Moisture

Having the opportunity to have tested both a fair amount, I thought I should put together a review on these two pieces of equipment for those of you who may be interested in buying a shock absorbing seatpost, or may have never even heard of these in the first place. I weigh about 225LB, and while that's not on the extreme side, its certainly enough to bend a rear wheel rather easily in the city. This was the main reason which motivated me to try one of these out. Obviously, the smooth ride quality will be nice, so I figured, why not?

Overall, what they both have in common, is that they make riding my bike far more enjoyable. You can feel the suspension working even as you go over the tiniest imperfections. They do a good job at removing the majority of shock from major bumps, without feeling bouncy for the most part. It's a very natural feel. Both feel very well made. Ultimately, if you are a heavier rider, you will want to go for the Satori. Anyone 190LB or less will be better off with the Suntour. More on this below..:

Satori Animaris:
- Comes with built in protective rubber cover (Suntour has a neoprene sleeve sold separately)
- Mechanism does not require regular oiling/servicing
- You can easily make spring preload adjustments (by tightening an allen hex bolt) Without needing to take the seatpost out of your bike
- The stock spring is better suited to 200LB+ riders. It bounced around far less and was better behaved over bumps under my weight.
- Makes up for less suspension travel by having a nice, soft bump stop at the bottom, whenever you do max out the suspension travel


SR Suntour SP12 NCX:

- Offers an extra CM of suspension travel
- A little bit heavier
- You need to take the seatpost out of your bike to make any preload adjustments. Not so convenient if your seattube does not have a quick release lever, or you regularly carry a backpack and wish to make on the fly spring tension adjustments.
- The stock spring is better suited for the majority of typical rider weights (They claim 140-180LB, i'd say the spring is better suited for the upper end of that range)

So, while the extra CM of travel definitely helped, and the spring does more or less work fine even if you are noticeably heavier than 180LB. However, I do find that it bounces around a little bit too much and tends to bottom out fairly easily. But for the most part it still works fantastic. Whereas I used to cautiously slow down for every single bump and try to approach bumps at a more gentle angle, I can now go full speed into every single obstacle, simply lift up the front of my bike, and let the seat post deal with the impact dealt to the rear rim.

shelbyfv

How does a suspension seatpost protect the rear wheel? Simple terms please, I have little mastery of physics.

Moisture

against impacts which may otherwise cause the wheel to bend.

biker128pedal

Does not reduce the static weight. Reduces the shock load. Think of it like if you took a brick and dropped it on your bare foot. May break a bone. Compare this to dropping the same brick on your foot but put a piece of say 2 inch thick soft rubber over your foot first. The rubber pad absorbs the impact. Will still hurt but not as bad. It’s also like standing over a pot hole. Your legs are the springs.

Ironfish653

It protects your butt from feeling whatever you’re banging your rear wheel into.

Learn how to get your shift your weight off the saddle and use your legs to “ride light”. Works for riders of almost any weight, and can be moved from bike to bike without tools.

veganbikes

I would recommend going for the Kinekt seatpost it is probably the finest of the isolation based seatposts.

If you are on the larger side:
https://cirruscycles.com/products/kinekt-2-1-xl2

Sure other stuff is cheaper but having two springs and adjustable preload is really nice and having something for heavier riders is handy. Also the carbon option for the lighter ones is great.

The SRs seatpost does not allow you to cut it down, not sure about the Satori but that would be a deal breaker for me if I was a shorter rider or needed to cut down my post for other reasons.

Moisture

Very well said. However, if were talking about bumps which are so bad, that they may bend the seatpost and cause pain to the rider, a few CM of suspension travel really isn't going to do much over bumps this extreme. At any rate, somebody 220lb or heavier will severely bend the rear rim (as well as the rails in the saddle, actively using them as suspension as well.) So in that case, if you still require to pass such terrain on your bike, you'd probably need a legit full suspension mountain bike, or some very strong rims at the very least.

On the plus side, the Satori has such a plush bump stop once the spring reaches its maximum travel, that i must admit it works fantastic over anything but the very worst of terrain.

As for the Suntour, the 5cm of travel works so well, that my bike essentially feels like a full suspension bike while still allowing the stiffness of the hardtail frame itself to shine during stints of hard pedaling. Its an ideal tradeoff.

