The race is still on to see who can produce the first proper fit-and-forget height-adjustable seatpost and the Hilo 100 is X-Fusion’s offering. It offers 100mm (4in) of hydraulic up-and-downness which can be stopped anywhere within this range.
Setup options include either a handlebar-mounted remote or a simple under-the-saddle lever. After running them both we’d go for the latter. The cable-actuated handlebar mount, while easier to reach, quickly filled with gunk in the winter slop thanks to a poor cable layout underneath the seat. This in turn produced a few “Oh God, it’s not down!” moments.
With the lever installed things were a lot better – the X-Fusion stayed in place and, even after being left coated in filth for a few days, still operated smoothly. Thanks to the rotating seat clamp design, there’s a good range of saddle adjustability too and we didn’t mind the 715g weight (with remote). One thing that was a bit of a gripe was an element of play within the post from the offset.
The Hilo features a double keyway design which is designed to stop the saddle twisting or moving but straight from the packaging we were irritated by a noticeable amount of lateral play. Admittedly, it wasn’t a great deal of play, and it didn’t increase with use but it was enough to really bug us on longer rides and for the money you have to spend on this post, you could do without it.