「A customer contacted me saying their seatpost clamp was cracked and stuck fast to the frame, so it won't come out.」
and
they brought it in.
The seatpost clamp is loosened, but the seatpost won't budge an inch.
If I attached the saddle and twisted it by holding the saddle, it might come out,
but since the clamp is broken and the saddle won't attach, I can't do that either.
Hmm... they said when they brought it to another shop
「We might be able to drill a hole and do something about it, but since this isn't on a contingency basis, it'll be 5,000 yen just to start.」
Our shop has a tool called the "99% Win Rate Tool" that has a track record of pulling out
even extremely stubborn stuck seatposts—for 27.2mm or 31.6mm round seatposts.
Got it out! (cost: 1,000 yen)
It's a 31.8mm clamp stem with four M6 bolts (←important) with a 28.6mm long rod attached.
For a 31.6mm seatpost, it grips it directly (ignoring the 0.2mm difference),
but for 27.2mm, I use a downsizer that's split in two like a bamboo pole split lengthwise.
This downsizer tends to leave scuff marks where it grips, but doesn't slip much—
there's an aluminum version and a plastic version with opposite properties,
and since this one is disposable, I used plastic because
the grip width was short.
I'm only using two bolts on the clamp, but since this wasn't a severe stuck case—just a potential one—
it came out with this.
Still, it was definitely impossible to pull the seatpost out by hand.
(If it came out that easily, the customer wouldn't have brought it to our shop.)
This Tni seatpost is lightweight for the price and I like it too,
but that's not the issue here.
The customer is someone who does a lot of brevets and attaches
very large-capacity saddlebags and such.
It's just picked up rust from the steel frame—it's not the kind of rust from galvanic corrosion or natural anodizing,
so it hasn't actually seized.
↑This is a separate case, but with actual seizing,
white powder comes out whether the seatpost is aluminum or carbon.
That said, this one wasn't seized either—it came out when I twisted it by holding the saddle.
It may have helped that the length inserted into the frame was short.
Even through incredibly stubborn seizures, the 99% Win Rate Tool keeps
getting upgraded year after year.
The current stem is DMR, but it used to be FSA not long ago.
It was once called the 100% Win Rate Tool, but
there was a bamboo frame seizure that was impossible to handle,
and forcing it risked splitting the seat tube, so I gave up.
It became a DMR stem because
there was a seizure on a Brüno folder that just wouldn't come out,
and at that time it was called the 98% Win Rate Tool,
but after switching to a DMR stem and applying a certain modification to the stem,
after the customer had to come back about three times, I finally succeeded in removing it,
and it was reborn as the 99% Win Rate Tool.
As for the bamboo frame in question, the frame builder managed to handle it themselves,
so there's no longer a chance for it to make a comeback as the 100% Win Rate Tool.
and
they brought it in.
The seatpost clamp is loosened, but the seatpost won't budge an inch.
If I attached the saddle and twisted it by holding the saddle, it might come out,
but since the clamp is broken and the saddle won't attach, I can't do that either.
Hmm... they said when they brought it to another shop
「We might be able to drill a hole and do something about it, but since this isn't on a contingency basis, it'll be 5,000 yen just to start.」
Our shop has a tool called the "99% Win Rate Tool" that has a track record of pulling out
even extremely stubborn stuck seatposts—for 27.2mm or 31.6mm round seatposts.
Got it out! (cost: 1,000 yen)
It's a 31.8mm clamp stem with four M6 bolts (←important) with a 28.6mm long rod attached.
For a 31.6mm seatpost, it grips it directly (ignoring the 0.2mm difference),
but for 27.2mm, I use a downsizer that's split in two like a bamboo pole split lengthwise.
This downsizer tends to leave scuff marks where it grips, but doesn't slip much—
there's an aluminum version and a plastic version with opposite properties,
and since this one is disposable, I used plastic because
the grip width was short.
I'm only using two bolts on the clamp, but since this wasn't a severe stuck case—just a potential one—
it came out with this.
Still, it was definitely impossible to pull the seatpost out by hand.
(If it came out that easily, the customer wouldn't have brought it to our shop.)
This Tni seatpost is lightweight for the price and I like it too,
but that's not the issue here.
The customer is someone who does a lot of brevets and attaches
very large-capacity saddlebags and such.
It's just picked up rust from the steel frame—it's not the kind of rust from galvanic corrosion or natural anodizing,
so it hasn't actually seized.
↑This is a separate case, but with actual seizing,
white powder comes out whether the seatpost is aluminum or carbon.
That said, this one wasn't seized either—it came out when I twisted it by holding the saddle.
It may have helped that the length inserted into the frame was short.
Even through incredibly stubborn seizures, the 99% Win Rate Tool keeps
getting upgraded year after year.
The current stem is DMR, but it used to be FSA not long ago.
It was once called the 100% Win Rate Tool, but
there was a bamboo frame seizure that was impossible to handle,
and forcing it risked splitting the seat tube, so I gave up.
It became a DMR stem because
there was a seizure on a Brüno folder that just wouldn't come out,
and at that time it was called the 98% Win Rate Tool,
but after switching to a DMR stem and applying a certain modification to the stem,
after the customer had to come back about three times, I finally succeeded in removing it,
and it was reborn as the 99% Win Rate Tool.
As for the bamboo frame in question, the frame builder managed to handle it themselves,
so there's no longer a chance for it to make a comeback as the 100% Win Rate Tool.