Territorial Pissings

In light of getting a post up before the crack of dusk, the FAQ has been postponed. Not to mention the way it was working out a lot of it was gonna be about me, and who cares about me? I sure don't. For now, let's talk about this éclat Pivotal/railed adaptor instead:


Most other sites already posted about this thing last week when the mass e-mail went out (which is posted verbatim on their blog anyway), but I wanted to wait. Mainly because I wanted to know just a little bit more about how it works. Not that something that uses one bolt can be really complicated, but hey, I'm old and easily confused. They'd even provided a handy diagram:

But that wasn't enough. Brian Tunney, the éclat TM, was kind enough to pass my questions on to the designer, Andy Cheney. Not that I had many:

Question: Will the post need to be modified? Pivotal posts are threaded, are they not? Wouldn't that threading have to be removed? Or is the bolt just smaller in diameter? (That seems logical).

Answer: No, you’re right – no modification to the post, we use an M8 bolt (I think M8, without going back to check CAD), that bolts up from the underside. Goes straight through the pivotal post thread into a threaded cr-mo cradle nut on top of upper clamp plate.

Question: And I'm guessing you couldn't use this setup on a long, OG-style Pivotal post unless you have a REALLY long allen wrench.

Answer: Yeah in that case you’d need a reeeeally long allen key. Let’s hope we don’t see pivotal snake posts - that could be a headache. At the end of the day there’s a big shift toward slammed pivotals, so everyone’s got tools for that case, and that’s really what this converter’s for. If you are running a 300mm pivotal things ain’t gonna be so easy, but it’s only a bolt. There are alternatives (using a hex head bolt and socket for example) that we’re looking at for production versions, but for the standard 135 and 75mm posts the hex cap screw works fine - check the pic with the converter mounted on a 75mm post.

To be honest, this is what I thought the Fly seatpost was going to be when I first saw pictures. I was disappointed when I found out it wasn't. And with the Gonzo-dicking of Pivotal seats reaching epidemic proportions, maybe railed seats aren't such a bad idea after all. At least the éclat adaptor doesn't require you to cut a big hole in your seat like the S&M one will. (If S&M were smart, which they are, they would offer a pre-cut version of their Thin seat that would a) work with their adaptor straight out of the box, and b) be lighter, OMG.) Hey, anything that offers more options can't be all bad.

There will be complaints, of course—that you can't slam a railed seat as low as a Pivotal, and that the serrated post doesn't let you microadjust your seat angle to the thousandth of an inch. Oh well, we all have to make sacrifices.

••••••••••••••••••••••

I was thinking the other day, how simple can you make your bike? How few bolts can you use to hold the whole thing together? (Excluding the spokes and hubs and stuff.) A wedge Pivotal post would take care of seat and post and clamp with one bolt (not that it's SPRFLS approved, mind you). An Elementary stem would do the same for the front end. That's two. (Whoops, compression bolt. Three.) Four for the wheels, two for the pedals. That's nine. Cranks were where I was unsure. I don't think there's a two-piece crank out there that allows for the use of a spline-drive sprocket. So I'm pretty sure you need two bolts there no matter what. So that's 11. Is that as low as you can go right now? Regardless, pretty impressive, given that a typical stem alone has six bolts. With the right parts, you could take your entire bike apart with a set of allen keys.

(I want to say a company—Bullseye, maybe—once made a hub where the axle was a nut and bolt, so loosening one side would loosen the entire thing. Anyone?)

••••••••••••••••••••••

Someone sent me the link to this photo off a different messageboard. It's the bathroom at Max Fish on Ludlow between Houston and Stanton. I put the sticker up (check the center of the lid), but didn't take the picture. Sums things up quite nicely.



P.S. Carlos Sastre, congrats.