Chinese carbon seatpost - 3TS copy of Canyon VCLS

Thanks for the replies, much appreciate it. I’m 60kg so it may not flex at all for me... it is going into an aluminium frame so tightening shouldn’t be an issue. 

@hawkinspeter - yes I’d love to take you up in that offer. How can we chat privately re payment and address etc?

Thanks again. 

I got one of the Ergon (aka Canyon) "spring" seatposts (VCLS? I've forgotten) a few years ago and am still riding it.

a) I don't think it adds much, if any, extra comfort. A much bigger effect is had by letting some air out of the tyres!

b) You have to do it up extremely tight to stop it slipping. It's on my aluminium bike, so that's OK. Carbon frame? 

I think (a) is because they had to over-engineer in case a 100Kg gent sits on it. Each half could take the 100kg. For me (77kg) it feels rigid.

I think (b) is because as the post is in two halves, every time you hit a bump while on the drops the front half slides down (as does the nose of your saddle). i.e. you have to tighten it to a tension as though your entire weight is on half the seat post, which is only "gripped" on half the seatpost circumference.

As I recall, I paid about £200 for it. I subsequently bought a Deda Superlegerro seatpost for my other bike which made a much bigger difference to comfort for half the price. The Deda seatpost is (scarily!) light/thin compared to the Ergon. I would not risk a fake of that design!

So if you weigh 85kg+ maybe the Ergon would flex more, but I reckon I wasted my money. It sounded like a good idea and I read a good review, but there are reasons the "dual leaf" carbon spring seatpost has gone the way of the dodo. 

I’d love to get a Chinese copy of the VCLS seatpost but they seem to have disappeared from eBay and AliExpress. Any ideas where I can buy one?  

I’d love to get a Chinese copy of the VCLS seatpost but they seem to have disappeared from eBay and AliExpress. Any ideas where I can buy one?  

I bought a Chinese VCLS post on eBay for about £50 a couple years ago to use on my mtb. No issues with it whatsoever. Only recently swapped it out for a dropper post.

OP - your Di2 problem is on a different bike, right? Cos a VCLS post (legit or otherwise) won't accommodate a Di2 battery

I've got a VCLS copy on my Cr1 SL road bike and I think it's smoothed out the ride a lot.  Seems pretty well made, and have considered getting another for my cross bike, though the straight top tube on my Pro6 may mean there would be insufficient post showing for it to be effective (the CR1 top tube is semi-sloping).  Has proven to be pretty robust for me, lots of miles on it.  Check you'd have enough seatpost length before buying...

This type of post (I mean post not post) comes up fairly often on various cycling forums and there are always the naysayers who say dont risk it its not worth it or I wouldnt.. yet how many instances have you heard of where 'cheap' chinese carbon has failed? Plenty of examples on tinternet where branded components have failed yet these arent usually mentioned.

I personally cant comment on the 3TS stuff as Ive not used it, I have however got a FlyXII carbon frame which has stood up to some pretty rough rides without any issue and an eXotic carbon fork which Ive ridden on red trails aplenty.

Trust your instinct, look in to the brand if it seems too good to be true dont do it. If it seems inexpensive because it avoids the middle man, marketing, brand hype, higher western wages, then go for it.

I had one of the 3ts knockoff vcls things. Was ok, not as well made as the real thing, worked well as a cyclocross seatpost. The rear leafspring cracked last year, i binned it. Not sure if it was because it was a knockoff or because of the design; it broke at the stress point. I gave about 50 quid for it i think.

Specialized COBL GOBL R?

i picked up a couple of new Neil pryde carbon posts recently for a song, nice looking as they are fairly plain jane which is what I prefer.

   I have a VCLS seatpost on my Endurace. Doesn't feel any more " comfortable " than my two other bikes. I think its more down to wheel/tyre/pressure choice. The DT wheels that came with the bike feel softer than the Fulcrum  3's that i run it with.

Some discussion here:

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ergon-canyon-leaf-spring-seat-p...

I'm currently more tempted by a cheap Ti post for the same price, hoping either will be better than stock 1cm wall-thickness aluminium post!

Have you approached FSA and ask why it would fail if using it under normal circumstances (assuming that's the case), it might have had a manufacturing flaw from the off, worth an ask no?

When I contacted specialized in the mid 00s after my son's crank arm (ritchey branded triple on a Spesh Sirrus) snapped on the way to school and despite it being second hand to us and a few years old I thought it was a bit off that something that had obviously being used lightly (it was a turbo trainer bike for a short while before we bought it and a 14 year old nipping to school, library, grandparents) should fail in that way. They sent us a brand new chainset.

My specialized Zertz has seen 10 years of commuting/utility, some audax/touring and the odd fast ride at the weekend, absolutely solid as a rock, I've a lightweight USE carbon on my audax/touring/winter racer plus a Ritchey Superlogic (Which I bought from Canyon's ebay outlet store for silly money a few years ago) on the carbon racer, for me at least I would never veer away from genuine branded carbon whether that be wheels, handlebars or seat-post.

I also beleive that the saddle/tyres/tyre pressures is massively more important than the seatpost as a whole so from my POV I just don't think getting the  'shock absorbing' variant is worth it.

No experience of 3TS but really, you wanna experiement with a cheap carbon knock off??