WikiPedalia is not endorsed or affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation.
Quick-release Seatpost Binders
In the early days of the mountain bike, West-Coast riders often liked to ride up their mountains with the saddle set at a normal height for efficient pedaling, then drop it down low for the descent. Going down the mountain, they didn't need to pedal, and the lower saddle made it easier to move their weight around for maximum control and shock absorbency.
This feature was carried over when mountain bikes made it into the mass market. Naive bicycle buyers think that a quick-release seatpost is a nifty feature, but it is actually much more trouble than it is worth for most cyclists. In particular, it is very undesirable for urban cyclists, because it has made it necessary to worry about having your saddle and seatpost stolen, a crime that was virtually unknown before the advent of quick-release seatposts.
In the mid 1980's there were also seatposts with quick-release saddle clamps, which allowed the saddle to be moved back and forth over a considerable range. This turned out to be a solution in search of a problem, and was not embraced by the marketplace. Part of the reason for this may be the fact that these seatposts were marketed for mountain-bike use, but were much too short for normally fitted mountain bikes. [But aha, one of these, an SR MTE-100 which I found when helping to clean out Sheldon's basement, was just what I needed to get the saddle back far enough despite the very steep seat-tube angle of my Cannondale Criterium Series road racing bicycle. Never say never! -- John Allen]
