Home > Bike Types > Mountain Bike

Eliminate carbon damage and dropper binding with Engin Cycles seat collar – now aftermarket!

9 Comments
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More

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.

EnginCycles.com

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

9 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
i
i
4 years ago

$75+ for a seatpost clamp… welll I guess if you have that problem the price might seem reasonable. Still, $75 more than I’ve ever paid for one.

OriginalCim
OriginalCim
4 years ago

Backseat engineering here, but these look…. bad. The worst seatpost clamp I ever had was the Surly Constrictor, because the part of the clamp that the bolt threads into was long and rigid. If used on a seatpost that that was out of spec, the bolt would bind slightly when tightened, and I think this reduced the actual clamping force. I really had to over-tighten it to prevent the seatpost from slipping. This design looks very similar.

A much better solution is like Thomson uses, with a free-floating barrel nut fastener for the bolt to thread into. This ensures even clamping force and no binding of the bolt.

No way I’d consider this when I can get a Thomson (or other other brand with similar design) for half the price.

Eggs Benedict
Eggs Benedict
4 years ago
Reply to  OriginalCim

Salsa does the same thing with a free-floating barrel nut. That being said, not sure if they still make their clamps.

Joe
Joe
4 years ago
Reply to  OriginalCim

This is why they talk about the tolerances used being close. 5nm on the bolt and a close tolerance part won’t bend the bolt, assuming your frame isn’t way off intended OD..

Gofasta
Gofasta
4 years ago
Reply to  OriginalCim

OriginalSim, this is simply a case where you commented before you read the article. This seat collar is designed to do a very specific job and do it well. It is made to apply low pressure over a large area. In doing that it will hold dropper posts securely without inhibiting their ability to work. Comparing it to a Surly clamp is silly. The surly clamp was designed to fix a known issue is Surly frames where the seat tube bore was too large (the actual reason you probably needed to “overtighten it”). The constrictor was made to bend everything to its will. By contrast this seat collar is designed to not crush anything it touches. If you need to tighten it to the point where the bolts bend the tolerance on your frame or post is way off. Also, the surface area of this collar is twice that of the Salsa liploc and probably 4x the Thompson collar (again, it is made to apply low force over a large area). Finally, if you aren’t experiencing the problem of your dropper post slipping due to too little clamping force, or binding due to too much, kudos to you! For the heaps of people out there who are experiencing those issues, this is the first product I have seen that specifically goes to solve the problem. All in all, it looks like Engin is going out of their way to design a product to help people, they don’t deserve to be crapped on by you.

Victor U.
Victor U.
4 years ago

Hmmm, similar clamps were around eBay for years, I got one on a bike. Double bolt, with one part clamping around frame collar and another part securing seat post itself. Mine has a little rubber insert on the inside of the top part for extra friction. Look for “double seatpost clamp”, some will come up. The finish is pretty basic though, and no fancy colors.

Joe
Joe
4 years ago
Reply to  Victor U.

This isn’t the same design though.

Colin M
Colin M
4 years ago

PVD huh? Does that mean it is MTBR approved?

Mike
Mike
4 years ago

Just to cut through the marketing, if it doesn’t deform the seat tube, how does it hold the post up?

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.