Moisture

Thats an important skill to familiarize yourself with at any rate, especially on the trails. But riding around town, especially on a frame which promotes pedalling in the comfortable saddle you have mounted, makes more sense for me to just lift the front axle up like a half added bunny hop and let the seatpost deal with the impact about to be dealt to the rear rim. It makes things much faster versus the way i must approach rim bending bumps without any suspension.
Both the satori and suntour have adjustable preload. This kinect one looks nice, but it's almost twice as expensive. Im interested in seeing it compared to the cane creek thudbuster.

The kinect is lighter, even the aluminum one. But it has less overall travel.

I don't see why you'd need to cut your seat post. Only problem I see is using these seatposts on a frame which is large enough to negate the need for raising your seat up. In that case you're SOL because the suspension part needs about 5-6cm of space between the saddke and top of the seat tube.

veganbikes

Yes but the Adjustable preload for the SRs post is at the bottom of the post. Working in the industry and have a lot of short people come in the shop cutting down a post can be quite handy. Some bikes come with a longer post or we tend to buy the posts in the longer length because they don't cost more and it is one less SKU to carry.

Thudbuster is elastomer based so it is OK but honestly not worth it and I love Cane Creek and am a big supporter and user of their products!

Kinekt does cost more initially but is a higher quality post with replaceable springs and pretty solid design. In the 200+ Kinekts I have sold I have only needed to warranty one (and really it was a customer destroying it themselves but it was new). There will generally always be cheaper stuff but I want something with quality and good design. Also it shouldn't look too horrid.

If I need more travel I probably want a full suspension mountain bike but to tame rough streets and paths the Kinekt is the finest. Truthfully I didn't like it when I first saw it but when I first rode the gen2 version I was sold in one test ride, I was slamming into potholes at high speed and it was taking them like a champ.

Moisture

I think the Satori is overall the best, value included

veganbikes

I haven't tried it but it looks pretty hideous not that any of the others look great but that one is aesthetically displeasing. It also looks like springs are not replaceable so my guess it is for one smaller range of riders and others will have something really bouncy or really hard (even with adjustment).

But yeah it is certainly cheap so if price is the decider this is probably the one to go for.

Danhedonia

Until recently I weighed a little over 220 lbs. I rode several thousand miles a year on lightweight carbon-framed road bikes, and never had any wheel damage. I guess I'm just lucky, but I also am unable to figure out how people don't see potholes; I just don't have too many jarring events on a bike. I don't think I'm going to a 12-spoke wheelset any time soon, but are today's materials really unable to easily handle riders over 200 lbs? Hard to imagine. I'm far from the heaviest person on 'nice' bikes in my community.

Are all of these MAMILs keeping the wheelmakers of the world in business?

Ironfish653

Looking too close to the front wheel. Most people haven’t learned to look more than a few bike lengths ahead of the front wheel. That might give you enough time to swerve the front wheel, but the back wheel ends up hitting the hazard anyway.
I rode BMX in the 80s, XC in the 90s and had a big piece of my adult life with a motorcycle as my primary vehicle. You learn to look way up the road for hazards, so you have the most time to adjust for them, with the least amount of input ( which can be important at highway speeds)

Also a lot of riders are accustomed to leaving their full weight dead on the saddle, so when they do hit that hazard, the rear wheel takes the full impact. Suspension seatposts only reinforce this practice. They’re good for reducing road noise, but not hitting bumps.

Learning how to use your legs to actively support your weight is one of the fundamental concepts that underpins even the most basic active bike handling skills.

BikeLite

Looks like it has been ?upgraded. It's more than double the weight of the cane creek eeSilk but less than half the price ; ).
https://www.satoribike.com/pro.php?m...03&cid=16&f=14

Moisture

yes, you can replace the spring. It looks very functional on your bike, and it IS very functional, so o can't say I've ever looked at it from an esthetic perspective.

Do you ride over smooth roads? For me, its mainly those little curbs for going on and off sidewalks that bent wheels in the past. Plus, our roads are all around horrifying. Not much will bend your wheel if you just ride on mostly smooth pacement.

