HELP!! IM STUCK IN SEATPOST HELL!!!!!

arii

HELLO ALL, CAN ANYONE PLEASE TELL ME IF MY BELOVED CARBON ROAD BIKE IS FECKED OR IS THERE ANY WAY ON EARTH THAT I CAN REMOVE A SEATPOST THAT IS JAMMED SOLID IN THE FRAME. IVE TRIED FOR TWO WEEKS TO FREE THIS BLOODY YOKE AND TRIED ALL OF SHELDON BROWNS VARIOUS METHODS AND NOT 1 OF THEM HAS MADE A DIFFRENCE. FOR THE RECORD THE TUBE SHATTERD TO BITS AND IS NOW STUCK INSIDE FRAME, WITH NO SADDLE ATTACHED.:mad::(

Raam

Ask a friendly bike shop to do it.

Wait, what? The tube is shattered?

Jumpy

How about a wooden dowel smeared in araldite or superglue? Just be careful you only stick it to the inside of the shattered post and not to the frame.

Morgan

Photo?

I assume this is a carbon seatpost in a carbon frame.

Is there any sestpost protruding from the frame?

kenmc

arii

HI RAAM THATS A FAIR COMMENT BUT THE SHOP I BOUGHT IT FROM SOLD IT THAT WAY AND WITH HINDSIGHT I SHOULD HAVE STEERED WELL AWAY. ANYWAY NOT MUCH I CAN DO ABOUT THAT NOW. ALSO I SHOULD HAVE TYPED SEAT POST SHATTERD NOT TUBE. NEW TO ALL THIS BIKE JARGON.:o:)

levitronix

cut it and drill it with a 25mm drill , the sides of the seat post will have lost they re strenght and you ll be able to get it out real easy

arii

sorry folks should have also said that its alu post in carbon frame, think the joins are re-inforced with alu as well. will try get a pic up later.

levitronix

you ll need to drill at a slow speed as well

Morgan

arii wrote: »

BUT THE SHOP I BOUGHT IT FROM SOLD IT THAT WAY

With a broken seatpost sticking out of it? ARE YOU MAD?

levitronix

the alu will be easyer to get out , the drill wont jump as much

arii

Morgan wrote: »

With a broken seatpost sticking out of it? ARE YOU MAD?

no morgan not with broken post, just seized. when i asked that the seat be raised i was told sure its grand for you. but me aching knees said otherwise! levitronix thanks for your in put and to all the rest of you guys. will try the drill trick when i can get me hands on 1. thanks again.;)

levitronix

you cant hand drill it, the drill will catch more than likely, you ll need a pillar drill

if you do hand drill it be carefull you , you could break your wrist very easy if you try to hold it if it catches

dave2pvd

You CAN NOT hand drill this. It needs to go to a good machine shop.

Here are some pics of a Ridley frame that needed a seatpostectomy at our shop:









It's a CF frame with (was) an aluminum seatpost. The seatpost was Thomson. Extremely high quality material; very strong and quite brittle.

We tried to unstick it using all the usual methods. Lots of penetrating oil was employed. 24hrs later, the seatpost was clamped in a lathe jaw to see if it could be unstuck. No such luck.

Fixturing a CF frame to a mill bed before drilling is tricky - that's why you need a good machine shop that will try to understand what they are up against before getting stuck in. You can just clamp the thing in a vise, afterall.

You can see the first bore was done using an oversized bit. This was to tidy up what the bandsaw left behind. After the boring operation, it was quite difficult to remove the remaining slivers of seatpost from the seat tube (last pic).

gav07

I had this issue a couple of years ago - alloy post stuck in carbon frame. I tried lots of things from putting the post in a bench vice with the frame up-side down and using the frame for leverage to leaving the frame upside-down overnight in the bath with the seat-tube filled with Coke! All with no success.

I resorted to cutting the top half of the seatpost off, leaving about an inch of the post proud of the frame. Then two nights with a hacksaw blade cutting the post lengthwise from the inside, periodically dangling a mini-maglite torch inside to check progress and make sure I wasn't eating into the carbon seat-tube. When it was cut through, I could curl it into itself a little with a pliers or vice-grips and pull out.

When you've done this once, you will never leave another post ungreased.

Straatvark

Follow the hacksaw method recommended by Johan Bornman on this forum:
http://www.thehubsa.co.za/forum/topic/32444-seatpost-fused-into-carbon-frame/page__hl__seized+seatpost

dave2pvd

That's a good approach. In fact after we reduced the Ridley's seatpost to less than 0.5mm, the hacksaw blade was used occasionally to help with the 'foil pulling'. Another piece of advice: buy a high quality long nose pliers. Extra-long nosed.

Last piece of advice: bring the whole stinking mess back to the shop you bought it from.

DKO

I too had this issue a few months back - carbon MTB frame with aluminium seat post welded into it. I tried a hacksaw blade held in a tool comprising two narrow plates bolted together with the balde between them that fitted down inside the tude - this kept the blade straight and allowed better application of force to the sides of the jammed seat post.
When I had made a couple of cuts in the seat post the thing still didnt shift - so I used a selection of files to file the post out - coarse ones initially and finer ones eventually - until the seat post walls were very thin - then I was able to practically peel them away from the carbon using a fine screw driver - nerve wracking stuff - but I managed to get the thing out - it took me probably 10 hours cumulative work! It was well welded.
The seatube did not escape completely unscathed, but it did not suffer the sort of damage I would be too worried about.

High Nellie

If there's a bit sticking out, you might be able to cobble a kind of 'draw-hammer' together. This is the opposite to a normal hammer - i.e. you hammer it out by pulling a weight against something that is attached to the post.
The 'hammer' effect also helps. With a carbon frame everything would need to be hand-held.
I did it successfully with a steel frame but it was a hell of a job.