Thudbuster

Hi Ryan,

My LT arrived yesterday. I installed it this morning and commuted to work on it. Amazing what a difference it makes! I love it!

Thanks,
Tony

This came in from a customer in Europe:

Make your bike more comfortable and it becomes more fun to ride.  More fun to ride means you are more apt to ride more often.  This results in a fun way to keep in shape and lose some weight.  Here’s a comment just sent in from a customer that is using his bike to help him drop weight, get fit, and have a great time doing it. 

“Just wanted to let you know I have been riding a LT for about nine months now on an old (much upgraded) Trek 8700 carbon fiber frame bike. Awesome combo. When I first received the LT, I was around 230lbs and using the double black elastomers. Worked very well. Now I’m down to about 194lbs and went to the double blue elastomers. The ride is much smoother and I don’t get thrown out of the saddle like when I had the (recommended) blue/black combination. I make sure I’m out of the saddle if it’s going to be a pretty hard hit. While I’m still not quite as fast on the technical downhills as my full bounce buddy’s, I’m much faster than I used to be. Thanks for a product that gives me most of the benefits of a full suspension system and all of the advantages of a hardtail.”  -Maurice from Tempe, Arizona

Congrats Maurice.  Enjoy your upgraded ride!

A customer recently inquired about which model to get for his particular situation… I thought this might be helpful to other riders out there.  I’m alway willing to offer advice when needed, just drop me an email using the link to the left! 

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Ryan,

I am looking to get a thud buster. I wanted to get your opinion on which one you feel would suit me the best. Here is some information about me and my ride:

• 6’5” 180 lbs
• I ride a felt 29er aluminum frame
• I ride on tubeless tires
• I do endurance races (12 and 24 hr races)
• My lower back typically gets real tight after a couple of hours of racing.

Thanks for any input.

Dan

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Hi Dan,

I’d get the LT.  More tuning options, more durability in the larger pivot pins for off-road use.  It  is slightly heavier but that is due mainly to the fact it is longer so if you don’t need all the length, you can cut some of it off and the weight will be about the same.

Ryan

PS… sounds like a nice bike!

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Ryan,

I wanted to let you know that I ended up ordering a LT Thudbuster from your website as my local shop was not able to find one in the correct seat post size.  Anyway, I love the thing!! I can not wait to race my upcoming 12 hour race on it to see how I do to previous years. I have been riding my buddies Gary Fisher HIFI 29er from time to time and I prefer my hardtail to his full suspension. I can climb over the loose rocks without getting tossed side to side and I don’t get robbed of any power. My biggest problem is that I waited 2 years to get one!!  I have it set up softer than the chart shows for me, I weigh just over the blue/blue combination and I love it, if I was doing shorter races I would go with the heavier set-up but not for 12 hours.

Thanks for your advise!

Dan

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I have many people inquire whether the Thudbuster will help alleviate some back or neck pain. I might be a good product designer, but I’m no doctor so I simply relay comments from customers such as the one just sent below, (see italics). It would only stand to make sense though, reduce the jarring to your neck and back and you’ll experience less pain. Hope you find the comments helpful:

Ryan

Wanted to give you some feedback. A great product! Pricey, but it works as advertised. Has held up great for several thousand miles on my mountain bike over the past 18 months or so. Shortly after taking up biking my back began giving me MAJOR problems. A couple of times after long rides I was down for the count for days. Was worried I’d have to give up riding. Started riding with the ThudBuster and my back problems went away completely. It has made all the difference. Without it, I could not ride–period. A great invention. …Luke

Some comments from product reviews that appeared on bikeradar.com from the U.K. Below are the links to the full articles…

Thudbuster ST… “well-engineered comfort aid for longer or bumpier rides”

Thudbuster LT… “performs beautifully… 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.”

