Ritchey Seatposts

The Ritchey-Kalloy Expert Mountain post has a Force Directional butted aluminum tube for the tubing section. Because seatposts are subjected to force only in the fore (forward) and aft (rearward) direction, the seat post is made thick in the front and rear of the tube, while it is thinner in the sidewall's dimension. The clamp is a micro adjusting style, that has four contact points gripping the saddle rails, two front and two rear to reduce weight, in a style Campagnolo made famous on many of it's posts. The clamp pieces are made of cast aluminum, with tapped threads in the upper clamp piece. The clamp pieces have a special interlocking tab cast into them, to fit squarely, and provide a tight grip. The single bolt and it's knurled cradle washer underneath the clamp, (to adjust the angle and distance of the saddle), are made of Chromed steel. The bolt has a 6mm hex fitting, so a 6mm hex wrench is all that you need to adjust your seat. The head piece is aluminum, made as a separate casting that is milled for the bolt, and then joined, through a process that has been called "flash welding", to the tube section of the post. A look inside the post will reveal the hardened molten aluminum joint, where the pieces are joined. To add strength in the joint area the aluminum is made thicker. The entire head area is given a fine sanding and polishing, to produce a satin smooth finish. We refer to this as the Ritchey-Kalloy post because this is the post made in Taiwan for use as an original equipment (OE) Ritchey part on new, complete bicycles. Ritchey is importing them as the "Expert" version of their post for after-market replacement purposes, but their primary purpose is to provide an inexpensive "Ritchey" label post on complete bikes from the Orient. With the clamp perpendicular to the tubing section, the center of rail to end of tube length is 334mm. The weight of a 27.0mm Comp Post is 294.5 grams. The Comp Post is made in Taiwan, by Kalloy, to Ritchey specifications, using 2014 series aluminum. It is available in 26.4mm, 26.6mm, 26.8mm, 27.0mm, 27.2mm, 28.6mm, 28.8mm, 29.0mm, 29.4mm, 29.6mm, 29.8mm, and 30.0mm sizes. Silver only.

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The Ritchey Comp Mountain post uses a Force Directional aluminum tubing section. The front and back sides of the tubing section are thicker than the sidewalls. This reduces weight where it is unnecessary, and increases strength where it might be of help. The clamp pieces are cast, and then milled and threaded for the fastening bolt. The clamp is a micro adjusting style, that has four contact points, very much like the Comp post. Unlike the Comp post, the Pro post doesn't have a cast interlock tab fitting, for the clamp pieces to interlock the way the Comp post does. The single bolt and it's knurled washer assembly are made of steel, with a 6mm allen head. The 6mm wrench is all you will need to adjust your saddle's angle and distance. The head piece is cast separately and milled for the bolt. The inside of the head piece is hollowed to reduce the interior weight. A look inside the tube doesn't reveal how the head piece and tube are joined. We refer to this as the Ritchey-Nitto Pro post, because this is made using a more expensive process in Japan, by the parts maker Nitto. It has a nominal length of 330mm, but we found with the clamp perpendicular to the tubing section, the center of rail to end of tube length is 328mm. The weight of a 27.0mm Pro post is 274 grams. The Pro post is made by Nitto, in Japan, to Ritchey specifications, using 6061 T-6 aluminum alloy, and is available in 26.6mm, 26.8mm, 27.0mm, and 27.2mm sizes. Silver only.

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The Ritchey-Nitto post is also made with a shorter FD tubing section, for riders involved in Road Racing, Criteriums, and Triathlons, where a shorter post is all that is required. It is visually identical and largely the same post as above. It uses the same clamp pieces, bolt and washer, but is made of 2014 series aluminum alloy, and comes in fewer sizes. It has a nominal length of 240mm, we found with the clamp perpendicular to the tubing section, the center of rail to end of tube length is 236mm. The weight of a 27.2mm Pro Road post is 234 grams. The Comp Road post is available in 26.2mm, 26.4mm, 26.6mm, 26.8mm, 27.0mm, and 27.2mm sizes. Silver only.

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The remaining post in the Ritchey stable is the Pro WCS model, introduced quietly in the 1993 season. The Pro WCS post is also made in Japan by Nitto and certain minor differences that lighten the post somewhat. The clamp pieces were reported to us as being physically slightly smaller than the Comp model to reduce weight. Though the clamp pieces appear very, very similar, we found the upper piece on the Comp model weighed 33 grams while the Pro WCS upper weighed 27 grams. The difference is the Pro WCS upper clamp has more of the aluminum structure joining the arms that hold the saddle rails milled away. The lower clamp pieces are the same and their weights are identical. The Pro WCS clamp pieces are Black in color. The washer assembly lower the headpiece are identical to those on the Comp post. The saddle fastening bolt on the Pro WCS (8 x 1.25 x 41mm) is made of Titanium rather than steel, which does lower the weight, and it has a 6mm hex fitting for tightening. The steel original weighs 18.5 grams, while the Titanium replacement weighs 10.5 grams. The mast tube is said to be made of "triple" butted aluminum tubing, but what "triple" butting is hasn't been explained, or presented visually in a diagram. The thickness of the mast tubing is somewhat thinner at the bottom of the Pro WCS model than that of the Pro post due to the added step of reaming the lower internal inch. The aluminum headpiece and mast are joined like the Comp model, once joined and polished the now single piece is given a Titanium Grey (Bronzish) anodization. It has a nominal length of 300mm, we found with the clamp perpendicular to the tubing section, the center of rail to end of tube length is 299mm. The weight of a 26.8mm Pro WCS Mountain post is 232.5 grams. The Pro WCS Mountain post is available in 26.4mm, 26.6mm, 26.8mm, 27.0mm, and 27.2mm sizes. This post is rather pricey for the production post it is, . It comes with Black clamps and a Grey mast only.

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