Danhedonia

I ride roads that have cracks, potholes, and (biggest issue here) a LOT of debris if there is a bike lane. I am always picking my line well in advance, and while I'm not Peter Sagan, I can steer between pebbles. I don't think that's exceptional - doesn't everyone do this?

Moisture I have bunny-hopped a small curb, but never ride over them? I am not being smarmy - I see lots of riders who seem just like me: they avoid road hazards; don't ride over curbs. I have some ride partners but avoid group rides and purposefully try to ride alone a lot, and so: I guess I'm surprised by the idea of intense shocks for road bikes.

But I also feel (and it's just a guess, I haven't done any scientific investigation) that wheels have to be experiencing improvement parallel to the improvements elsewhere - I am more familiar with climbing gear until about five years ago, and there is no comparison between late 80's gear and gear from 2010. Lighter, stronger, better-engineered. Aren't bike wheels stronger, better, now?

cubewheels Is this rainy, pothole-filled MTB route the same one that gave you cause to tell me what I don't understand about riding a road bike in a desert, half a world away, last week? Trying to picture where you ride: a fascinating world of deserts, puddles, dunes and potholes, road bikes that become MTB's ... do you have a YouTube channel?

Moisture

You still seem to be having trouble with the concept of thread participation.

Clyde1820

Many of us have crappy, pothole-laden roads around where we live. Often riding in darker times of the day, at least partly. Often riding in inclement weather, at least some of the year. Can make for catching visuals of all impediments and nasties on the roads difficult, at times.

Now, on daylight rides with little to no traffic, where my attention is on the clearly-visible segment of the road before me, it's almost always easy to pick a way around a minor impediment, bad seam, pothole, whatever. Just not so simple to do, when the conditions are otherwise. At least, not around here with the many, um, less-than-well-tended road surfaces I get to deal with.

Moisture

You still are failing as far as contribution is concerned. In fact, you're doing the opposite.

Ironfish653

It also has a lot to do with technique. I also weigh more than 200#. I routinely go up and down curbs, but on 28mm and 32mm tires.
I’ve even been known to trail ride the 32mm 70s vintage ‘path-bike’ and not bent rims.
It helps to get your butt off the saddle and actively support your weight during moves like that. Your suspension seat might make your backside feel better, but it’s not doing your bike any favors. There’s an art to being a big guy who rides hard, and doesn’t beat up his gear.

My last bent MTB rim involved a high-speed off-course excursion and a couple trees.

Of course, cheap bikes have notoriously flimsy wheels, and if that’s what you’re used to, then I can see how that’s what you’d expect.

Thomas15

I'm holding out for a review of cheap sunglasses.

Oh yeah!

Danhedonia

ZZ Top is always a good idea in a thread.

tallbikeman

Veganbikes the Kinekt 2.1 seatpost looks like the real deal for us bigger Clydes. Thanks for the tip.

Moisture

Thought I would make an update on my Suntour seatpost since you've bumped this thread.

Seems like the neoprene cover doesn't do much in terms of preventing dust and grit from getting into the workings of the seatpost. Now it feels... crunchy. Not too noticeable with your body weight situated over the seat, but it seems to be getting worse. I am not impressed.

I would recommend the Satori because its built in rubber cover is tight and works extremely well in adverse riding conditions over the long term.

tallbikeman

Moisture I have tried several brands of suspension seatposts. I always tried the post in a tube type with either a spring or elastomeric pads or something. I never was pleased with any of them. The biggest problem was I was always just at the upper limit of their weight capacity. They tended to have what I would call stiction issues after a while due to wearing parts I think. I never tried the Thudbuster or the Kinect which looks much more capable than the tube in the stem type. But I have no experience with them so that is conjecture. One stem in tube suspension seatpost I bought was around $200.00 at the time and it didn't work that much better than the cheap ones. I would try the linkage type of seatpost next if I were to go back to a suspension seatposts. Despite my reservations I kept using my suspension seatposts, even the cheap ones were better than none when off roading but haven't used one in 10 years or so now. I gave up suspension seatposts and went to Brooks B67 spring saddles and they worked well for what I needed. Gravel/Dirt roads and the like. I may be back in the market for a sprung seatpost in the near future though. Thanks for your advice on the Satori post.