Cane Creek's Thudbuster is a departure from all the other designs on test. Rather than using a telescopic mechanism, it uses a sprung parallelogram, with elastomers at the heart of it. This means that rather than moving in a vertical line, the saddle moves backwards and down in a smooth curve. The end result is that the rider's saddle-to-pedal distance remains exactly the same from one end of the travel to the other.
The feel of the suspension action was initially pretty weird - akin to having a super-soft rear tyre - and it requires you to accommodate a constantly shifting bar/saddle distance, but we quickly adapted to it, particularly once the super-plush three inches of travel started soaking up the trail.
The seatclamp is a bit of a fiddle. A 3mm hex bolt and a grooved thumbwheel deal with micro-adjusting the saddle angle, but we baulked at putting the usual amount of torque onto a bolt so small and soft. Longevity is likely to be a little reduced when compared to telescopic designs too, because the four pivots of the linkage and their brass bushings are relatively exposed to the elements, rather than tucked away inside the post. However, our test version showed no untimely signs of wear, despite some pretty heavy use.
This post works so well that we found ourselves forgetting that we weren't on a full suspension bike. It soaks up small-to-medium hits without complaint, and it's only when you stand up and are suddenly plonked back on your hardtail again without any arse-saving squish that you appreciate exactly how well this post works on the trail.
