There have been a long line of suspension seatpost designs, some more successful than others. Things like the USE post had a following among mountain bikers in the early days, followed by the Thudbuster. More recently, there’ve been the Specialized CG-R and Canyon/Ergon VCLS (found on that wild new Canyon gravel bike) posts. Now, Redshift Sports is bouncing a new idea for taming the bumps with a tunable design.
What separates the new ShockStop Suspension Seatpost from others is both the angle and ability to tune it. Where telescoping posts can suffer from stiction because the angle of the bump and movement are not parallel, linkage driven designs or flexible seatposts can move the saddle. But, the former can be heavy, and the latter may not offer much travel. The ShockStop sits between the two and directs the forces the right way to get up to 35mm (1.38″) of travel.
The design lets you choose the spring rate and adjust preload. Co-founder Stephen Ahnert says this lets you set it anywhere from ultra plush with a good bit of sag, up to quite firm for more performance-oriented riding. The result is up to 60% reduction in impact forces and less vibration transmitted to you, so you feel fresher and less fatigued after a long day on the saddle.
It’s a four-bar linkage design, so the saddle stays at the same angle throughout the travel. Full specs are:
They’re promoting it for everything from road to commuter to e-bike to hardtail mountain bike, but we see this becoming most popular for gravel bikes and long distance events like the Dirty Kanza, etc.
Expected retail price is $199, and if you act quick you can nab one for $139 on Kickstarter. Redshift launched this on April 10 on Kickstarter, and by the morning of April 11 they’d almost tripled their ask and sold out several of the earlybird offers. So it’s fully funded, but there are still deals to be had. Check out the full campaign here.
