Thursday, October 9, 2008

Uno Ocho Siete

Greetings and salutations. Let us join a product design already in progress—the Fly Uno seat/post combo:

Sure looks like a finished product, doesn't it? And except for the fact that it doesn't allow for much height adjustment—um, or angle adjustment, or front-to-back adjustment—it looks normal enough. It's clearly a bike seat and not just a placeholder.

That said, it's still not quite finished. Or it wasn't, anyway. Through testing, Fly recently discovered that the composite post was too pliant. Tightening the seatpost clamp just squished it. So, back to the drawing board, where they came up with this:


Ingenious! A slim aluminum core to stiffen everything up. Uno Cialis. In their words, "this tube increases the strength and also prevents the post from ovalizing when you tighten the seat clamp. It only ads 20 grs / 0.7 oz. to the seat but makes it much stronger."

Which makes one wonder, will further changes and refinements happen before release? Because I was just thinking, if you separated the seat from the post, and developed some sort of splined interface, you could actually make it possible to adjust the seat's angle. And it wouldn't add much weight at all—you could just thread that aluminum insert and use a hollow bolt to tighten everything down.

Whoa, I think I'm onto something. I'm going to go try and sketch this out. Anyone got the number to the patent office?

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19 comments:

Anonymous said...

breaking boundaries as always russ, good effort.

*wonders how many people won't get it*

Anonymous said...

loose the spline and make rails for the seat and then you would be able to move it horizontially as well ! amazing

you can have my idea for free, just make sure you credit me

Mexican John said...

that seat/post combo is awful, almost as bad as 2 Hip's splined bar/stem system!

wade said...

I still like my idea for aluminum adapters that allow riders to use a Mid BB in an American BB frame.

Anonymous said...

How about a seat with an integrated bike built into it? We wecome progress!

- bub

Anonymous said...

i might get one they look good and have a nice angle

Maxime Rousseau said...

KHE`s one piece named Loyal has a post made entirely out of aluminium, and chopped down to ride slam seated is supposed to weigh in at 0.3 pounds. Light enough for me... you can keep your silly plastic-wrapped seatpost, thank you very much. Plus, the actual seat part is much thinner and looks way better.

Anonymous said...

They should integrate hubs spokes and rims. maybe like 5 big spokes made out of plastic to save weight.

Anonymous said...

lol. One piece seat, post, and clamp, one piece bars & stem, mags, tires w/built in tubes, 2 piece cranks w/built in sprocket, pegs welded to the forks and frame....forks w built in race, mags.... Will Russ' new project bike be Operation: As few parts as possible?

Russ said...

I'm not gonna lie, I've thought about as few bolts as possible to assemble. If you use a one-piece seat/post (or a wedge post) that's one bolt there. One for an Elementary stem, the compression bolt, four on the wheels, two for the cranks (either three-piece with spline drive or two-piece with a sprocket bolt) and the two pedals. What's that, 11? Compare that to a "regular" bike from a couple years ago where a stem and a set of Primo cranks would use 13 bolts by themselves.

rob d: You might be onto something.

bk said...

don't forget the WTP thru-axle fork. down to 10.

Josh said...

The sarcasometer states that we have exceeded the maximum daily limit.

Josh said...

By the way Russ: where is my Animal Chin / Seat Post Clamp t-shirt. You can't toss ideas like that out there and not produce!

Anonymous said...

justin simpson!
that is a real bad ass video part

Anonymous said...

Look at this!

http://www.macneilbmx.com/blog/?p=1181

Apokalypse now!

Mexican John said...

Macneil "eliminating the a seat clamp, seat mast and any shred of dignity you once had."

At least they are honest!

Anonymous said...

Everyone is so worried about weight these days that it kills me. Why don't you try not eating fast food 6 times a week then you don't have to worry about plastic parts or frames with holes drilled in them. I'm no one to talk but Jesus Christ give it a break.

Anonymous said...

it has nothing to do with weight, kids don't give a shit about their seat angle, they don't give a shit where it sits on the rails, they just care about slamming it down and getting it out of the way... and if you can make it out of one piece and simple, why not?

Anonymous said...

Use the new Fly front hub, Tree spline drive sprocket and lose a couple more.