Does anyone have any experiences – are these worth it for enduro/marathon racing on a hardtail. After 6 years my bike is up for replacement later this year & I am trying to decide what to buy next – another FS or a Carbon hardtail.
Currently ride a Trek Fuel 100 (2003 v-brake model) which has been flawless and is just the right mix of cushioning/speed for me for a 5-8 hr race…but the speed demon in me is thinking about a nice light hardtail.

Any thoughts/advice? I read some comments online about the 'bobbing' effect of the posts doing someone's knees in over long days in the saddle…anyone ride long distances with a boingy post?

Thanks,
Dom

I have one on my ti HT & it does take the buzz off on longer rides & Ive never noticed any really detrimental bobbing effect.

The two 24 hrs I have done ( in my mediocre way) I used a thudbuster for comfort. 'Cos of the parallelogram in the thudbuster you don't get as much bob as with a telescopic design and I find it no bother.

I rode perhaps 12 out of the 24 hrs each time 80 odd miles at sits and 60 odd at the strathpuffer

i have used two seatposts the use sx and the cane creek thudbuster. The thudbuster was good but its weird and there is alot of movement (depends on elastomers). the use is good though and you get about 2" travel and easy to service. The thudbuster is about £120 ish and the use is about £60-£70.

I had a telescoping one on an old hardtail and found it useless. I think the problem is, even on a racing HT, the seat angle still isn't vertical so the telescoping ones are effectively pointing the wrong way (if that makes sense) the Thud buster designs look better

but tbh, my new carbon HT (Tranny) has blown me away with the saddle comfort, there's so much vertical give in the frame it almost feels like a softtail over cobbles there's no way I could imagine putting a sus seatpost on it, I'd go for fatter thin carcass tyres first (2.1 atm)

freegan…got any pics of the Tranny ?

i've got a thudbuster and its pretty damn good addition to a hardtail for longer distances.
you don't have the bobbing affecting you on these as the design of it causes the saddle to pivot around the bottom bracket

I had a USE alien suss post on my last Ti hardtail and liked it a lot.
As Repack says, it eliminates buzz and they can take the edge off some of the big hits.
However ,The micro adjuster rail clamp was rubbish (http://tinyurl.com/ybmzavw ) and it snapped off .

Gone for one of these this time round.
http://tinyurl.com/y987mc2
You get service kits for them and different spring weights.

Of course I am someone that rode a stem like this(http://tinyurl.com/y89t78v ) for years and thought it was high tec

takisawa2

forks now SIDs (didn't find the Nukeproofs nearly stiff enough for rigids)

If it was geared I'd swap the saddle for a railed one aswell, just for the extra give but singlespeeding the Ibeam one is fine and OMGWTF light