That weird day when every bike had the same exact problem

About a month ago, we had a run of three days where it felt like the whole town's bikes broke at once. I'm not kidding, we had nine bikes come in, all with the same issue: a seized seatpost. Every single one was aluminum in a steel frame, and they were all stuck solid. It was like a weird, greaseless curse hit our area. We spent hours with the pipe wrenches, the ammonia trick, and even had to carefully cut one out with a hacksaw. The funny part was, each owner was shocked, saying they hadn't touched it in years. It really drove home how many people just never think to pull their seatpost and grease it. Has anyone else seen a weirdly specific problem flood the shop like that? What's your go-to method for a truly frozen post?

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3 Comments

brookes376mo ago

Tell me about it. That hacksaw feeling is the worst, like you're performing some awful bike surgery. Really makes you want to go check your own seatpost right now.

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the_dylan4mo ago

Man brookes37 nailed it, feels like half the stuff we own is just waiting to break at the worst time.

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fisher.reese6mo ago

We had a guy bring in a bike last week where the seatpost was basically part of the frame. I felt like a surgeon with the hacksaw, you know? Makes you wonder how many bikes out there are just time bombs waiting to seize up.

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