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Chinese carbon seatpost – 3TS copy of Canyon VCLS

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  • May 9, 2019 at 10:55 am #29632
    hawkinspeter

    I seem to have broken my FSA SL-K carbon seatpost recently and so have been looking at the Canyon VCLS shock absorbing ones as a replacement.

    However, they are quite expensive and I’ve seen the 3TS versions on FleaBay for £55 which seems cheap enough, so my question is does anyone have experience of 3TS carbon?

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  • May 10, 2019 at 11:14 am #941907
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    Anonymous

    This type of post (I mean

    This type of post (I mean post not post) comes up fairly often on various cycling forums and there are always the naysayers who say dont risk it its not worth it or I wouldnt.. yet how many instances have you heard of where ‘cheap’ chinese carbon has failed? Plenty of examples on tinternet where branded components have failed yet these arent usually mentioned.

    I personally cant comment on the 3TS stuff as Ive not used it, I have however got a FlyXII carbon frame which has stood up to some pretty rough rides without any issue and an eXotic carbon fork which Ive ridden on red trails aplenty.

    Trust your instinct, look in to the brand if it seems too good to be true dont do it. If it seems inexpensive because it avoids the middle man, marketing, brand hype, higher western wages, then go for it.

     

    May 9, 2019 at 10:11 pm #941905
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    Jimthebikeguy.com

    I had one of the 3ts knockoff
    I had one of the 3ts knockoff vcls things. Was ok, not as well made as the real thing, worked well as a cyclocross seatpost. The rear leafspring cracked last year, i binned it. Not sure if it was because it was a knockoff or because of the design; it broke at the stress point. I gave about 50 quid for it i think.

    May 9, 2019 at 8:52 pm #941903
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    Anonymous

    Specialized COBL GOBL R?

    Specialized COBL GOBL R?

    i picked up a couple of new Neil pryde carbon posts recently for a song, nice looking as they are fairly plain jane which is what I prefer.

    May 9, 2019 at 6:44 pm #941901
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    hawkinspeter

    Well, that was an intriguing

    Well, that was an intriguing ride on my old 25mm setback post (with only a small crack in it).

    After a couple of stops to adjust the seat angle (I generally have the saddle quite nose down), I cycled cautiously as the position was a bit different and the effective saddle height was probably a bit higher. However, it seemed as though my legs were a lot happier with the new position and I was going a lot quicker than usual without particularly trying to (though I did try dropping a cyclist along the A370 after sucking his wheel for a bit).

    However, just seen that the wind was 19mph from the west which might explain it.

    May 9, 2019 at 5:07 pm #941899
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    joeegg

       I have a VCLS seatpost on

       I have a VCLS seatpost on my Endurace. Doesn’t feel any more ” comfortable ” than my two other bikes. I think its more down to wheel/tyre/pressure choice. The DT wheels that came with the bike feel softer than the Fulcrum  3’s that i run it with.

    May 9, 2019 at 4:20 pm #941897
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    IanEdward

    Some discussion here:

    Some discussion here:

    https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ergon-canyon-leaf-spring-seat-posts-anyone-got-one/

    I’m currently more tempted by a cheap Ti post for the same price, hoping either will be better than stock 1cm wall-thickness aluminium post!

    May 9, 2019 at 3:32 pm #941895
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    hawkinspeter

    I bought this one from

    I bought this one from FleaBay back in October 2017, so my initial thought is that I’ve got a fair bit of use from it and the night it cracked, I had a heavy rucksack (I was carrying a 2kg bag of coffee beans amongst other things), so I was thinking that maybe I need to lose a bit of weight as well.

    Strangely enough, I had a spare FSA SL-K seatpost stashed at work (though it was a 25mm setback model which is why I replaced it with a 0 setback model) and on examining that, it’s got a small longitudinal crack, though I’ve now swapped my saddle onto that and will be using it tonight if the rain holds off.

    I tend to think that the main shock absorbing component is the tyres, but I’m a sucker for new, different things which is why I was looking at the VCLS. I could get a genuine one, but I think that when figuring out if you can afford something, you should consider buying it twice (i.e. if it gets broken or stolen etc) and at almost £500 for two seatposts, it’s overly extravagant for me.

    I might fire an email off to FSA and see what they think – I’m not optimistic about it, but then I’ve got nothing to lose.

    May 9, 2019 at 3:11 pm #941893
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    Anonymous

    Have you approached FSA and

    Have you approached FSA and ask why it would fail if using it under normal circumstances (assuming that’s the case), it might have had a manufacturing flaw from the off, worth an ask no?

    When I contacted specialized in the mid 00s after my son’s crank arm (ritchey branded triple on a Spesh Sirrus) snapped on the way to school and despite it being second hand to us and a few years old I thought it was a bit off that something that had obviously being used lightly (it was a turbo trainer bike for a short while before we bought it and a 14 year old nipping to school, library, grandparents) should fail in that way. They sent us a brand new chainset.

    My specialized Zertz has seen 10 years of commuting/utility, some audax/touring and the odd fast ride at the weekend, absolutely solid as a rock, I’ve a lightweight USE carbon on my audax/touring/winter racer plus a Ritchey Superlogic (Which I bought from Canyon’s ebay outlet store for silly money a few years ago) on the carbon racer, for me at least I would never veer away from genuine branded carbon whether that be wheels, handlebars or seat-post.

    I also beleive that the saddle/tyres/tyre pressures is massively more important than the seatpost as a whole so from my POV I just don’t think getting the  ‘shock absorbing’ variant is worth it.

    May 9, 2019 at 12:29 pm #941891
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    hawkinspeter
    StoopidUserName wrote:
    No experience of 3TS but really, you wanna experiement with a cheap carbon knock off?? 

    My thinking is that I’ve just had a fairly catastrophic failure of a carbon seat post from a known brand and it didn’t cause me to lose control or even realise what exactly had happened. I thought it was part of the saddle that had cracked and to be honest I was relieved to see that it was the seat post as that was older and cheaper than my saddle.

    May 9, 2019 at 12:11 pm #941889
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    EddyBerckx

    No experience of 3TS but

    No experience of 3TS but really, you wanna experiement with a cheap carbon knock off?? 

    May 9, 2019 at 11:21 am #941887
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    hawkinspeter

    I’m quite impressed by the

    I’m quite impressed by the amount of damage to the FSA seatpost and the fact that I rode it a couple of miles to the station this morning before realising that it was a bit more flexy than usual.

     

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