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review
£129.99
VERDICT:
Lightweight, very good construction and pretty cheap too
Price is brilliant
Weight is decent
Comfort boost over aluminium post
Solid construction
Weight:
190g
Contact:
At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.
What the road.cc scores meanGood scores are more common than bad, because fortunately good products are more common than bad.
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- Excellent
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- Bad
- Appalling
Prime's Primavera Inline Carbon Seatpost is light in weight and in price. It features a clamp system that makes position adjustments easy while the carbon construction offers a little comfort boost over an aluminium post. At this price, it's an excellent upgrade.
The Primavera is available in two options, one with a 10mm 'setback' and the inline version that I have here. Both posts come in a 350mm length and in either a 27.2mm diameter or 31.6mm. The price is good for a carbon post and the weight is decent too. You also benefit from a little extra comfort.
Fitting the seatpost is probably the only area where Prime could have done a bit better. The clamp system is perfectly secure, and I was able to set my saddle in the correct position pretty easily, but there are better clamps out there.
Here, you adjust the fore/aft position and the tilt together. Easton's EA90 seatpost has a slightly better system that separates the two adjustments, making tiny position changes a bit easier. That said, I'm not overly fussy about my setup – once I get things about right I tend to leave it.
While we're at the saddle, the clamp is a top/bottom loading design. This means that you can use saddles with round and oval rails. Prime also confirms that you can use this post with carbon and alloy rails alike.
Comfort is one of the main benefits when using a carbon seatpost. We're not talking about huge shock absorbing potential here, but over broken roads and coarse tarmac a good carbon seatpost will transfer less buzz to the rider. The Primavera worked brilliantly, soaking up buzz well.
> 9 ways to make your bike more comfortable
One thing that I really like about the design is the subtle logos that give the post a smooth look. The clean lines that the carbon construction creates really help here; it looks a lot more expensive than it is.
The price is very good, undercutting similar offerings from Ritchey (£187), Enve (£270) and many others. At £129.99 – currently £109.99 – this is not much more than a higher-end aluminium post. The Easton EA90 that I mentioned earlier is £99.99.
> Buyer's Guide: 6 of the best comfort-boosting seatposts
With the performance, weight, construction quality and price all taken into account, the Prime Primavera Inline Carbon seatpost is an excellent option if you're looking to upgrade from aluminium to carbon.
Verdict
Lightweight, very good construction and pretty cheap too
road.cc test report
Make and model: Prime Primavera Inline Carbon Seatpost
Size tested: 27.2x350mm
Tell us what the product is for and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?
From Wiggle: "The Primavera Inline Carbon Seatpost will help you save weight and maximise power transfer, and thanks to the carbon fibre construction, road buzz will be reduced, making this the perfect post for long training rides, TTs and everything in between.
"Fitting and adjusting your saddle to the post is simple, and the 2-bolt design offers numerous options for adjustability, so you'll be able to dial in your ideal saddle position with ease.
"The Primavera Carbon Seatpost fits a wide range of Road, TT and Cyclo-X bikes and the 350mm length provides plenty of adjustment possibilities.
"Our stealth black colour scheme and subtle Prime graphics fit perfectly into our high-performance Primavera range."
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?
From Wiggle:
Material: Carbon Fibre
Excellent strength-to-weight ratio, creating a solid platform for you to maximise your cadence and power output
carbon fibre offers greater flexibility, so you'll suffer less from the effects of potholes and bumps in the road
Stainless steel bolts will last a lifetime and keep your seatpost firmly clamped to your saddle
Bolt: Stainless steel
Length: 350mm
Diameter: 27.2/31.6mm
Offset: 0mm
Rate the product for quality of construction:
9/10
Rate the product for performance:
9/10
Rate the product for durability:
7/10
Rate the product for weight (if applicable)
9/10
Rate the product for comfort (if applicable)
9/10
Rate the product for value:
9/10
Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose
Very well. It held the saddle securely and provided good vibration damping over rough tarmac.
Tell us what you particularly liked about the product
The price is excellent.
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product
Nothing really.
How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested on road.cc?
Quite a bit cheaper than the Ritchey WCS Carbon Link Flexlogic Carbon Seatpost (£187) and the Enve Carbon Seatpost 25mm Offset 2 Bolt (£270).
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes
Would you consider buying the product? Yes
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes
Use this box to explain your overall score
The Prime Primavera ticks the weight, comfort and price boxes. Only a marginally better clamp design could improve this exceptional seatpost.
About the tester
Age: 24
I usually ride: Cannondale Supersix Di2 My best bike is:
I've been riding for: 5-10 years I ride: Most days I would class myself as: Expert
I regularly do the following types of riding: road racing, time trialling, cyclo cross, commuting, club rides, general fitness riding, I specialise in the Cafe Ride!
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7 comments
laterally stiff yet vertically compliant?
I am a very happy user of the Primeavera aero handlebars -on 2 different bikes-and looked at this post to replace a Scott in-line because I needed some set back. I opted instead for a Giant carbon seatpost, £30. 00 in lots of places on EBay. 40g heavier but a can remove a little of that when I cut the post down a bit. It's another option in the land of largely overpriced seat posts.
Sorry to come across as cynical but I think the vast majority of comments regarding comfort and the perceived benefits of carbon seat posts (or handlebars) are just utter nonsense. Take that away from this review and one is left with a seatpost that costs £130 and probably weighs just 50g more than any other bog standard seatpost costing £100 less.
Want to solve ride comfort? Buy 28mm tyres and run them at the right pressure (which is not 110 PSI for a 70kg rider).
It's a bit more complicated than that...
Greater flexibility in a (long) seatpost is one of the few places in bike design where it is possible to add some comfort. Not as big an effect as squidgy tyres, but real nonetheless.
The material permits more design options than can be achieved with a metal tube. It's not the carbon itself which makes the difference, but what the designers do with it.
Whether this particular seat post is well engineered to provide that flexibility is impossible to tell. There's no evidence in the article beyond the anecdotal and it could quite easily be the placebo effect at work.
This.
Fair enough but we are talking about a straight inline seat post here so any design complications have to be fairly minimal, as would most flex anyway...and yet the Wiggle quote is:
"carbon fibre offers greater flexibility, so you'll suffer less from the effects of potholes and bumps in the road"
Carbon must be magically as it can apparently offer both stiffness and flexibility at the same time
Yes, appreciate it is often the resin that can make a big difference, or the lay up or the design, or placebo...and yet the industry seems to want to carry on with the same mixed messages where it suits, perhaps because "it depends" is a bit messy.
Yea I did think their quote about the potholes was a bit rich. But I do feel a difference between this and the Thompson inline post that it replaced.
That's with the same setup each time. 26mm tyres on 19mm internal rims. 75psi rear and 70psi front. I'm 63kg currently.