Canyon have been working on a shock absorbing seatpost for several years, but their ingenious and effective VCLS Post 2.0 has been worth the patience.
The German company’s first basalt-enriched carbon VCLS seatpost appeared in 2010, with their VCLS 2.0 concept debuting at Eurobike 2011 as the VCLS Flat Spring Post. The acronym, by the way, stands for Vertical Comfort Lateral Stiffness.
In the past year it’s gained weight, from a claimed 190g to an actual 228g and 234g for our two test samples. That’s a bit heavier than the lightest conventional seatposts, but much lighter than anything else around that offers up to 25mm of suspension movement. Yes, you read that right: the VCLS really can move your saddle by as much as an inch – but, because of the way it does it, you’ll barely notice it in your pedalling.
So how does it work? Rather than one shaft, the VCLS 2.0 uses two D-shaped carbon/basalt shafts placed back to back to form a 27.2mm bundle at the base. Just above the maximum insert mark the two shafts split apart, with the Flip Head saddle clamp pivoting on their tops. A bolt at the base secures the shafts together and lets you slide them up and down in relation to each other to change the angle of the saddle.
Setting up the VCLS 2.0 is slightly awkward compared with a standard seatpost, and you have to remove the post and re-check the angle after each adjustment. We’d also recommend trying it in a more nose-down position than normal to compensate as the post settles backwards.
The Canyon VCLS Post 2.0 in full
Once fitted, though, it is genuinely outstanding. We noticed a dramatic reduction in rattle through our backside over both the pitted surfaces that cause road buzz and on bigger hits.
We even took it on a savage cobbled ride around Yorkshire on Tour of Flanders morning. Here, the parallelogram design let us stay in the saddle and grind gears around without any obvious change in saddle to crank height. This means no ‘bounce’, and it doesn’t twist either, making it a great upgrade to any bike that currently kicks your arse.
Perfect, if you can afford it – and if your bike has a 27.2mm diameter seat tube, as Canyon don’t do any other size.
This article was originally published in Cycling Plus magazine, available on Apple Newsstand and Zinio.