Looking at both the USE Alien carbon and Deda Black Stick carbon posts there isnt very much in weight difference. The USE at 270mm weighs 136g. The Deda at 290mm weighs 145g. Thats 5.03g/cm for the Use, and 4.99g/cm for the Deda!! I know there are other considerations such as set-back being better on Deda, and compatibility problems with different saddles for the USE. Question is if both were cut to the same length, say 220mm, would one be any heavier than the other ? The deda clamp is Mag Alloy and also as minimalist as the Use, so there probably wont be much in it. Anyone rich enough to have both at the same length?

well ..first off I must say the USE Alien I have showed up and weighed in at 132g .... but sticking with the weights you listed...

You can assume that the post part per cm would be lighter than the average g/cm you calculated since the clamp isn't involved..

the difference in length would be 2 cm... so the best you could possibly take off the deda would be 10g.... but i think that is really ambitious considering the clamp ALWAYS weighs significantly more than the post part... I would bet a nice nice dinner on the USE being lighter at the same length....

All that said...after looking at the clamp on the deda... and LIVING with the clamp on the USE... if i had it to do over again, i'd try the deda instead and live with a few extra grams.... that use clamp is a pain in the ____ (that is assuming the deda is close to the published weight)

Funny this as I had the same problem milling in my head a few weeks back, it ended up with me getting a Deda Blackstick mag, vwry nice post. Only one problem, it does not weight 145g, without the bolt it does. It has Ti bolt and looking at this thing some serious machining went into it. weighed it and Hmmmmmm....... 17g for a Ti bolt. Unbelievable. This might sound anal, but if you spend money because the manufacturers say that something weighs in at 145g then 162g just will not do. So I sold the post before using it. It was very nice and worth a look, and poshbikes had some replacement aluminium bolts made with a washer, save about 12g

As for USE, yes they make light seatposts, and I one at my bike on present, but they do not tell you that the bleeding shim weighs in at 26g (this varies for shim diameter) the one I weighed was for 27.2 frame. That just puts their post in the not so very lite category.

Seems that there is just no easy compromise on this, so I am having a combination done by Axel at ax-lightness, seat and post should be about 130g, now that is worth a smile

I've seen the seat/post combo your talking about but I am not so sure that it would be so comfortable ...too much compromise in function there? Looks a bit... or maybe ..if you know what I mean!! Good luck though, let us know how comfortable it is. PK

i know everybody says "just use the shim" with the alien posts... and "don't ask why"

well i need to ask why, because I didn't hear about it till after I got my post... and bought a 27.2 and put it in a trek carbon 27.2 hole, and it is working great so far (rough estimate about 3000 miles so far)

and yea.. that combo unit looks sorta to me.... way too painful lookin

Ye the combo on the first page looks a bit painfull but you can choose any seat. Will be getting the sprint which is nice and flat no grooves, juts lots of surface area to sit on, at the moment I am using bare carbon sell evolution 2, very comfy and the sprint looks the same. The Secret is that the Carbon is quite flexy so when you hit a bump it gets eased out a bit.

But will test ride the ax-ligthness and let all of you know how it goes.

But seats are very personal, so it might not be good to follow another persons advice. Ihave been riding bare carbon for about 2 years, and my butt is used to it by now

I have the Use post without the shim (didn't come with one). My seat tube is 27.2 so it fits the hole. The problem I'm having is the post is soft compared to other carbon I have and it's taken on the shape of the slot in my seat tube to the point of having a bulge on the inside of the post tube. I also had problems with the clamp not fitting larger dia. seat rails. I bought the " new " Campy seat post binder that offsets the seat tube slot, but the damage is allready done. I'll contact Use and see what they have to say.

Hi,

i use the AX Lightness Sprint and it does several things:
when the guys see it
when I see the guys
when u ride like a maniac and think u are actually sitting on a cloud
when u get down and notice: Hey, no pain ... ?

All in all: A M A Z I N G !!!

I would love to get the combo, just 500 euros are a bit too much to spend for me at the moment...