Suspension Seat Post for MTB? Does this make it Dual Suspension? What are Suspension Posts good for?

if you are a hardcore mountain biker it's a little warning for you i'm about to break a mountain biking taboo with a new addition to project comp v2 but it's here for a reason but first i need to make sure everyone knows where we're at this is the schwinn aluminum comp this is a walmart bike so if you're a new viewer here and you don't know i take walmart bikes i modify a lot of them and i ride some of them regularly on the mountain bike trail like this this is what i call project comp v2 done a lot to this bike basically about the only thing that's left of the factory bike is the frame maybe nope not even one of the stem spacers just the frame so that's project comp v2 based off of the schwinn aluminum comp i'll put a link down in the description to both this bike on the walmart website so you can see it in its factory form and also a link to my project comp v2 video so you can catch up there so what have i done to this that's going to make the bike bros the hardcore mountain bikers freak out well i added something right back here if you don't know that is not a dropper post that is a suspension seat post that's right on a mountain bike you don't see this often and i'm laughing here because it just is so bizarre to me because these suspension seat posts they've been around for a while the only place i'd seen them previously was on cruiser bikes and people that wanted more comfort than anything so why did i put this on my go-to mountain bike for this year so far a suspension seat post well that's because for this started i think with electric xp the electric xp one of the options is a suspension seat post so a lot of people buy that and if you follow the electric xp which by the way i have a link down in the description an affiliate link for electric now that you can click on if you're looking at one of their bikes maybe support the channel by clicking on that link the electric bikes they came out with electric xp 2.0 and it had a front suspension people were buying that seat post along with the front suspension and i saw this term start coming out they were calling it a dual suspension bike and that has apparently bled over into mountain biking now because i'm receiving fairly regular comments from people saying hey if i buy one of these and put it on a hardtail bike does that make it a full suspension mountain bike and that's what this video is about i want to address well a couple things number one does this even work on a mountain bike trail i've just ridden up i'm at the halfway point salvation bench does this work on a mountain bike is there any benefit to this on a mountain bike and also does that make this bike a full suspension let's tackle this being dual suspension on a mountain bike making it full suspension will technically mean if you have suspension anywhere on a bike so you have the front that's one if you have some other source of suspension that would be two so two is dual so technically yeah i guess you could call it that but in reality it's not there's a big difference between a suspension seat post and a full suspension mountain bike and i'll see if i can edit in a picture here of a full suspension mountain bike and there's more to it than just placement because a suspension seat post is designed for one thing to take strain off of the rider because on a hardtail or any bike any rattles from the back go straight up that seat tube straight into the seat post up through the saddle and straight into the rider's back that's what this is designed to help with because these aren't a lot of travel that is 40 millimeters on this particular zoom seat post i'll put a link to it down in the description this is the 27.2 diameter designed so that less vibration comes up through the seat and into you the rider as you're holding on to the handlebars that is a suspension seat post job and its only job how that differs from a full suspension bike if this bike had a shock right here and it had full suspension pivots like all back here like the mongoose salvo pro that i showed in my previous video that is not designed so much for rider comfort its main design is to have some flex and some swivel back here on the back and very loose use of some terms here but the main goal is keeping the rear wheel on the ground over rough terrain as much as possible it's all about wheel contact on a mountain bike that is not what a suspension seat post does in any way this rear tire on this hardtail the schwinn aluminum comp hardtail it's not going to have any more ground contact with the suspension seat post than it would without it because it's going to bounce if this were full suspension again it could pivot up when it came over rough terrain a rock a root whatever and flex a bit just like that front fork can flex in a hundred millimeters before it actually starts bouncing and that is why i made this video because i've seen so many people recently start calling this dual suspension and it's really not even though technically you can make the argument but a suspension seat post on a mountain bike does not make it a full suspension or dual suspension bike again i'll put a link down in the description to this seat post and by the way i don't know if you noticed here i'm sure you did that i got the anodized red you can buy these in black or silver so it would have black than the silver suspension part and the head here it could be either black silver there