Read the full reviews here:
BikeRadar.com Thudbuster LT review

BikeRadar.com Thudbuster ST review

I wanted to elaborate on elastomer selection a bit.  The instruction sheet that comes with the Thudbuster shows recommended ranges for elastomers.  This can also be found on our FAQ page.  This is a recommendation to follow but there are other considerations beyond rider weight.  One very important consideration is riding position.  Your full body weight is actually carried at three spots on the bike… handlebars, pedals, and saddle.  The percentage that is carried at the saddle varies with riding position.  For instance, if a person is on a comfort bike with high handlebars and a short reach, a much higher percentage of body weight is carried in the saddle… and stiffer elastomers may be required.  Alternately, an aggressive racing position with a low, long stem (handlebar height actually lower than the saddle) will put a greater amount of the rider’s weight into the handlebars/less on the saddle… meaning softer elastomers may be in order.  Elastomers are relatively easy to change so experiment a little with what works best for you and your bike setup.  The important thing to keep in mind is that you don’t want to bottom-out the suspension mechanism so err on the stiffer side and approach softer set-ups with this in mind.  Happy experimenting.

Greetings once again.  It has been a little while since I posted… 4th of July weekend and lots of festivities and relatives visiting.  I just came in from a little urban ride with my 5 year old… we wandered around the alleys and parking lots of the commercial areas in town looking for fun obstacles to test our skills on… then followed it up with an ice cream cone of course!  Anyway… back to work…

I have had a number of inquiries regarding the LT vs. 3G description.  I thought I’d try to clarify a bit.  The 3G is simply the term Cane Creek used in-house to describe the “3rd Generation” design when developing it several years ago.  The 3G reference somehow got picked up and is causing some confusion.  All the Thudbuster seatposts with the two-bolt saddle clamp are basically 3rd generation.  Cane Creek defines seatposts by model… either LT or ST and by year.  So, if you are looking to make a purchase, you definitely want to get the 3rd generation design that has been out for a number of years but more importantly, you want to make sure that whichever model you choose (LT or ST) that you get the most recent model year available so that the elastomers are as resilient as possible.  What you don’t want to do is get a discounted seatpost that sat on somebody’s shelf for a couple years and the elastomers aren’t as compliant as you’d like… then end up spending money on a new set of elastomers.  Best thing to do is simply get the latest, greatest right off the assembly line.  In the end you’ll be money ahead.

Happy Father’s Day to all of you Dads out there.  I got a good ride in with my son yesterday… a little urban fun, looking for challenging obstacles, step ups, drops, balance beams… just simple fun on a bike, (he’s only 5 yrs old but getting really good!)

Anyway, we stopped in the office after our ride to get some snacks and check messages.  There was a message from a customer wanting to know whether a saddle pack could be used with a Thudbuster.  I usually use a hydration backpack personally so I don’t have alot of experience with saddle packs.  I know people do use them with the LT model… it has to be the velcro strap style bag (no plastic clips).  The upper straps loop through the saddle rails as normal, the lower straps loop around the rear arm of the suspension mechanism just below the elastomers.  I’d like to gather some information about saddle packs as used on both LT and ST model Thudbusters.  If you have either model and are using a saddle pack, please send me a photo of your bike and some info about your experience and I’ll post it here for other Thudbuster users to see.  Thanks for the help.

I got a few more inquiries about the weight of the Thudbuster vs. a rigid post again this week and it always surprises me.  Probably because I have experienced the benefit of the Thudbuster and realize the dramatic reduction in fatigue that it provides.  Saving 200 grams, only to get beat up by a rough trail and bonking before getting to the other end just doesn’t make sense.  Fatigue due to rough terrain is such a major factor in off-road riding that it really needs to be a primary consideration.  The perfect argument is the front suspension fork… my old rigid fork was lighter but the benefits of better control, better vision, less arm pump, less wrist/hand pain have proven themselves to be of more value than the weight penalty of my new 3″ travel fork.  Sometimes I think the weight question comes up simply because folks are not sure what else to ask about.  When I really think about the approximately 200 gram difference between 3″ of travel and a rigid post, I always figure… give me the travel and I’ll shave the grams someplace else.  I’m guessing the clod of dirt left over from my last ride that is still sitting on the bottom bracket would get me part way there… going through my pack and getting rid of a few needless things that have taken up residence there would probably take care of the rest.  Just making sure my tire pressure is spot on and my chain properly lubed before every ride would cut fatigue more than carrying 200 grams… but I still head out once in a while with just a quick squeeze on the tires and a ‘good enough’ comment to myself.  Heck, I think I dropped 200 grams on my last haircut!  Bottom line… if you’re interested in a Thudbuster and weight is one of your hesitations, trust me on this one… the benefits of the Thudbuster more than compensate for the weight hit.  At the end of a long, rough ride, you’ll feel better, finish stronger, and just plain have more fun on your bike.