Pivotal Moment

There are currently 14 'different' Pivotal seatposts available on the Dan's Comp website (which I refuse to link to purely out of spite, so you'll have to take my word for it).

A full 10 of them are capable of being run slammed (including the one shown, a cute little 75mm vestigal feller from Federal that they absolutely should have named "The Angry Inch"), which means the other four are more or less obsolete. Anyone who runs their seat more than two inches from their toptube should probably be shot anyway.

They range in price from $16.99 (Poverty, of course) to a rather alarming $29.99 (United—which, seeing that it's exactly the same as the rest except for the logo, had better come packaged with a $5 bill). The difference between most of them appears to be just color and logos. The weights are the same. The lengths are the same. The designs are the same. It's likely that most of them come out of the same forge (except for the Poverty ones, which are made from the remains of broken Odyssey Intacs by chimpanzees).

I guess it's just amazing to me that companies are charging different prices for what amounts to the exact same thing. One 114mm, 3.5 ounce post is EXACTLY like the other. Unless, of course, you just HAVE to have it in "laser green," which means you're spending $25.99 on a Colony.

(And what's the point of getting a matching-color seatpost that you're only going to run slammed anyway? What, is the inside of your seat tube going to make fun of you? Is the new trend on Bikeguide going to be bike x-rays? "Man, look at that internal butting!" "Yo, my seatpost ends RIGHT AT the lower toptube weld, isn't that awesome?!")

I'd almost feel better if someone offered a Pivotal post in carbon or titanium. It would be stupid, but at least it would be original.