Thomson Masterpiece Seatpost
I recently discovered that the Thomson Masterpiece aluminum seatpost is actually LIGHTER than Easton's top-of-the-line carbon post, the EC90. Real weights, measured here on a good kitchen scale, for 240mm posts at 27.2mm: Thomson: 129g; Easton: 142g. The Easton, by the by, is 9g. heavier than their published weight for a longer post. Surprisingly, the Thomson weighs LESS than the published weight. I weighed each post several times, to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating. What's most impressive about this to me is that Thomson has always seemed to me to make the best posts in the biz (by far the best clamps/ adjustment mechanism) AND carbon clamps are, well, problematic. I stripped out the carbon teeth on my EC90 post after 14 months of riding--pretty bad performance. To be fair, Easton has changed the clamp-design for the new EC90--and Scott D. at B'bonnet has had good luck with the new design. Both are ridiculously expensive ($150+, usually), but the Easton is more so. In sum, if you opt for carbon in this case, you're paying more for a heavier post that almost certainly stands a better chance of having a shorter life. Here's Thomson on why they don't make a carbon post: http://www.lhthomson.com/carbon_seatpost.htm .
I recently discovered that the Thomson Masterpiece aluminum seatpost is actually LIGHTER than Easton's top-of-the-line carbon post, the EC90. Real weights, measured here on a good kitchen scale, for 240mm posts at 27.2mm: Thomson: 129g; Easton: 142g. The Easton, by the by, is 9g. heavier than their published weight for a longer post. Surprisingly, the Thomson weighs LESS than the published weight. I weighed each post several times, to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating. What's most impressive about this to me is that Thomson has always seemed to me to make the best posts in the biz (by far the best clamps/ adjustment mechanism) AND carbon clamps are, well, problematic. I stripped out the carbon teeth on my EC90 post after 14 months of riding--pretty bad performance. To be fair, Easton has changed the clamp-design for the new EC90--and Scott D. at B'bonnet has had good luck with the new design. Both are ridiculously expensive ($150+, usually), but the Easton is more so. In sum, if you opt for carbon in this case, you're paying more for a heavier post that almost certainly stands a better chance of having a shorter life. Here's Thomson on why they don't make a carbon post: http://www.lhthomson.com/carbon_seatpost.htm .