Iwasgoodonce
Old School Grand Master
Here is my (tounge firmly in cheek) letter to USE. Those at the Cannock meet will remember the painful episode that led to this email.
Dear Sir,
Please could somebody explain the point of the Alien clamp? In all my years of mountain biking, (I started in 1986), one of the components I never had to worry about was the seatpost. I still have the original XTII (Kalloy?) Prestiege one on my oldest bike. It has outlasted a number of saddles with nothing more complicated than firmly tightening the single 5mm bolt once, when fitting a new saddle.
In my humble opinion the only time a component should change is when an improvement occurs. The Alien clamp is a pointless and dangerous leap backwards.
From three easy to assemble parts you now have five. One 5mm bolt has become two 2.5mm ones. 2.5mm? Whose idea was that? Whoever it was should be beaten firmly about his person with his product by at least ten irate bikers until he promises to retire and have nothing whatsoever to do with designing bike components ever again.
The last few rides I have been on have all been ruined by the clamp slipping and the nose of the saddle sticking up into the air at an angle of around 45 degrees. If the damned thing had stuck up any more I would have had to lube it! It is impossible to repair the thing on the trail as nobody this side of the Atlantic has a 2.5mm (or I'm guessing the Imperial equivilant) Allen key with them.
I am off now to try to find the five crappy components from where they were hurled up the garden when the stupid 2.5mm bolts slipped again and I took all the skin off my nuckles again!! Once found I will no dout fail again to do them tight or evenly enough and on the next ride I will once again end up with at least four inches of Selle Italia's finest thrust where it shouldn't be!
Again my question is why?
Sorry if it was you that designed it. Actually, no I'm not.
Dear Sir,
Please could somebody explain the point of the Alien clamp? In all my years of mountain biking, (I started in 1986), one of the components I never had to worry about was the seatpost. I still have the original XTII (Kalloy?) Prestiege one on my oldest bike. It has outlasted a number of saddles with nothing more complicated than firmly tightening the single 5mm bolt once, when fitting a new saddle.
In my humble opinion the only time a component should change is when an improvement occurs. The Alien clamp is a pointless and dangerous leap backwards.
From three easy to assemble parts you now have five. One 5mm bolt has become two 2.5mm ones. 2.5mm? Whose idea was that? Whoever it was should be beaten firmly about his person with his product by at least ten irate bikers until he promises to retire and have nothing whatsoever to do with designing bike components ever again.
The last few rides I have been on have all been ruined by the clamp slipping and the nose of the saddle sticking up into the air at an angle of around 45 degrees. If the damned thing had stuck up any more I would have had to lube it! It is impossible to repair the thing on the trail as nobody this side of the Atlantic has a 2.5mm (or I'm guessing the Imperial equivilant) Allen key with them.
I am off now to try to find the five crappy components from where they were hurled up the garden when the stupid 2.5mm bolts slipped again and I took all the skin off my nuckles again!! Once found I will no dout fail again to do them tight or evenly enough and on the next ride I will once again end up with at least four inches of Selle Italia's finest thrust where it shouldn't be!
Again my question is why?
Sorry if it was you that designed it. Actually, no I'm not.
