If you’re feeling blue due to carbon seatpost damage, or you just can’t seem to find the sweet spot where your dropper post won’t bind or slip, Engin Cycles has the medicine. Their seat collar has some unique features that are designed to never cause damage, and allow your dropper seat post to operate as intended – even under the heaviest of riders. It’s available in seven colors, and is the first ever aftermarket item sold by the boutique builder.
Engin Cycles aftermarket seat collar for carbon and dropper seat posts
Engin Cycles is known for their craftsmanship, beautiful bikes, and unique solutions to common problems. It should be no surprise, then, that they came up with an elegant, lightweight, and effective solution to an everyday issue.
If you’re not familiar with the problem of binding dropper posts, here’s the deal: If you over-tighten the seat collar, it can squeeze the dropper post to the point where the stanchion won’t slide well inside – sometimes so much so that it won’t return quickly… or at all. If you under-tighten it, the post itself will squirm down into the seat tube (as any seatpost would). So, the collar needs to be just tight enough to prevent slippage, but not so tight that it restricts or slows droppers from going up and down.
Engin’s design was developed with Peter Verdone, and has been in use for years on their own bikes. It uses a 25mm stack height to evenly distribute clamping force, and is machined to very tight tolerances. When tightened to 5Nm, it is claimed to hold without deforming the seat post or frame, regardless of rider size.
The fasteners are made from 6-2-4-2 titanium, helping to hit a low 29 gram weight. The bolt threads are formed in the part – not cut – adding to strength and quality. The collar is made for 34.9 seat tubes only, for up-to-31.6mm seat posts.
Need colors? They’ve got you covered.
The seat collars are available now, and will set you back $75 – $85, depending on color. While this is the only aftermarket part from the Philly-based manufacturer, they say that it’s the first of many to come.
