Seized up Seatpost

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Permalink Reply by Darren on July 4, 2009 at 7:37pm

Turn it upside down, and pour a can of Coke into either the bb shell or through a H20 bolt hole and let it sit overnight.

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Permalink Reply by andrew on July 5, 2009 at 2:10am

jj,

not sure what you tried...maybe you tried this already but an old bike shop trick is to put the seatpost in the bike stand with a very tight clamp, and use the whole length of the bike as leverage to unseize the seatpost/frame connection. and letting a little light oil seep into the gap might help as well. the fact that it moved a bit is promising - it's not totally bonded through corrosion.

good luck.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Miller on July 5, 2009 at 9:01pm

The upside down bike in the vice trick is a great one, but make sure you twist the bike gently -- it gives you a lot of leverage. I tried this once and ended up shearing the post (alloy) off flush with the top of the seat tube.

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Permalink Reply by ZenNMotion on July 6, 2009 at 9:31am

If you got it to budge then you should be able to get it out. The nice thing about Aluminum is thermal expansion. If you can heat it up it should loosen, as I don't think the Carbon post will expand also. If you have a heat gun or some creative way to heat the seat tube try that. Maybe even try just leaving it in your car on a hot sunny day, then put some body english into it right away before it cools- sit down on the ground with 1 foot on either side of the seatpost against your seat rails (maybe put on an old seat for this), grab the seat tube near the BB with your hands, and use those massive quads to push the seat/post out while the frame is still hot. And use anti-seize next time. I'm not sure if the can of coke, or household ammonia soak works with carbon posts- they dissolve Aluminum Oxide, but I'm not sure if that's the same chemistry as what welds carbon against aluminum. But you can try- can't hurt.

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