are some gold ones or this red and i bought this red because you know got a lot of anodized red stuff here on project comp v2 unfortunately and this doesn't show up on camera but that's not the normal anodized red it's kind of almost a purpley red if i didn't know it was there i wouldn't pay attention to it but i see it every time because i compare the first thing i did put it beside my other anodized parts which all match up pretty well and that is a little off but still not too bad i think i don't know comment below with what you think on that and what you think about suspension seat posts because i'm breaking this taboo here putting it on a mountain bike but i will have to say it actually does make this smoother there are some benefits because it does smooth out rolling over bumps i mean if you're riding a big box bike the hides are if you envision mountain biking you're standing on the pedals both pumping uphill and riding downhill but the reality is a lot of us ride seated at my morning ride i make about a three mile loop when i come out just to wake up and for starters i'm waking up so a lot of my riding is seated even over areas that probably should take some pressure off my back and stand on the pedals this comes in handy for that i'm i'm not gonna lie it actually does embarrassingly so and that's the good there is a trade-off on the negative side though that has to do with the pedals and the legs and the knees there's this thing called leg extension leg extension there's a specific angle i forget the actual degree but there's an angle that you're supposed to have at your knees you don't want too little or too much because that can put too much load or over extend the leg and create knee issues you see people pedaling and their knees are coming up to their elbows as they pedal that's not a good thing when it comes to cycling especially with mountain biking or road biking anyone putting a lot of stress on their legs the problem with the suspension seat post and that is that 40 millimeters changes basically the height of your saddle over the roughest of terrain where you're putting the most stress on your knees that is not good so i'll let you make the determination if it's a benefit or if it's not there's the taboo did i break it by putting a suspension seat post on a mountain bike honestly i don't think i've ever seen this on any mountain bike trail i've ever ridden i've ever came across someone with a suspension seat post on a mountain bike be it big box modified whatever i just haven't seen it so i'm sure the bike the hardcore mountain bikers would probably turn their nose up at this but honestly i don't care what people think i care about having fun on a bike doesn't bother me as a matter of fact someone commented the other day that if they saw anyone with colored petals or bright colors on their bike that's a bike noob well that's interesting because i have a trek mountain bike coming up that's a very bright color with some very bright accents so i don't know about that but you know you can't please everyone still though a suspension seat post on a mountain bike yeah that's probably breaking some taboo some mountain bike god is getting a little upset but really who cares if you enjoy it but just be careful if you decide to do this because yes it does smooth it out on the back but potentially at the expense of knees so there you go not dual suspension just a seat post a suspension seat post on a mountain bike in this case on the schwinn aluminum comp one thing though is for sure i'm gonna have a smoother ride back down the trail today i'll be able to stay seated because of the little suspension seat post and have a nice smooth easy ride back if there were ever one case where i kind of wish i had zoom brakes to match the zoom seat post i guess this might be it but not really i like my shimano brakes but comment below with what you think about suspension seat posts do they have their place well i know they do e-bikes they are great for especially like the electric xp but what do you think how would you react someone with some nice components on a mountain bike and then you see that a suspension seat post so comment below let me know thank you so much for watching kev central give this video a thumbs up if you found it informative and if you're new here i hope you subscribe and check out my other videos like how this went from stock schwinn cop to project comp project comp v2 thanks for watching kev central have a great day bonus footage if you spotted the mud on my pants and wonder where that came from that's because when i was setting up for this shot i decided i could start mid-hill on a route in high gear and just power my way up unfortunately that shadow that's someone about to go over the bars the only bonus it was in super slow motion so i was able to tuck and roll and hence the dirt just thought i would share

Channel: KevCentral

Views: 60,097

Keywords: Suspension Seat Post for MTB? Does this make it Dual Suspension? What are Suspension Posts good for?, zoom suspension seat post, zoom seat post, zoom bike suspension, convert hardtail to dual suspension, suspension post on a mountain bike, Walmart bike, wallmart bike, wal mart bike, wal-mart bike, Schwinn al comp, project comp v2, KevCentral aluminum comp, modified Walmart bike, upgraded Walmart bike, parts for Walmart bike, kevcentral, kev central, big box mtb, xp seat post

Id: RQ9_tM4GfRg

Length: 10min 53sec (653 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 04 2022