Specialized’s New Blacklite Command Post Drops 100g and Your Saddle

Specialized has dropped some weight from their Command Post adjustable height seatposts. Dubbed Blacklite, they lose 100g from the previous model, and they’ve got them in three different drop heights and 30.9 and 31.6 diameters.

The difference between Specialized’s posts and others are that they will drop into two preset positions, so you know where it is at all times. The posts are available with 125mm, 100mm or 75mm of total drop. From fully extended, the two tallest posts drop 35mm into what’s called Cruiser Position, letting you still put some power to the pedals but have a slightly lower center of gravity and maneuverability for technical sections. The smaller 75mm post drops 25mm. From there, all three will drop all the way (125, 100 and 75 millimeters respectively) so you can get your butt off the back for descending.

Cutaway photos and more details after the break…

The Command Post Blacklite comes in two forms, either with a pair of Specialized grips with the lever preinstalled (above) or without (below). The cable has an adjustment barrel inline for removing any slack from the line once set up.

If you’re not too picky about your grips, the pre-installed version makes for a pretty clean cockpit.

Installation is fairly straightforward. Run the cable housing into the stop below the lever, measure out about 17mm of cable, then tighten down the barrel (red piece). From there, the barrel slots into the actuation lever similar to how you’d do it on a set of cantilever brakes. No doubt having the inline barrel adjuster will help to get it dialed in.

The Command Post works by mechanically releasing a metal collet (shown below close up…it’s the round shiny part) that catches and sets into notches at the predefined spaces, visible above inside the lower shaft.

When you pull the lever on the remote, it pulls the central spring-loaded section up (which would be left in the image directly above), letting the collet squeeze slightly under your weight and fall to the next position downward. Pushing the remote lever when you’re not sitting on it lets the air pressure in the lower chamber push it upward.

The post uses a triple-lip wiper seal and dual keyed design to eliminate wiggle, and it gets a new all-bonded head to save weight. They also printed the torque on the clamp heads and reworked the design a bit to eliminate the accidental seat movement that occasionally occured on previous versions. The air return spring is adjustable via a bottom mounted schrader valve, so you can tweak how quickly and forcefully it returns to its starting position and, presumably, how much weight you need to have on it to drop it. Being fully mechanical, the system looks like it would be easy to rebuild, too.

Claimed weights are 501g, 531g and 547g (75mm / 100mm / 125mm respectively). The shorter one is clearly aimed at the XC crowd and those with smaller sized bikes.

We have two different sizes just in for review, so look for real world weights and performance evals in a couple months.