or the stem (other than the marks where the saddle attachment was bolted on) and even the horsehair saddle survived. The purists may scream but I had a look at Sheldon after I'd come up with the solution, and he, God bless him, talks about 'the old yellow BMX saddle in the basement' ,so if it was good enough for him....

btw anyone want a circa mid 1960s ladies Triumph Palm Beach, bit rusty but will ride, with a nice horsehair saddle;-)

Good luck Ken

Ken Foster
Eastbourne
kenf3@me.com