Thompson Elite "Tuned"

[djconnel]

Okay -- you guys convinced me. I'm in on this, too. I feel better about this with the Becker/Tune Concord than my kludged KCNC. Although I just got a KCNC post today from my favorite jewelry store, Bike Nüt to use with my SLR, to spare the Becker from daily use.

[icolquhoun]

I just performed the same process as the OP (rebizap) on a 31.6mm elite post two days ago. However, I left a marginal amount of material in the center of the lower "craddle" to prevent junk from going down the seatpost into the BB area of my supersix I'm taking about .020" thick piece using a 3/8" Ball end mill and countouring it using a CNC machine with a program I wrote for it.
Before 194g
After 142g still using the steel bolts/washers/barrel nuts

Ordering up some Ti hardware today for it, hoping to get it down to about 135ish

Total time spent was about 1 hour, with most of that being drawing a surface and coding/inputing the program into the machine just for that center lower craddle. The rest was all done by hand on a conventional vertical milling machine and lathe.

As for length of the post, I cut about 1.25" off, so that the part number and all engraved text is still on the post. I know I could cut it down further, as there is about 5" of post in the seat-tube of the bike. If I cut that down further, switched to Ti bolts and trimmed the excess off the front bolt, I think I'd be at around 120g easily. For the cost of the Ti bolts, or about $20. That's light enough for me, and the strength of the post really hasn't been compromised in any way.

Tuning my 27.2 post today, I'll see what I come up with.

[BmanX]

Oh you want tuning well I will give you Thomson tuning.

Stock upper and lower cradle 50g
Stock bolts 22g

Carbon upper and lower cradle 24g
Ti bolts 12g - will order these from Toronto Cycles in the next week.

Original weight of the Thomson modified post for ISP will be 130 and then I will lower that by another 36g so that finished weight will be around 94g or maybe lighter with the ti bolt coming.

Thomson seatpost head (currently at 130g, I have a ti bolt coming for the wedge, then you have the carbon craddle for it - interestingly my external caps are lighter, even though made of steel, coming in just over 100g generally)

[icolquhoun]

BmanX, yeah, i saw that in your build thread
very cool idea
I like!

[Jersland]

Can someone post the grams lost to $ spent? Im interested in going a similar route with ti hardware and carbon cradles. Just wondering what was spent to grams lost.

Thanks
Justin

[rallyator]

Can anyone measure the distance (in mm) between the bolts on a Thomson cradle?. Tks.

[bm0p700f]

I cut my 26.8mm Elite down and it went from 230g to 180g. With Ti hardware which I now have that another 8g lost. I intend to try and modify the clamp to loose some more. If I can get it don to 165g I will be pleased.

[BmanX]

Email Berk and get the carbon cradle and cap. As youc an see from the posts above the weight savings is great.

[quattrings]

I don't think Berk makes thomson cradles.
Smud carbon used to make em, but not anymore.

Wish I could get a set because I finally got my hands on a masterpiece for under a hundred euros and don't wanna take the dremel to it. But I will if I have to

[BmanX]

Maybe I was thinking Smud but I can't remember where I got my two sets.

Did he had a symbol with three little white squares?

[1415chris]

There's no point of making the original clamp in full carbon version any more.
Smud's cradle is what you need to make your Thompson a light seatpost.

http://forums.mtbr.com/7216449-post6.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mca56]

"There's no point of making the original clamp in full carbon version any more.
Smud's cradle is what you need to make your Thompson a light seatpost.

http://forums.mtbr.com/7216449-post6.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"

Which yokes would you recommend in combination with the Smud lower carbon cradle for a Thomson Masterpiece post? I've got a set of titanium bolts...believe they are M5? (I can see that the no-longer-available carbon upper clamp is overkill.). The only aftermarket M5 yokes I'm seeing are POP from Fairwheel, and they are out of stock. Any suggestions?

[1415chris]

These ones on the picture are made by Mack http://www.mackhubs.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; but as far as I'm concern he doesn't make them anymore.
I was thinking about POP yokes at one point , they are slightly lighter than Mac ones.
Try contact POP guys directly info@ceetec.ch
Their yokes come in M5 12g and M6 13g. Also you've got another yokes from KCNC M6 12g and I suppose you could find few others.
But those rounded ones will be better for Thompson clamp.

All mentioned above in stock http://r2-bike.com/navi.php?suchausdruc ... 0ff69f47e8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tom-s]

I'm looking for replacement washers for my Thomson SB post.
What i got this far:
Thomson Masterpiece post
Titan M5 bolts black that fit the std washers
And on order a Smud carbon Cradle and POP yokes in black.

Now i only need the washers in black and lighter. I can find them in titanium color. Original ones are steel and weight in at 1.3 gr/set.
Where can i find black, alloy/ti washers for thomson posts?

[1415chris]

I use Pro Bolt alu drilled washers.