Of all the seatposts we've tested recently, the Next SL wins the award for quickest installation. With the transverse bolt only dealing with holding the saddle rails rather than handling the tilt adjustment too, you can undo it without any bits of the clamp falling off, and it’s long enough that you can simply back it off, pop the saddle in and do the bolt back up again.
The clamp pivots at the top of the post, with the angle being controlled by a short dogbone link and a second clamp that wraps around the head of the post and is secured by a pinch bolt. Slide the clamp down the post to tilt the saddle down and back up to tilt up. It’s very simple and effective.
The Next SL’s smooth outer surface is considerably slicker than a machined or anodised aluminium tube, making it theoretically a little more likely to slip. We didn’t have any problems in our tests, but if you do a dab of carbon assembly paste will sort things out.
There isn’t as much flex in the post as you might expect from such a lightweight carbon fibre item – in use it feels like a typical aluminium post. There is still a bit of give in the narrow 27.2mm-diameter size, though.