3T Ionic / Palladio with carbon saddle - experience?

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RichTheRoadie
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by RichTheRoadie

I bought a new 3T Ionic 0 seatpost recently. With a normal Ti railed saddle it was fine - no issues at all, and a solid mount (and a really smooth post shape, even if the head is mega-fiddly!).

Today I mounted my carbon Fizik with the parts to convert the post to use an oval railed saddle. When I finally got the position right and tightened the parts the saddle was still loose on the post. It wouldn't move (i.e. the angle and fore/aft stayed as it should be), but the saddle mount isn't solid - there is play in the saddle, and by around 1mm left to right and up and down (tilt).

Anyone else experience this? Anything I'm missing in the setup that's causing it?

At the moment it's going back to the shop for a refund to be replaced with a Dorico - I just wanted to check here to see if nobody has any clues...

:noidea:

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corky
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by corky

Hi Rich, think its too new for there to be much experience out there yet.

Thanks for the heads up as I was considering this for an Antares 00 but this sounds dodgy.

You'd think 3T would do some freakin' research, especially as they are always changing their designs....

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rijndael
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by rijndael

Thanks for posting this datapoint. I have an Ionic-0 seatpost and was about to pull the trigger on a Fizik (carbon railed) saddle!

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ms6073
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by ms6073

BikeTart wrote:Anyone else experience this? Anything I'm missing in the setup that's causing it?
I have a couple 3T Palladio's which I presume use the same difflock and had to order an entire Oval Rail Difflock assembly before I could even begin to mount a Fizik Aliante with braided carbon rails. Aside from the tedious trial and error required to attain desired saddle angle, I did not have any other issues and the saddle was very firm but swapped them for another post due to the offset being more than what we needed.
- Michael
"People should stop expecting normal from me... seriously, we all know it's never going to happen"

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corky
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by corky

And I also think its a ripoff not including clamps for all types of rails in this day and age.... $65 additional cost.

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Anders
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by Anders

I send mine back as I had the same problem as you using a Specialized Romin Pro saddle.

RichTheRoadie
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by RichTheRoadie

Thanks guys - a real shame, it's such a good looking post!

Rich

RichTheRoadie
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by RichTheRoadie

So, as someone who's quite risk-averse, I tried something a little out of character just now...

Replacing the Ionic was proving to be a bit of a headache - I wanted to stay with 3T because they suit the bike (the grey of the 3T Ltd stuff perfectly matches my R3 frame, and to me 3T on Cervélos looks 'just right'), but the layback on the Dorico post isn't going to work for me. The Doric would have worked but I struggled to find one in the Ltd or Stealth colourway in the right size, and I didn't want the red Team version (and it's also damn ugly compared to the Ionic).

To my mind the problem was that the cups for the oval rails on the Ionic weren't bottoming out enough to stabilise the saddle, despite the mechanism holding the saddle in the right position. When I checked the depth of the oval cups Vs the cups for round rails they were deeper by at least 1mm if not more (remember oval rails are taller than round ones but not wider [7x7mm Vs 7x9mm], so really there is no need for this extra depth).

I took the gamble to sand the depth back to match the round rail cups. This improved the situation, but didn't completely eliminate the wobble that I had experienced. Not wanting to take any more off of the depth of the cup, I then rounded off the edges to match the round rail cups.

Bingo. Problem solved.

It's frustrating that this is what it took to make such an expensive seatpost work (especially when the oval rail cups were an extra $50!), but the design of the Ionic post is so clean and smooth that I'm glad to be able to keep it. That said, when the Stylus 0 Ltd becomes available here I think I'll be looking to switch...

EDIT: Note also that the Ionic internal mechanism is now already 'carbon rail friendly' - to switch you just have to change the end caps.

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corky
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by corky

Hi Rich can you post pics of the post on the bike as there are few pics out there...... i'd be eternally grateful etc. :-)

lannes
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by lannes

I think the issue is the uneven protective wrap on the Fizik Mobius carbon rails, I had to file a couple of Pro Vibe carbon post clamps to get the Arione 00's to fit.

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ms6073
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by ms6073

lannes wrote:I think the issue is the uneven protective wrap on the Fizik Mobius carbon rails
I would agree because as I recall with the Palladio, the oval rail difflock was a tad under-dimension for the Fizik braided carbon rails so the difflock clamps got a bit of modification with the Dremel.
- Michael
"People should stop expecting normal from me... seriously, we all know it's never going to happen"

RichTheRoadie
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by RichTheRoadie

corky wrote:Hi Rich can you post pics of the post on the bike as there are few pics out there...... i'd be eternally grateful etc. :-)

I'll try to remember to do some when I'm back from my ride later.

lannes wrote:I think the issue is the uneven protective wrap on the Fizik Mobius carbon rails

Ahh yes, that makes sense.

RichTheRoadie
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by RichTheRoadie

Ok, here's 3 shots of the post in attempt to show how clean and smooth the lines are and why I like the design so much:

Image

Image

Image

The only cleaner looking post on the market is the Enve.

1415chris
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by 1415chris

Have you had a chance to put it on the scale?
And it looks good indeed.

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RichTheRoadie
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by RichTheRoadie

Afraid not regarding weighing it - I'm not big on weighing components!

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