Now I'll happily admit that I may have got a dud one but this is my experience of the I850 Seatpost…
I'd had my eye on a gravity dropper for a while but was a little shocked by the price, then I heard about the Superstar Components I850 Seatpost, and for £60 I figured it was well worth a try.
Seatpost arrived and I gave it a go before fitting it onto my bike, it seemed rather stiff to move but I put this down to the fact I was doing it by hand rather than with all my weight sat on it. Fitted to bike and it now refused to budge at all.
Emailed Superstar and they came back with…
"Rather than sending it back which would just incur costs for us both you should service it"
Not the "we will send you a replacement" that I was expecting.
Anyway I followed the instructions they sent and regreased the thing, it then worked as well as when it first arrived i.e. stiff as hell to move but figured that after a couple of rides it may ease up a bit.
So my first ride with it I'm up in the Clwyds at the top of the first descent, pull the lever…nothing…it had jammed solid again, however I found that excessive swearing while angrily bouncing up and down on the thing that must have looked to passers by like I was trying to get my saddle up my arse managed to free it up a little and I got it to descend. It worked brilliantly for the whole descent then at the bottom I thought I would cycle it through it's up and down positions a few times to loosen it up, this required more bouncy swearing.
I didn't even bother trying it again until the last descent when no amount of bouncing would free it up again. Not impressed.
I didn't email Superstar back, after their last response I can't be fecked to deal with them, I just put it down to experience, plus I got the small satisfaction of throwing the thing down the garden, kicking it about a bit and then binning it. Buy shite buy twice as they say.
I now have a gravity dropper, it's superb.